Narblog

The Narberth School

The Main Line Times and the 2008 Borough Newsletter discuss the status of the former Narberth Elementary School.  This building on the corner of N Essex Ave and Sabine Ave houses the Montgomery Early Learning Center along with other businesses.  Taxes and fees from the building's lease generate about 7% of the borough total income.  If this income was lost, property taxes would need to be increased.  An off-the-cuff calculation puts the average at maybe $85 per household. 

The contract between Lower Merion Township and Narberth Borough was a 30 year agreement.  The contract gives the township three periods, whereupon two year's notice, they may reclaim the building for use as a public school.  No other uses are permitted in the current contract.  If at the beginning of the 28th year, no desire to reclaim the building was made, the building would permanently revert to the borough's ownership.

So, just before the contract entered its 28th year, Lower Merion notified Narberth of its intention to reclaim the building.  Lower Merion has no current need or plans for a new school in Narberth.  However, they want to keep their options open.

Narberth would like to retain control of the building and sign an agreement similar to the one in place.  The borough council offered Lower Merion a 10 year extension which was recently rejected.  The sticking point?  Lower Merion would like the new contract to remove the 'for public school use only' provision.  They want the option to do whatever they please should they reclaim the building in 2019.  A protracted negotiation is sure to occupy the council in 2008. 

Stay tuned. 

Parking in Narberth

Despite being one of the most pedestrian friendly of Philadelphia's suburbs, Narberth hasn't been shielded from serious parking troubles.  The reasons for our parking problems are numerous and no one seems to have a solution. 

Recently, the Borough Council considered a number of parking-related proposals.  The council proposed increasing parking fines from $10 to $15.  They have rejected shopkeeper requests to increase downtown meters from one hour to two hours (ostensibly to encourage non-pedestrian shoppers to our business district).  They have suggested offering Narberth Fire Company members free parking in consideration of their service to our community.  These proposals are piecemeal and simplistic.  None of them will solve our parking problem.

As the rules change, it seems we merely pass the buck between constituents.  We choose to favor shoppers over employees, homeowners over apartment renters, and existing business over future development (an often proposed no-alcohol family restaurant comes to mind).  That's OK though.  Setting policy is the council's job.   But, perhaps, we can think our way beyond the zero sum game we've been playing.  Perhaps we can find a solution that actually reduces the problem.

An extreme simplification of the issue is that we require either more parking spaces or fewer cars and we can't reduce the economic activity of our town in the process.  An engineering analysis of our downtown parking needs and our public and private availability should be conducted (if memory serves, we may even have a recent analysis in the borough's files).  We can ask the professionals for recommendations but they don't live in our community.  A creative solution comes from within -- from locals who understand locals. We need to look at that analysis ourselves and think creatively.  A better solution exists, we just have to find it.