Madison Lot Project Will Affect Region Via Multimodal Transit

Whether you walk, bike, ride or drive in Lansdale, the future Madison Lot Redevelopment Project will affect you in some way.

That's the message put forth by Lansdale Council President Matt West Tuesday night during an informal gathering of a handful of residents and borough staff at Lansdale Borough Hall.

West, tapping into his inner teacher (West teaches clases on GIS and geography at Kutztown University and Montgomery County Community College), said the meeting Tuesday was not to talk about the "minutae" of Madison Lot itself, but of the geographical and regional impact of the project.

"It is a huge redevelopment in the works, a $50-million-plus investment," he said. 

West, as a regional planner, decided to talk about the bigger picture.

"Since the Lansdale Parking Authority is so focused on the MAdison Lot Proejct, i thought it important to take a step back, raise the altitude a bit and look at the regional component," he said. "The idea of where does this Madison Lot project fit into the grand scheme."

West said since it is a big project, everyone in the borough — commuter, driver, bus rider, pedestrian — will interact with the project in some form.

"I want to get you familiar with the concepts. Nothing is set in stone iwth the final design," he said. "Because it is so complicated, I felt it necessary to give the opportunity for anyone who wants to know more to get the details."

Madison Lot, he said, exists as a parcel between Wood Street and Main Street, but the project itself will be expansive to the entire region and be intermodal.

Madison Lot, he said, will fit in with the borough's completed projects and ongoing efforts, like the $3 million streetscape project, 311 W. Main St., the Wood-Vine Connector and the proposed redevelopment of the municipal complex.

West said the Wood-Vine Connector Project would begin in about three weeks and will mimic Main Street with its streetscape design.

"We'll have this expansive streetscape design. It's going to translate out from Main Street to (Madison Lot). We are starting to generate a core of pedestrian, vehicular intermodal access," he said.

Another project that will be affected by the Madison Lot Redevelopment, he said, is Moulton Builders' Andale Green townhome community on Hancock Street, across from Stony Creek Park.

A major component of the Madison Lot Redevelopment—which ties into the pedestrian intermodal aspect of it all—is the completion of Lansdale's portion of the countywide Liberty Bell Trail. The trail would connect Upper Gwynedd and Hatfield townships via Lansdale Borough. 

The trail would run parallel to the rail line in the Madison Lot Redevelopment, around the proposed skate park and out Third Street to the township line. In the other direction, the trail would run parallel to the rail line near Railroad Plaza, down Railroad Avenue and through Andale Green, connecting with the portion of the trail in Stony Creek Park.

"The recurring theme that these projects are aligning are the train tracks," West said, referring to the SEPTA line. "What can we do to utilize the rail line to our advantage? It's a barrier to vehicular traffic, to pedestrians, to bicycles. How can we use it as a unifying force instead of a defying force?"

West said the borough can incorporate mixed use trails and parks to get people to interact with them.

"How do we get people at Andale Green to interact with our core Main Street? Are we going to expect everybody to drive two blocks? What can we do to get them to interact by foot or by bicycle?" he said. "To connect those linear features through the projects in the pipeline, we have the Liberty Bell Trail."

The Liberty Bell Trail, he said, would interconnect an urbanized area such as Lansdale to other major trails. Futhermore, the skate park can be incorporated into the trail and development of the downtown.

"Given we are connecting this linear feature, the railroad, we want to take advantage of it," he said.

West said the Lansdale Train Station is the fourth busiest station outside Center City. The station, he said, has a captive audience that is coming into Lansdale to take the train into the city.

"What can we do to incorporate that transit hub to other modes of transit?" he said. "Since we are talking regionally, what can we do to incorporate that multimodal transit into the bigger picture?"

The answer, he said, is a cooperative partnership with SEPTA and PennDOT to establish an area across from the train station on Railroad Avenue for a dedicated load and unload zone for SEPTA buses. This means that Railroad Avenue would be closed to through traffic and established as a park area.

"Now you're starting to get the bigger picture: interactivity, intermodalism," he said. "If we can make intermodalism much more efficient, we are doing a service to the borough."

Conceptual Madison Lot plans, including a SEPTA parking garage across the tracks and pedestrian bridge to the Madison Lot, are utilizing existing space to "maximize efficiencies," West said.

"If you boil it down into a pedestrian scale, what does that do to the design elements of it? If you design something that each one of you, put yourself out on the street and interact with, what will that do psychologically to you? Will it make you interact with it in the future? Yes," he said.

Main Street, West said, is not made to pedestrian scale. There is no comfort walking on Main Street, due to a constant flow of traffic—16,000 daily trips—parking on both sides of the street and congested sidewalks.

