So, it's not just us average folk noticing these non profit institutions growing their enrolled numbers and then not having any place to put them? So once again, it's back to the institutions. But of course we all know institutions are prized like rubies....full time, permanent residents? Why they are replaceable...but this points out that these Institutions have a choice as to HOW many they bring onto their land footprint, and they can't house them all, or provide parking for them all, so why do they do it? Is it greed? Or ignorance? Or both?
So when we say how many students are too many students, maybe we're not the only ones saying that, huh?
Villanovan:'Nova's Own Housing Crisis
Editorial Board
Issue date: 8/28/08 Section: Opinion
This newspaper has written many times before about the deplorable state of campus housing for underclassmen. Most everyone is aware of the state (and lack of) campus housing, but in the University's defense, it faces major challenges within and outside of the Villanova community in order to have residence halls that will accommodate every student.
The Campus Master Plan, which includes provisions for housing, has not even been approved yet. Once a plan has been chosen, the committees must work with Radnor Township to agree on a plan that will benefit both communities, which will be a long and arduous process......However, while there is clearly a dearth of housing - not to mentioned air-conditioned halls - the University continues to accept a slightly larger freshman class each year, despite the fact that there is no room for them. It's fun to tout the fact that each freshman class is more qualified and motivated than the last, but once they arrive, these students are not offered an adequate place to live, and some don't even live on campus.
Each year more people use the residence halls, yet most do not see much renovation....It seems like accepting a larger freshman class each year only adds to the housing crisis that we can do virtually nothing about in the immediate future..... After this year, population reports project that the number of students applying to college will decrease significantly. This may affect the number of students accepted at Villanova in the future, but the University must still consider its housing capacity when accepting new students.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
While VU certainly takes the lion's share of responsibility for not planning its own student housing, Radnor needs to stand up - as well as Lower Merion since it is right next to VU.
I can't speak for Radnor Township, but Lower Merion township certainly appears to have a see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil attitude towards student housing problems, but that should come as no surprise considering Kobe "I'm not really a brothel and I don't exist" Spa (more on that also if you Click Here), as well as the silence on Police Chief Joe Daly leaving, plus this insane award to a former commissioner, while also remaining silent on this recent "accident" where LM township may well be directly responsible for the someone's death.
This actually goes beyond seeing, hearing and speaking no evil by LM township (unless a citizen complains at a township meeting. Then the commissioners speak evil of the citizen who complains).
This goes to an absolute disrespect of the citizens of Lower Merion by the township that is supposed to serve them. The township operates under a scheme where citizen complaints are ignored, and if a citizen pushes the complaint that citizen gets intimidation tactics from the township (examples I know of as fact are personal threats by local government officals to be arrested or thrown out of township meetings for speaking up about issues the commissioners don't want made public), while the LM commissioners who were elected to serve the citizens of Lower Merion instead serve the government they are supposed to protect the citizens of Lower Merion from.
Yes, there should be positive and beneficial things accomplished between citizens and those elected to serve them, but until the above issues (and a lot more I have not brought up) can be answered, how can any resident of Lower Merion trust the township or the commissioners to look out for their interests - even on something as simple and straight forward on what proper student housing should be?
And forget about help with any other destructive development that the Samurai owner may do that would ruin a neighborhood. Forget the residents - in the eyes of the commissioners it is all about $$$ for increasing the tax base that has been so mismanaged by the township and the commissioners that we have skyrocketing and never-ending local tax increases.
And what do we get in return for these ever increasing topics? Silence in regards to citizen concerns. Just what are we paying our local government for? Why did township manager Douglas Cleland just get a huge pay raise amidst this mess? Just what are the commissioners elected for if they ignore constituents with silence on the above issues of serious concern?
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkawww come on... they also just got a triple A bond rating renewed which they say will save them millions, yet who knows if they will bother to support worthwhile endeavors like the Ardmore Initiative? If they took back the raises they gave certain members of staff, you would save a lot of money that could be applied elsewhere, couldn't you?
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkIt amazes me how the township’s CEO (Township Manager Douglas Cleland) got a fat raise after local taxes had gone up three of the last four years and are expected to explode over the next several years.
Under those circumstances, the board of directors of a publicly traded company would have fired its CEO. Instead, LM township's board of directors (the commissioners) gives its CEO a big, fat raise.
What corporations have been doing, and where CEO's have received raises ever since the dotcom bubble burst, is by trimming the fat, laying off a lot of workers and operating more efficiently.
Yet somehow every single township employee is indispensible. And what are the commissioners doing? Trying to get department heads to tell them where they can cut costs. You think government bureaucrats are going to understand this concept and not think everything and everyone is needed?
Shouldn’t Cleland already have an intimate knowledge of how each department is run? Why can’t he recommend areas to cut costs by working with department heads? What does Cleland do and why are the taxpayers of Lower Merion paying him all this money – except as one commissioner put it in the township meeting where Cleland got his fat raise – to teach the commissioners how to do their jobs? I thought the people were supposed to tell the commissioners how to do their jobs?
Funny thing is while the commissioners have no problems bad mouthing citizens, somehow township employees are sacred to them and they are so wishy-washy on any tough decisions here.
