Wayne Commons sparks a merchant revolt. Is the parklet on North Wayne Ave. in trouble?

“I have not been this angry since COVID.”

That was Molly Todd of Christopher’s, telling Radnor commissioners Monday night what she thinks of Wayne Commons, the parklet they approved last month for North Wayne Avenue. The plan would eliminate 24 primo parking spaces and cut off the main entrance to the North Wayne Avenue lot, the busiest in town.

“This is just the silliest idea,” Todd went on. “It’s not a park. We can make a park. We can make it pretty… But you can’t close it. You just can’t do that.”

The prospect of losing those spaces is keeping her up at night, she tells SAVVY.

She had plenty of company.

Commissioners came to the township building ready to vote to “accept” the new Vision for Wayne master plan. First, they got an earful.

Chris Todd, Molly’s husband and partner at Christopher’s and a longtime Wayne Business Association leader, opened public comment by reading a WBA letter backed by a petition with more than 200 signatures, at least 30 of them from Wayne business owners.

The letter didn’t oppose a park per se. “We do support the beautification and redesign of the space for public events,” Todd read, “but feel that it will cause more problems than it is worth to have this blocked to traffic and parking when not in use.” The WBA wants the lot kept open for parking except during scheduled events, and a seat at the planning table.

“We’ve got a great town,” he added. “There are some vacancies going on right now, but some of them are already filled. Let’s work together, please, [and] get this done right.”

Others were a bit less diplomatic.

“Taking away 24 spaces — that’s dumb. Pointless,” said Andy Dickerson, co-owner of Teresa’s Café and the Bar Next Door. “We need more input, and you sandbagged us!”

Betsy Kalish, a Wayne resident for 43 years, called the debate “a colossal waste of time.” “We have plenty of green space in this community. We are not in a city,” she said. “To just take what Suburban Square is doing, and other communities are doing, and slam it into our community without thought is really what I’m objecting to… I’m sad that it’s just being ramrodded through.”

Linda Schellenger, who lives within walking distance of North Wayne Avenue, questioned the board’s priorities: “I’m a little miffed that here we are talking about a park across the street from retail businesses when there are so many other things to talk about prior to that.”

Karen Leslie, owner of B Devoted boutique across from the planned parklet, said Wayne already has plenty of outdoor seating, and that losing those convenient parking spaces would turn off shoppers who can’t walk far. “I have customers that just finished chemo that day. I have customers that walk with canes that don’t necessarily have a handicap sticker.”

Philadelphia Print Shop owner David Mackey, whose shop is around the corner on W. Lancaster Avenue, came armed with a schematic, which he said shows room for 20 to 24 new spaces on the south side of West Lancaster. He believes the architects of A Vision for Wayne whiffed by not recommending adding parking in front of Central Baptist Church and the former library on Lancaster Ave. He’s also advocating for a pedestrian link connecting Lancaster Ave. to the West Ave. lot and has voiced concerns about pedestrian safety near the Bellevue Ave. condo construction site.

His question for the board: “You’re taking away 24 spaces. Where are you adding any spaces?” He also urged commissioners to improve pedestrian safety near the condo construction site at Bellevue and Lancaster Avenues..

Resident Steve Sweeney warned that blocking the North Wayne lot’s main entrance would leave visitors lost. “If you block that off with a park… nobody coming to Wayne knows where to go,” he said. He also questioned the timing: “You approved the park before putting out the Vision of Wayne map that showed a park there. I think that was backwards.”

The parklet’s lone defender was Michael Homans, a Wayne resident and WBA member, who said he felt “like a voice in the wilderness.” “We can have a park and we can have parking,” he said. With 10 to 12 restaurants on North Wayne, he figured, the lost spaces come to “one or two spots per restaurant. This shouldn’t be… the blocker that’s gonna kill these restaurants.” He also noted the WBA never held a general vote on the issue.

Adam Tecza, chief consultant on A Vision for Wayne, defended the plan, pointing to the public input behind it: two open houses that drew 190 people and a survey with 373 responses. On parking, he said, “You have available parking… It’s just not always easy to find.” He added, “Investing in a parking garage is not the most efficient use of your resources.”

Before the vote, Township Manager Bill White stressed that the board was voting to accept the plan, not adopt it. Acceptance is the step the township needs to collect a $100,000 state grant for the planning work. A Vision for Wayne, White explained, is a set of conceptual recommendations. “I don’t want this plan to be confused as something that is… a completely baked cake coming out of the oven, ready to eat.”

Commissioners then voted unanimously to accept it. (If the whole plan had been put to an approval vote, it wouldn’t pass, said Commissioner Moira Mulroney.)

The hard part, White later told SAVVY, comes during the design and approval phase and there will be more chances for public input along the way.

Streetscape projects like wider sidewalks, bike lanes, lighting, landscaping and parking fixes “will take years to get from recommendations on a piece of paper to actually designing and building,” he said.

That’s why the parklet, one recommendation in a document full of them, was split off and put to a vote on Sept. 14. “A few commissioners didn’t want to wait years and years,” White tells SAVVY.

So could commissioners scrap their resolution to spend $155,000 to resurface the area and add landscaping, lighting and signage by mid-April?

Move the gathering space somewhere else?

Shelve Wayne Commons altogether?

Anything’s possible. Radnor Solicitor John Rice said Wednesday that the board would simply have to pass a new resolution superseding the Sept. 14 one.

And there’s recent precedent. In early September, commissioners bowed to public pressure and nixed plans to put a district court on busy South Wayne Avenue.  That decision, White says, shows the board is responsive to public feedback.

For now, though, despite all the hubbub and hullabaloo, White and his staff have their marching orders. “The commissioners have directed us to move forward with Wayne Commons, put a design on paper and put it out to bid.”

Still, the Commons cake isn’t baked yet, White allows. Bids could come in too high, for one. “The commissioners could tell us to stop at any point.”