{"id":2908,"date":"2013-01-08T13:51:48","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T18:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/?p=2908"},"modified":"2013-01-08T13:51:48","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T18:51:48","slug":"letter-to-delaware-county-council-about-the-3rd-street-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/2013\/01\/08\/letter-to-delaware-county-council-about-the-3rd-street-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Delaware County Council about the 3rd Street Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since June 2011, Friends of Glen Providence Park has advocated for minimizing the destruction to Glen Providence Park from the 3rd Street Project construction.\u00a0<\/strong> This included raising public awareness and public officials’ awareness about the project, and meeting with Delaware County Council to explain the impact to the park that the project would have.\u00a0 Now that Media Borough Council’s compromise design for the project<\/a> has been challenged in court by Broomall’s Lake Country Club<\/a>, and the case is back before Judge James F. Proud, we again reached out to County Council to explain our support for the compromise design.<\/p>\n

What follows is the text of a letter sent yesterday to\u00a0Tom McGarrigle, Chairman of Delaware County Council, with cc’s to Media Borough Council and Broomall’s Lake Country Club. \u00a0The bolding and links were added for this website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Mr. McGarrigle:<\/p>\n

As representatives of the Friends of Glen Providence Park, we are writing to share our ideas on how Delaware County could play a positive role in helping the long-delayed Third Street Dam\/Bridge project in Media to move forward.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you know, in 2011, Broomall\u2019s Lake Country Club (BLCC), Delaware County, and Media Borough Council signed a stipulation<\/a> that established shared responsibility between the parties for the Third Street Dam\/Bridge in Media, PA.\u00a0 The stipulation stated that Media Borough would be responsible for designing and constructing a replacement dam and roadway.\u00a0<\/strong> The stipulation also stated that, after reconstruction, Delaware County and Broomall\u2019s Lake Country Club would be responsible for maintaining and operating the dam, while Media Borough would manage and maintain the roadway atop the dam.<\/p>\n

When the engineer\u2019s plans for the project were presented to the public for the first time in the summer of 2011, many residents in Media and surrounding communities expressed serious concerns about the environmental and recreational impact of the project on the County\u2019s historic Glen Providence Park.\u00a0<\/strong> In fact, over 800 County residents, from Media Borough and many other municipalities, signed a petition favoring a pedestrian and bicycle-only greenway at Third Street<\/a>.\u00a0 Additionally, a Media Borough Council-sponsored public opinion survey of Media residents and business owners indicated strong support for removing the dam completely and creating a pedestrian and bicycle-only greenway<\/a>.\u00a0 Over 600 Media residents and\/or business owners completed and returned the survey.<\/p>\n

After more than a year of public discussion and debate regarding a complex and often divisive issue, Media Borough Council crafted a compromise decision that represented a way forward on the long-delayed Third Street Dam\/Bridge project.\u00a0 Although our organization favored dam removal<\/a> and building a pedestrian-bicycle bridge, we decided to support the Borough Council\u2019s compromise of replacing the dam and building a 28\u2019-wide structure<\/a> with a roadway that provided one lane for pedestrians and bicycles and one lane for automobiles with one-way traffic from Upper Providence into Media.<\/strong>\u00a0 Emergency vehicles would have two-way access to serve both Media and Upper Providence.<\/p>\n

While compromises can never satisfy everyone on every point, the Borough Council\u2019s plan would:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) replace a dam that is currently in dangerous disrepair<\/a>;<\/strong>
\n2) preserve Broomall\u2019s Lake<\/strong> for the benefit of Broomall\u2019s Lake Country Club;
\n3) re-establish automotive vehicular traffic<\/strong> on Third Street from Upper Providence into Media;
\n4) provide two-way access for emergency automotive vehicles<\/strong> to ensure public safety in both communities;
\n5) create a safe passageway for pedestrians and individuals riding bicycles<\/strong> on Third Street;
\n6) limit environmental damage to Glen Providence Park<\/strong> by restricting the width of the dam and roadway and thereby reducing the acreage of the park that will be buried in landfill and impacted by construction; and
\n7) save taxpayer dollars<\/strong> by restricting the width of the dam and roadway.<\/p>\n

After years of paralysis, the project was finally ready for action.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, one of the three signatories to the 2011 legal stipulation on the dam\/bridge \u2013 Broomall\u2019s Lake Country Club \u2013 decided to file a legal petition<\/a> in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas that has delayed the project yet again.\u00a0<\/strong> The Club is seeking a ruling from Judge James F. Proud to force Media Borough to construct two lanes for automobiles.\u00a0 Although the authority of municipalities to regulate automobile traffic within their own communities is well-established, and despite the fact that the 2011 stipulation does not expressly require two lanes for automobiles, the Club has decided to pursue that path of litigation. The Club\u2019s legal action is now the only factor delaying progress on this project.<\/p>\n

We believe that Delaware County Council can be a positive force at this critical juncture by clearly expressing its support for the compromise crafted by Media Borough Council.<\/strong>\u00a0 Delaware County Council has the opportunity to exert decisive leadership and to play a pivotal role in ending the logjam and moving the project forward.\u00a0\u00a0 We urge you to support the one-lane, one-way compromise.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dylan Atkins, Upper Providence
\nMs. Linda Healy, Media
\nMr. Terry Rumsey, Media<\/p>\n

For the Third Street Advocacy Committee of the Friends of Glen Providence Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since June 2011, Friends of Glen Providence Park has advocated for minimizing the destruction to Glen Providence Park from the 3rd Street Project construction.\u00a0 This included raising public awareness and public officials’ awareness about the project, and meeting with Delaware County Council to explain the impact to the park that the project would have.\u00a0 Now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[71,20,115,22],"class_list":["post-2908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3rd-street-dam-bridge-media","tag-borough-council","tag-broomalls-lake","tag-delaware-county","tag-3rd-street-bridgedam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2908"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2917,"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908\/revisions\/2917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}