Blog: Do All Roads in Tredyffrin Lead to the Sidewalk Debate?

Do all Roads in Tredyffrin Lead to Sidewalks?
 
Although there was a 5-2 vote to approve the revised sidewalk ordinance at last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, confusion over sidewalks still reigns.  I think many would agree had there never been a BAWG report that suggested there was an offer from St. Davids Golf Club not to build their ‘agreed upon’ and ‘contracted for’ sidewalks, we would not be where we are today.
 
For the last 21 months in Tredyffrin Township, it is as if all roads lead to sidewalks.  The debate over whether St. Davids Golf Club would be required to build their contracted sidewalks has reigned supreme.  A sidewalk subcommittee was formed and for over a year, held public hearings, received resident input, conducted surveys, etc. The results of the sidewalk subcommittee were presented earlier this year to the Board of Supervisors; indicating that the majority of the residents responding favored sidewalks, bike trails, etc. in the township.
 
The Board of Supervisors instructed the Planning Commission to draft a new sidewalk ordinance.  After several months of discussion and review, the Planning Commissioners presented a sidewalk ordinance proposal to the Board of Supervisors. The supervisors agreed that the new sidewalk ordinance would have no bearing on the 8 currently open land development agreements that contained sidewalk requirements (including St. Davids Golf Club).
 
For those that attended the supervisors meeting or watched from home, the confusion over the sidewalk ordinance continued to reign supreme.  Although the new ordinance passed 5-2, (Lamina and Olson the dissenting votes) there remains the open issue of the sidewalk ‘map’.  The sidewalk ordinance passed but without a map indicating the sidewalk requirements.  Discussion of the sidewalk map is apparently on the agenda for Monday’s supervisors meeting.  However, there was some discussion from Lamina at the last supervisors meeting, that it may be his intention to go through the map, ‘road by road’ to decide the fate of sidewalks in the township.
 
Wanting to understand the next step in the St. Davids Golf Club sidewalk saga, I sent a couple of emails to Mimi Gleason, our township manager.  I assumed that since the sidewalk ordinance had passed, the township staff now had the green light to move on enforcement of the sidewalks in any open land development agreements (including St. Davids).  I received the following email from Mimi:
 
“Before sending letters, the Township now will contact any of the property owners with approved plans that inquired about the need to install sidewalks. They will be informed that they no changes were made to the ordinance that changes anything for their plans. Enforcement proceedings will commence only if they refuse to install the sidewalks.”
 
Based on Gleason’s response, can we assume that by now St. Davids Golf Club has been contacted. I am not sure why there was an interim step ‘to contact’ vs. sending the letter and will seek clarification. I will also ask what is timeline for a response from the property owners before the enforcement letter is sent. After all the issues surrounding the sidewalks, I think it would be important to have a paper trail in place.
 
So . . . will St. Davids now build their required sidewalks? Or . . . will the country club wait it out, in hopes that their road will somehow disappear from the yet-to-be-approved township sidewalk map? Let us hope that St. Davids will do what they contractually agreed to do. How long has it been since the agreement between St. Davids and the township was signed . . . 5 or 6 years?
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