Plans mulled for train station site
by PBPA on 25/09/08 at 1:55 pm
By DAN KRISTIE , Daily Local News 09/16/2008
TREDYFFRIN — Community leaders are working on a proposal to help sell the Paoli Transit Center project to neighbors who may be wary of it. The plan is to make the current Paoli Train Station, which will be demolished after the transit center is built, into a “village green.”
“Downtown Paoli has almost zero green space,” said Ed Auble, a Paoli Business Association member who helped craft the proposal. “If there were a village green, and it were well done, it would be something we could all point to as a Paoli landmark.”
Such a landmark would help the town, known mainly for its train station, develop a new identity, Auble added.
“We’ve even been toying with the idea of having an annual blues fest at the village green,” Auble said.
He acknowledged he may be getting ahead of himself — the village green proposal is in early stages, and it’s not on any official plans for the Paoli Transit Center.
For now, official plans call for the existing train station to be demolished and an intermodal transit center to be built 800 feet to its west. This transit center would include a parking garage and stops for local buses and Amtrak and SEPTA trains.
Amtrak and SEPTA are working with several municipal entities on the new transit center, which will be built on the Amtrak-owned Paoli Rail Yard, a vacant, 26-acre industrial site.
To help fund the transit center, Amtrak would allow a private developer to build a dense, mixed residential and commercial development on the rest of the rail yard.
Many Paoli residents are unhappy with this proposal. They believe the new real estate development and transit center will draw more traffic to the town’s frequently clogged roads.
But there is evidence the “village green” proposal has convinced some residents that they could see benefits from the transit center development.
“Any plan that includes green space would be fantastic,” said Betsy Allinson, a Paoli resident who has served as spokeswoman for her community at many transit center planning meetings.
But, Allinson added, “Our main concern will still be whether Paoli’s roads can handle the traffic generated by new developments.”
The village green proposal, which Auble crafted in conjunction with Paoli Business Association member Dave Roland and former Tredyffrin Supervisor Paul Drucker, calls for a government entity to purchase the old train station property from Amtrak once the new transit center is built. Public, and possibly private, funds would be used to make the purchase and turn the property into a park.
The earliest that ground could break on the new transit center is the beginning of the next decade, according to officials involved in the transit center project.
Drucker, who is running for the state House’s 157th District, said a village green would benefit Amtrak by driving up property values in the new transit center development.
“The economic advantage to Amtrak can’t even be debated,” Drucker said.
County Commissioner Carol Aichele said the county might consider putting open-space funds toward the village green project.
“It certainly falls within municipal grants portion of the open-space program,” Aichele said. “The county regularly considers providing funds for parks, and we’ll certainly consider this one.”
An Amtrak representative did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
©The Phoenix 2008
