City Avenue is a bustling urban meeting point for the City of Philadelphia and the edge of the Lower Merion Township. In 1998, the City Avenue Special Services District of Philadelphia and Lower Merion (CityAve) was created in order to “improve public safety, enhance the area image, and shape and attract development” (lowermerion.org). However, due to this area belonging to two distinct districts, with conflicting interests, City Ave is not able to be developed fully or effectively.

The Township was granted money in 2007 by Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission to
fund what would become zoning recommendations for the area presented in 2008. In 2009, The City of Philadelphia enacted the City Avenue zoning district and The Township is working on dissecting the zoning recommendations in order to effectively put them in place.
In November of this year, the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners voted to hold a public hearing and motion to adopt an ordinance to rezone City Avenue for new development on the 14th of December.

However, it will remain to be seen as to whether this hearing will come to a final decision, seeing as the motion to rezone City Avenue has been in the works for several years now. A June 9 public hearing on the topic was held, although it was voted to put the decision to rezone on hold until more thoughts from the general public was heard.

Over the summer, several workshops were held for the benefit of educating the residents of City Avenue, Lower Merion, and The City of Philadelphia on the subject of rezoning.

The Rezoning Act intends to make City Ave more “pedestrian friendly” by creating residential space, office space, and a recreational center. The proposal includes space for 25 to 40 feet of sidewalk between buildings and the street.

In order to do this, buildings must be constructed closer together. The proposal also included maximum heights for the buildings ranging from 90 to 300 feet.

The November 10 meeeting of the Planning Commission advocated for approval of the City Avenue District ordinance, with the addition of a map that would depict the new roads and amenities, such as trails and open spaces.

Many officials want to hold off a public hearing due to their desire to be able to see a finished map of the area. Bob Duncan, the director of building and planning in Lower Merion Township showed the 70 people at the meeting an example of the possible building plan on the intersection of City Ave and Belmont Ave.

While these pictures were intended to help boost citizen’s excitement, they did the contrary. Many citizens were upset and worried when seeing these pictures.
A high percentage of concerned residents wish for rezoning not to take place, as the rezoning will increase traffic.

Richard Kaufman, a Bala Cynwyd citizen running for Ward 9 commissioner was among these people. “This has shown what an absolute crowded, congested, urban area you’re creating in a suburban environment that we all enjoy and can at least currently function in,” he says.
Robert Young, a resident of Bala Cynwyd claims, “There is already a lot of traffic along City Ave and this rezoning will only cause more.”

Liz Rogan, the Board of Commissioners President, claims that developers must submit an application for their project. These can take up to two years to approve, making it impossible for multiple projects to occur at once and cause traffic. “The beauty of the Main Line is that it is a wonderful suburban area so close to the city. But the city is moving closer and the suburbs are becoming crowded.”

Carol Cinotti, another resident of Bala Cynwyd agrees. “I don’t want this area to become overcrowded but am not too worried yet. First I will wait to see the plans and whether they will actually affect this area.”

If the zoning plans were indeed voted to go into effect, the rezoning would be slated to start sometime in August of 2012.