Wayne Presbyterian Church, a downtown Wayne landmark on Lancaster Avenue since 1870. The church’s holdings and programs have expanded enormously as the town of Wayne has grown
Radnor Township has taken the first step toward seizing by eminent domain the parking area it leases from Wayne Presbyterian Church (WPC), a sizable section of the large Station Ave. municipal lot.
Radnor Commissioners voted 4 to 1 at their Oct. 14 meeting to move forward with an ordinance (below) that would authorize the township to file a “declaration of taking” in the Delco Court of Common Pleas in November.
Price is TBD but Radnor would pay at least $1.6M for the parcel, according to township officials. (We’ve filed a right-to-know to view the most recent assessment of the parcel.)
The parking area in question is circled in white. North Wayne Avenue runs vertically at left. Lancaster Avenue runs horizontally across the bottom of the schematic.
The vote came after a parade of church members stepped to the microphone to implore the township to table the ordinance and resume negotiations. And after Jake Abel, the lone commissioner who voted against it, decried the proposed seizure as bad government.
But the majority of commissioners felt bound by a tight legal timeline and agreed that Wayne simply couldn’t risk losing 70+ parking spaces.
“The church is about to get seven figures dropped on it by the township,” rued Radnor Commissioner Jack Larkin, an attorney whose ward spans the downtown area. “This is not the goal … to pay $1.6 million or more to preserve what’s already there. It’s a colossal waste of township dollars but we have to preserve the parking and, given the concerns we have, [eminent domain] is the mechanism by which we do it.”
Not that this is a done deal. Far from it.
To fully authorize the seizure, the proposed ordinance requires a second reading, public discussion and vote, which was set for the next BOC meeting on October 28.
There’s also the very real chance that both sides could come to an agreement on the parcel in the meantime. We just received confirmation from the church that talks with the township have resumed.
UPDATED INFORMATION: At its Oct. 28 meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to postpone the second reading and vote on the ordinance until their November 11 meeting, citing real progress in ongoing negotiations with Wayne Presbyterian Church. Stay tuned to SAVVY’s Instagram and Facebook for the latest on this important story.
By our count, 30 residents, most of them members of WPC, attended last week’s BOC meeting. All who spoke pleaded for the continuation of negotiations.
Doug Bruhns, WPC’S Administrative chair of Session (the church’s leadership), tells commissioners that the township’s proposed ordinance is “extreme” and “unnecessary” on October 14.
Another speaker, Elizabeth Andrews, a lifelong WPC member and WPC preschool teacher whose father was a township commissioner, said “this is not the Radnor that I know. There needs to be a solution to this that’s not hostile.”
Speaking for the Wayne Business Association, Reed Taylor urged the parties to “preserve what the business district has relied on … To have 50 percent of the North Wayne lot disappear would pose a devastating hardship to the businesses of Wayne.”
So how did the township arrive at an option that folks have called “drastic” and “nuclear”?
First, some crucial background:
*The township has leased the plot – just under two-thirds of an acre – from the church for the last 69 years. The lease has automatically renewed and has not been updated since the arrangement was formalized in 1955.
*The lease calls for splitting the proceeds 50/50 from the parking meters at the 70+ spaces. The township initially paid for paving and parking meters and the lease requires Radnor to insure and maintain the lot. WPC has pressed Radnor to address stormwater runoff that continues to flood a below-grade church entrance, uneven pavement and other safety concerns.
*Revenue from those meters dipped significantly in recent years – although it appears to be rebounding a bit. In 2017, the church and the township each received $36,000 from those meters. Revenue plummeted to $19,000 in 2021 and $18,000 in 2023, according to figures provided by Commissioner Larkin. Through the third quarter of 2024, revenues were up to $17,000. “So they’re on track to do considerably better this year,” Larkin tells SAVVY.
What caused the dip in parking meter revenue?
Pick your poison. The primary culprit: COVID shutdowns in the Wayne business district. Other factors include: Storefronts have become restaurants that do a bigger business (or are only open) at night when parking is free; the growth of walk-to-Wayne housing with two more sizable projects en route; and folks opting to park for free in the AT&T lot.
