Narberth's Coffee Shop Plan Inches Ahead

Plans to get downtown Narberth the coffee shop residents have been calling for took another step forward Monday night, albeit a smaller one than some supporters had hoped for.

The Narberth Ad Hoc Economic Development Committee’s request to have the borough council explore zoning changes that would be needed to allow a coffee shop in Narberth’s downtown was reduced from a motion to a recommendation during a council meeting.

Coffee shops are not prohibited in the borough but under the current zoning codes there are parking space requirements that go along with different usages, and none of the downtown businesses have their own parking, said Borough Council President Mary Jo Daley. This means that the only way a coffee shop could move into a downtown shop would be if it was in an existing food service business, Daley said.

Council member Surge Ghosh, a member of the economic development committee, told the council that the committee had unanimously passed a resolution at its June meeting to ask the borough council to explore the necessary zoning changes to permit a coffee shop in the borough’s Station Overlay District.

“I do think where we are, is we need to do something to encourage coffee shops,” Ghosh said.

Ghosh initially said he wanted the council to consider passing a motion to explore the zoning changes.

But council member Nancy Lotz, who also serves on the economic development committee, said she thought the intention of the committee’s vote was to ask the council to explore the matter from an economic standpoint, not to request that the council pass a motion.

“I really didn’t think, Surge, we were making any recommendation to the council,” Lotz said, when she addressed Ghosh.

When Ghosh said he would still like to make the motion, further discussion ensued, involving Daley, other council members and the borough solicitor, Marc Jonas.

Jonas and Daley said rather than having the council pass a motion, Daley, as the council president, could refer the matter, at her discretion, to the appropriate bodies, which would be the building and planning committee and the zoning commission.

“Right now, I’m telling you if this is a motion, I don’t know what to do with the motion,” Daley said to Ghosh.

To which Ghosh replied, “I would like to withdraw the motion and instead make a recommendation that the council explore zoning changes to allow a coffee shop in the Station Overlay District.”

Daley said she would like to refer the matter to the borough's building and planning committee and zoning commission.

“We can convey to them it is something that’s been raised and there’s community interest in it,” Daley said. “But we also need to consider all the other things they’re working on.”

During public comment, Narberth resident Miriam Shakow said she supported the economic development committee's original motion, and that she thought a coffee shop would give the community a place to meet during all four seasons of the year.

In other matters, the council unanimously approved a motion to authorize extension of an engineering agreement with Pennoni Associates for the North Narberth Avenue Bridge until July 5, 2012. The existing agreement expired July 5, 2011, said Borough Manager Bill Martin.

A Pennoni Associates engineer said at a Bridge Ad Hoc Committee meeting in February that the demolition and reconstruction of the Narberth Avenue overpass is at least two or three years away.