Don’t get me wrong. I respect the good job so many township employees do. A lot of good people have done good jobs for corporations and have been laid off over the past five years. It’s the nature of the beast and the township needs to start thinking of itself as a business as opposed to just being a government entity.
The problem is further magnified by the fact that nobody associated with the township has true business experience. Lower Merion Township is like a medium sized corporation, yet Cleland and all the people who work for him don’t understand productivity and real world business concepts as they are all lifelong bureaucrats who have never had to really worry about being efficient.
The commissioners are all lawyers, and as such they think they know everything, but they don’t understand the business world.
Some tough decisions need to be made, fat needs to be trimmed at the mid to upper management level while keeping those who actually physically provide services on the job, but there may even need to be some cuts there.
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkI was just got an email from Poleteia who owns property on Rose Lane as I am on his distribution list.
According to the owner of Four Legged Friends doggie daycare, the owner of Samurai is going to go ahead and demolish that end of the shopping center and move Samurai there while turning the present Samurai into a coffee house.
From Poleteia's email to Commissioner Phillip Rozensweig of the ward that covers Rose Lane:
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkI do know for what it is worth that Commissioner Rosenzweig is no fan of student housing as he has fought hard for his constituents on that topic before...as for the rest of it, here's my prediction: Lower Merion needs projects approved under their new zoning for Bryn Mawr, so I bet in the end everyone loses and the Supersized Samurai with possible apartments above (can we say "students"?) will get approved. As for turning Samurai into a coffee house, it's like retail bank branches and nail salons: how many do we need? And I also think you should remember that Lower Merion doesn't just have ONE commissioner making decisions, so I think that until something happens to prove me wrong, Commissioner Rosenzweig should have the benefit of the doubt. After all, he, like a few other commissioners has to work really hard to counteract the height and density mongers...I do not consider him in that category.
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkThanks for the info. Hopefully this commissioner will do what's right, but as you said, there are a whole bunch of others to deal with (which in turn makes you wonder what is really going on, what with back room deals).
As an interesting aside, I just heard through the grapevine that the Samurai owner is now leasing the parking spaces on two of the vacant buildings (The old Ghecko's and the tailor shop - until he tears them all down) to (surprise, surprise) students! And its not the students he has packed in at the end of Rose Lane.
Seems like this guy plans to do to Rosemont what Karp did to West Philly when it comes to packing in students. This Samurai guy seems to be taking away from what are nice affordable neighborhoods as well as upscale as there are some million dollar coondos nearby and I'm sure those residents won't be happy with students.
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkThis is currently zoned BMV4 and is already to go. No matter that the strip mall is currently one level of retail. The commissioners have already approved it for two levels with the new Bryn Mawr Village Zoning District, which no allows for two levels. Nothing to fight.
Phil told me in an email that BMV4 is the least permissive from of BMV zoning, but I don't see much of a difference on the different levels, and BMV4 allows for twice as much development for this existing retail stretch as again, it is currently only one level - and I'd say it was origianlly built as only one level because there was not enough parking for two levels of stores/apartments. Now we get two levels with no additional parking, so all the new vehicles will park in residential neighborhoods behind these new developmets. By hey, as long as it is not in a commissioner's back yard, why should they care?
The entire Bryn Mawr Village Zoning District ordinance can be Clicked On Here.
BMV4 allows for a minimum height of 2 stories or 26 feet and it allows for a street wall height of 3 stories or 38 feet with no stepback.
Allowed uses per the ordinance are:
So it is basically a free-for-all, but what really concerns me about this one shopping center is that it has always been one story and now it can be two stories. That will making for a parking disaster and ruin the quality of living and home values of those nearby.
The BMV ordinance states the following for parking:
So it is also a free-for-all when it comes to parking.
This will destroy the character of the Rose Lane neighborhood and there is nothing that can be done that I see as the commissioners have set Bryn Mawr up to be developed in such a manner as to maximize taxable storefront space on Lancaster while basically throwing everyone who lives behind or near these areas to the dogs.
To say that I am not pleased as a property owner on Rose Lane is an understatement.
While I may not be able to do anything about this, boy is it a motivator on other issues.
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkI doubt nothing is happening on this, so just wait....your commissioner is not a fan of student housing and he has proven it.
And just because Mr. Samurai wants to build, doesn't mean he will.
You should contact the nearby civic associations as well. They can't help if they don't know.
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkThat's a lot of faith in a Lower Merion commissioner. Especially in a commissioner who voted for the zoning that has allowed this to happen.
So this commissioner comes out a hero if he does something about a few students yet still ruins the charm of the Rose Lane neighborhood due to over development and parking congestion? What do students matter of the area is overrun with with other people?
I seem to recall quite a few children live on Rose Lane. That should be the issue - what all this development will do to their safety. And how come the zoning ordinance mentions nothing about exceptions for safety issues - and especially children? Seems to be all about $$$ for the township to me with not much thought going to nearby residents and their families.
- Login or register to post comments
permalinkSometimes you have to believe in the greater good. I think you had better wait and see on this one just a little bit before passing judgement.
- Login or register to post comments
permalink