Lease negotiations started about 15 months ago. The church proposed a lease that increased the rent and “provided for other requirements” that township solicitor John Rice won’t specify but presumably includes some level of stormwater amelioration and repaving. (The church has pushed for a sub-surface stormwater fix that could cost millions, according to Larkin.)
When the church proposed charging the township $80,000/yr. to lease the lot, the township balked.
“$80,000 is more than the total revenue that has ever come from that lot,” said Board of Commissioners President Maggy Myers at the Oct. 14 BOC meeting. “So to me, as a person in government, that’s giving taxpayer money to a church and that’s just not acceptable.”
Radnor offered to buy the parcel last summer, an offer WPC rebuffed, citing a possible future need to expand on the parcel. At the BOC meeting, WPC representatives insisted they want to keep the lot for parking.
(Worth noting: WPC seriously entertained an offer to sell the parking parcel to a condo developer in the winter of 2022 but ultimately nixed the idea.)
And then came the pivotal August 28 letter from WPC’S chief negotiator, attorney Fronefield Crawford, Jr., to Radnor Solicitor John Rice “reluctantly” asking that the letter serve as “conditional notice” of the existing lease’s termination, effective Nov. 22.” (The lease requires three months’ notice of lease termination.)
Attorney Frone Crawford, a chief negotiator for Wayne Presbyterian Church, addresses the Radnor Board of Commissioners at their Oct. 14 meeting. He assured the board that WPC wouldn’t fence off the property on November 22, the date the lease would expire under WPC’s conditional lease termination notice of August 28.
With the legal clock now ticking and those parking spaces in jeopardy for the holiday shopping season, the township drafted the seizure ordinance.
But why is the township so intent on keeping these parking spaces?
Merchants rely on holiday shopping and dining proceeds to make up for the slower months. November 22, a week before this year’s late Thanksgiving, is the start of the holiday season.
If parking is scarce or inconvenient, “there are a lot of places in the area that people can go with their dollars,” Larkin says, citing the King of Prussia Town Center, Media, and downtown West Chester.” He calls the elimination of 70 parking spaces a potential threat to the “long term health of the downtown area” that “we have to take seriously.”
And Radnor has a financial stake in keeping merchants happy. About a third of township revenues comes from business privilege and mercantile taxes, Larkin says. If storefronts go dark, home property values could fall because, well, there would be less Wayne to walk to. And if Radnor loses significant revenue, “it will have to make up for it elsewhere,” he explains. Raising taxes would have to be on the table, he says. ‘
“The narrative that’s being pushed [in the letter the church sent to members alerting them to the Oct. 14 BOC meeting] is the township is this ogre who, for reasons that are fully inexplicable, is just coming to take your land,” Larkin continues. “When in reality, this is the completely predictable outcome of terminating a lease that had been in effect since since 1955.”
Still, despite the tough talk and difficult vote, Larkin and WPC’s Doug Bruhns are sounding optimistic a week later.
We have some creative ideas,” says Larkin. “I’m hoping the church has some creative ideas, too.”
Adds Bruhns: “There is collaborative discussion underway with the Township. We are confident the relationship between the Church and the Township will enable a mutually beneficial agreement because our collective goal is one that serves both the church and the greater Wayne community.”
Maybe a developer would put up lower level parking, ground level parking, retail and condos. We need to preserve Wayne!
Interesting. But that developer would need some pretty deep pockets. Underground parking is an expensive undertaking. And the parcel in question is not even an acre. It would have to be combined with other parts of the lot that are owned by the township. Not saying it couldn’t happen one day but there will be multiple hurdles to surmount.
I am thinking they should charge for night parking like Phoenixville does in its thriving business/restaurant/brewery district.
Interesting. That suggestion did come up at the first Radnor Board of Commissioners meetinga about the Wayne Pres. lot. Not sure how the restaurant owners would feel about it…