Tonight is the night for Bryn Mawr. Will it end up being zoned to be supersized, or is that a special treat reserved only for Ardmore? Will the remaining residents feel any protection from hospital sprawl? Thirty years from now how will we feel? Will we wonder why we had to have "hospital town"? Hospitals are still in the business of medecine, right? Just checking. And what of Five Points? Where are the "improvements"? When do they start? Who will lose land or sidewalks? Whatever. At this point, can it be said why discuss it any longer?

Vote on Bryn Mawr downtown plan tonight
By Diane Mastrull
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The first real step toward a long-envisioned, much-debated revitalization of the Main Line village of Bryn Mawr could come tonight......The plan involves remapping much of Bryn Mawr (population 4,380) into four village zoning districts, and adopting a new ordinance that sets out allowable development uses and building standards for each zone......They would adjoin the Bryn Mawr Medical District, which the township created two years ago to accommodate Bryn Mawr Hospital's expansion needs. It was the hospital's stated desire to build more treatment facilities, office buildings and parking garages that triggered the ongoing rezoning effort.

.....Under the new zoning, the area closest to the train station - a 1.9-acre parking lot at Lancaster and Bryn Mawr Avenues - could host housing, shops, outdoor cafes, offices, pocket parks and a hotel or bed-and-breakfast as tall as five stories.

But of most concern to local residents is the potential change that could come to Central Avenue, a once tight-knit, blue-collar street of rowhouses and twins just west of the town square parking lot.

Starting in fall 2002, more than two dozen Central Avenue homeowners sold their properties to Bryn Mawr Hospital's real estate division. Along with a garage, the hospital has proposed building new homes and stores along Central, where zoning is strictly residential.

The new zoning would give the hospital the changes it needs to proceed with those development plans. But at a public meeting on April 2, the street's few remaining residents, along with their supporters, urged the commissioners to consider a zoning strategy for Central that would preserve its residential feel.

In response, the commissioners that night amended the proposed zoning to allow only parking and housing, not retail, along the street. Then came a late-hour alternative suggested by Commissioner Maryam Phillips: Keep Central Avenue zoned solely residential. The hospital opposed that idea because it would have to seek a variance to build its garage.

Phillips' proposal has since been dropped in favor of another: If adequate on-site parking is not available for new development on Central Avenue, a maximum of 10 to 25 parking spaces may be designated for it in nearby public parking lots. Its proponents contend that would all but prohibit commercial development on Central.