Haverford Township Planning Commission - Report from Commmita

I attended the Planning Commission meeting on Thursday September 27, 2007 at the Quatrani Building. Consultant Thomas Committa (Thomas Committa Associates, Inc.: Town Planners and Landscape Architects) presented the updated and much more detail plans, concepts and benchmarks for the main concept ideas. See list below.

The Eagle Road corridor and Oakmont area business district have been the examined in great detail by the Haverford Civic Council. Committa has presented a lot of options along with the background information and numerous benchmarks in other towns. There is a lot to consider.

At this point we have the choice to continue to let one of the main streets in our town languish, or to proactively change course and decide that we want something better. A new plan could be a cosmetic upgrade or a dramatically different area that would reshape our town.

Take a look as some of the plans and ideas show in Committa's guidelines. Each is a PDF file. I scanned in sections of the documents. Click to open or right-click to save.

===============================================
Design Guidelines: Oakmont Village & Eagle Road Corridor
Haverford Township Delaware County, PA

Outline of Contents:
Draft: September 27, 2007
1. Purpose & lntent
2. Streetscape & Street Walls

3. Building Location
4. Infill Buildings
5. Service Lanes & Alleys
6. Off-Street Parking
7. Curbs & Curb Cuts

8. Mixed Use(s)
9. On-Street Parking
10. Sidewalks
11. Crosswalks
12. Pedestrians Promenade

13. Building Size, Height & Design
14. Storefronts & Window Displays
15. Porches, Porticos & Stoops
16. Street Trees

17. Hedges, Fences & Walls
18. Street Lights
19. Street Furniture

20. Traffic Calming
21. Signage
22. Gateways
23. Wayfinding Signage
24. Stormwater Management

Business Revitalization - Planning Commission Consultant's Report on Eagle Rd and Haverford Rd

The Planning Commission held a meeting on June 12, 2007 to review the final recommendations from consultant Thomas Committa Associates. Mr. Committa described improvement plans for the Oakmont Village/Eagle Road Corridor and the Haverford Road Corridor.

Downloads, all in PDF format:
Committa report cover sheet
Eagle Road Plan (1 MB)
Eagle Road Map (1.2 MB)
Haverford Road Plan (1 MB)
Haverford Road Map (1.2 MB)
Note: the Plans and Maps were provided on 11x17 paper, so I cut them in half to create the PDF files for posting here. If you want the original effect, print them out and paste the pages together.

The Eagle Road plan calls for a more pedestrian-oriented experience. Since the storefronts are typically set back from the street and fronted by parking lots, Committa suggests a promenade for walkers in front of the stores. He recommends more crosswalks, wider sidewalks, parking to serve multiple business, more attractive street-scapes, and better use of existing alleys for service lanes.

The Haverford Road Plan focuses on parking and pedestrian accessibility.

Both plans have suggestions on creating gateways at prominent endpoints, improving appearance, landscaping and signage.

Geography:
The Oakmont Village/Eagle Road Corridor is from Eagle and Lawrence near the gum factory, across the Darby-Eagle intersection, to the former Oakmont School, also including the triangle of land where the Township Administration building is.

The Haverford Road Corridor runs from W. Hathaway Lane near the SEPTA R100 station, through the Haverford and Wynnewood intersection near the bridge, to just past the intersection where Haverford Road splits off to Karakung Road by the bowling alley.