Park vs. Parking: Radnor Commissioners set to vote on North Wayne Ave. ‘parklet’ plan

It’s been talked about since 2003. Now it’s finally on the agenda. Radnor Commissioners vote Monday night on a plan to turn nearly half the North Wayne Parking Lot — 24 spaces next to Gingy’s Boutique — into a new town park. The question dividing the room: is the loss of parking worth it?

Commissioner Cathy Agnew, whose ward includes the business district, is bullish on the plan. She envisions a space “where you can have ice cream, bring your lunch or enjoy all kinds of programming and make memories for your kids … a place that makes them want to live here, to have proudly lived here and want to come back.” Agnew brought Porchfest to South Wayne nine years ago for the same reason: to make memories for local families.

If the project is approved, residents could gather in the park for live music, game-watch parties, seasonal festivals and holiday celebrations — you name it.

“I don’t want to limit us in our thoughts,” says Agnew, who points to two recent successes on the same stretch of asphalt as proof of concept: the tent erected during COVID and the success of this past summer’s World Cup watch party. Both brought new business to town merchants, she said.

The conversion would happen in stages. Phase 1 would start “immediately,” with Phase 2 completed by spring 2027. The project includes retractable bollards, repaving with stamped, brick-colored asphalt, upgraded electricity, landscaping, furniture, decorative lighting and signage. The township may stop there and settle for a hybrid parklet — lowering the bollards to allow cars during the week but raising them to block traffic on weekends — or make the park permanent, which would extend the construction timeline.

 

If Commissioners approve the resolution Monday night, Agnew says construction would begin Sept. 21 or 22 — immediately after Sunday’s Radnor Fall Festival — and, barring unforeseen issues, wrap within a month, in time for the Halloween and December holiday celebrations already planned by the Wayne Business Association.

The township has put a $155,000 price tag on the fall-through-spring improvements, to be paid from Park & Open Space bonds.

The community has been asking for usable green space in the business district for years, Agnew says, pointing to public feedback at last fall’s open houses for the new Vision for Wayne comprehensive plan. A 2003 comprehensive plan recommended this kind of park in the business district.

Not everyone’s quite as bullish.

“I understand a lot of residents want a park,” Chris Todd, owner of the popular restaurant Christopher’s, tells SAVVY. “What they don’t understand is that businesses have invested millions in their businesses. And all of a sudden, to have 24 spots taken away — it changes a lot.”

Merchants and shoppers might tell you otherwise, but the township’s position — reiterated by Agnew — is that there’s plenty of parking in Wayne if you’re willing to walk three minutes, including the new West Wayne lot leading to the Great American Pub, Cornerstone, Alessandro’s and Elegance, which remains underused.

But Todd says the township’s parking assessment is distorted because it includes private spaces the township doesn’t own. Sources tell SAVVY the township may be negotiating with nearby businesses with large lots to formalize after-hours parking agreements.

Another merchant, Paul Somboonsong, whose family owns and operates The Blue Elephant and Maison Lotus, is also wary.

“While I think a green space would be a beautiful addition to Wayne, the current park proposal feels premature,” Somboonsong tells SAVVY. “It doesn’t address the loss of 20+ parking spots in Radnor’s busiest corridor or offer a broader plan for what replaces them. Growing up here, I was sad to watch small businesses like Wayne Sporting Goods and Great Harvest Bread close. Now, as a Radnor resident and investor in the community, I don’t want to trade away parking that helps keep small businesses viable before we’ve figured out what comes next.”

Wayne merchant BDevoted, a sizable women’s clothier that moved to town in March, is worried about merchants’ bottom lines, should the parklet resolution pass.

“Being right across the street from a welcoming park sounds appealing to me, but as a small business owner I look at the impact it makes on my volume, employees and longevity,” explains BDevoted owner Karen Leslie. “Twenty-four spaces at four rotations a day before 6 p.m. is 96 potential customers, 365 days a year. At a conservative $200 average spent in Wayne per car, that totals 96 customers x $200 = $19,200 a day or $7,008,000 per year in lost sales.

“That’s a number Wayne business owners can’t afford to ignore when paying employees, taxes, rent and providing services and goods for our wonderful Wayne community.”

The owner of Gingy’s, the North Wayne Avenue women’s boutique that borders the proposed parklet, has her fingers crossed: “I always think parks are a good thing, but I am unclear about how this one would work,” says owner Jean Tremblay. “Wayne seems to be losing spaces and parking is critical to the success of the businesses. I am hoping that it can all be worked out.”

Reduced parking is one issue, but there’s another factor to consider: losing a key ingress and egress point to the North Wayne Ave. lot.

Agnew assures us traffic patterns will be studied after the “temporary to permanent” parklet is created. Police will conduct traffic counts and township engineers will “get a realistic sense of some of the traffic issues, then build in solutions.” She said both the Wayne Senior Center and Wayne Presbyterian Church are on board with the plan, and that the township is working with Wayne Pres to address its concerns about Sunday traffic and parking.

Todd at Christopher’s also has an issue with timing. He tells us he first heard of concrete plans for the park project a week ago Friday. “They should have given us more notice,” he says.

But in Agnew’s view, the time to act is now. “This has been talked about since 2003; the public wants this. It’s been kicked down the road long enough.”

There’s at least one thing Todd, Somboonsong, other merchants and Agnew do agree on: it’s in everyone’s best interest to attend Monday’s Board of Commissioners meeting and weigh in. “We want to hear from everyone — people who are in favor of this and people who are against it,” Agnew says. “We may get better ideas from them.”

Adds Todd: “The merchants, if they’re really annoyed about this, they need to show up.”

The Radnor Township Board of Commissioners will discuss the plan, show updated schematics, hear public feedback and vote on the park proposal Monday, Sept. 14, at 6:30 p.m. in the Radnorshire Room at the Township Building, 301 Iven Ave., Wayne.