"What if we have all this new development coming in and design it to pedestrian scale, to encourage people to be outside, interacting with it. If they are outside interacting with it, they are talking postively about their interaction with Lansdale. That's the big picture," West said.

West said Lansdale is grossly lacking pedestrian and bike paths, especially in crossing Main or Broad street.

"There will be vast improvements of pedestrian upgrades," West said of most of the upcoming projects.

With the multimodal amenities for pedestrians, train, bus and bike existing in and about to be improved on in Lansdale, West looked to author Randyl Drummer for quotes from his Costar article on Transit-Oriented Development:

"Pedestrian-friendly TODs ... lure businesses, residents and visitors to revitalize urban and outer-ring neighborhoods ..."

"Developments near major transit ... tend to have higher occupancies than non-Transit-Oriented Development properties ..."

"Madison Lot falls right smack dab in the middle of that definition of Transit-Oriented Developments," West said.

Lansdale, he said, has major connectivity to Philadelphia; people that take the train to the city find it less expensive and can then spend more money on local businesses in Lansdale.

There is opportunity for all modes of transit to exist simultaneously in Lansdale, he said, thus making the community sustainable and livable.

"Not only exist simultaneously," he said, "but to interact with each other effectively and efficiently."

West said the current Madison Lot does not give off a great image of Lansdale or what it offers to the public. The captive audience—all 500 of them daily who take the train through Lansdale—look out their train windows and see the drab lot, which means Lansdale is failing in its marketing.

"What if we create a community that works in concert with Main Street, that then gussies (Madison Lot) up and makes it liveable? Now, the people outside, instead of them sitting on their butt in the train, they say 'Ooo, what's going on there? I already paid for parking. I usually get off the train and go to my car. I'll explore and see what's going on.' You generate pedestrian-friendly interaction, people will want to connect with it," West said.

Jerry Dewhurst, vice president of Blue Comet Motorcycle Club in Skippack, which organizes the annual Lansdale Bike Night, had concerns that the redevelopment would have a major impact on Bike Night, both positively and negatively.

Dewhurst also questioned about a timeframe for development of the Liberty Bell Trail.

"Hopefully sooner rather than later," West said. "From a planning perspective, I'm not comfortable in giving timeframe. But we're talking months, not years."

West also said placing an active trail in an active construction site is something else to consider down the line. Trails will be ADA compliant, he said.

Resident Bob Willi asked where the Liberty Bell Trail would connect with Hatfield Township. West said the trail connection in Hatfield is still in the conceptual phase.

"The route has not been blessed," West said. 

Kathleen Coleman, of Lansdale, liked the idea of the proposed Liberty Bell Trail influencing the Cannoneers fields near West Fifth Street. West said the Cannoneers field is borough property, and thus, if it can be utilized for trails, it makes the borough's life easier in developing the project. 

"This is in the infantile stage," West said. "There are many things to work through. Tonight is not the end all, be all."

Borough Manager Timi Kirchner said the trail network and pathways will be discussed in parks and recreation committee.

"My husband and I follow Patch, and we were reading about the development and we wanted to know more about it," Coleman said. "I'm absolutely for the project. I thought the whole thing was great."

The Colemans moved to Lansdale in 2011, and one of the draws was the Lansdale Farmers' Market.

"It's more of an urban environment in a suburban setting," she said. "I am excited to see trails. The first time I walked to the farmers' market, it was eye opening. With Tabora Farms and Molly Maguires, there is a resurgence of Main Street."

A Look at the History of Madison Parking Lot

Lansdale Historical Society President Dick Shearer provided this background on Madison Parking Lot:

"Up until the end of World War II, downtown parking wasn't much of an issue. Families had, at most, one car, and people often walked downtown to do their shopping; Folks owned hand-pushed grocery carts that they would wheel store to store several times a week.  

After the war auto manufacturing resumed and money was plentiful because there wasn't much to spend it on during the rationing years. The influx of many more cars made finding a parking place downtown a difficult undertaking.

Some stores were moving from downtown districts like Lansdale's to open space where they could put up a building with plenty of parking around it.  

Lansdale's borough council and the merchants recognized the problem early and began acting in 1951. The former A.C. Godshall mill stood adjacent to the railroad tracks behind the 200 and 300 blocks of West Main Street. The land was acquired and turned into the Madison Parking Lot, which filled with cars every day, especially during the glory years of 1953 through 1976.

But even that lot was inadequate. By 1954, Clemens Markets, a Main Street staple for many years, opened a new supermarket with adjacent parking on North Broad Street in Hatfield Township. Soon, the South Broad Street shopping center was built, taking the A&P from downtown. The Acme left for the edge of town where it is now, and a new Food Fair was built at Valley Forge and Allentown roads."