Demolition of Gladwyne Home Recommended

The Building and Planning Committee expressed some reservations before voting unanimously on Wednesday night to recommend to the Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners a request to demolish the main house, stable addition and pool house at 1316 Monk Road in Gladwyne.

Board of Commissioners President Liz Rogan said Lower Merion Township has lost more than 200 historical properties in a very recent time period.

“We’re losing pieces of our township piece by piece. I wish … they had found some other way other than demolishing it,” Rogan said.

Looking at a photo of the home on the overhead screen, Commissioner Cheryl Gelber commented that it was a “beautiful property.”

“My understanding is it is in good shape,” Bob Duncan, director of building and planning for the township, said.

The Historical Commission has indicated that it does not completely agree with the Historic Resource Impact Study finding that the house has suffered a complete loss of character and was “saddened to lose another historic resource in the township,” according to information provided on the Building and Planning Committee’s agenda for its meeting.

The Historical Commission recommended on May 26 that the Board of Commissioners delay the issuance of the demolition permit until the applicant provided complete documentation, as required by township code, to be reviewed by the township and the Historical Commission, according to information on the committee meeting agenda.

Commissioner Jenny Brown said the owners of 1316 Monk Road had renovated other homes, but financially “they are simply not able to do that” with the Monk Road property.

The Historical Commission noted that insufficient information had been provided to support the applicant’s argument that keeping the buildings would result in economic hardship, according to information provided on the building committee’s agenda for its meeting.

Commissioner Brian McGuire asked about the point raised by the Historical Commission’s point about properly demonstrating economic hardship.

Duncan said demonstrating economic hardship is a requirement that only applies to Class 1 structures and that the house, stable and pool house are in Class 2.

In other matters , consideration of an amendment to the maintenance and operations plan for the Idlewild Preservation Area and development was tabled by the committee.

The committee did not state why this agenda item was tabled, but it did take action on another issue concerning Idlewild.

The committee voted in favor of recommending to the Board of Commissioners that the existing conservation easement for Idlewild be amended to permit the installation of additional signage on the property at the intersection of Williamson and Black Rock Roads in Gladwyne.

Duncan said the township is a party to the easement and the sign will be a 13-square-foot property identification sign.