There is a meeting of Conshohocken’s Borough Council on Wednesday, January 4th at 7:00 p.m. at Borough Hall at West 4th and Fayette. Here are the items on the agenda that we find interesting:

Historic Conservation District

Under “Legal Matters” the agenda states, “Consider a proposed zoning ordinance amendment to create a new historic conservation overlay district.” We can’t remember ever hearing about this, so we do not really know what it involves. We also can’t find a notice about it on the Borough website or by searching online. FYI, the Times Herald notices disappear after a certain number of days and they rarely show up in our daily email from Google News. Often when they do show up, they take you to a page that is no longer available. The method of advertising notices really needs to be updated (hear that Rep. Daley and Senator Hughes?).

Anyway, we suspect it will be about protecting Leeland Mansion (old borough hall).

Dog Park

Also under “Legal Matters” the agenda includes, “Dog park ownership and Borough operations and maintenance responsibility: Historically & Moving Forward.” The dog park has been pretty much a mess since it was established a few years ago. Recently the Conshohocken Plymouth Whitemarsh Rotary has been cleaning it up and installed an ADA compliment entrance. We anticipate some type of partnership.

Leeland Mansion

Under “Council Member and Mayor Matters” the agenda has the item “Discuss Leeland Mansion (Council President Griffin).” The topic of what to do with Leeland Mansion, a historic mansion that has been sparingly used for meetings since mold was discovered several years ago, has been an ongoing discussion for about two years. Some members of Borough Council want to retain ownership and others want to sell it with some attached protections (such as you can’t knock it down). It needs a lot of work inside and out.

Continued Hearing About Hotel, Etc

The last item that we find interesting is the continuation of the hearing on the proposed new special zoning district that would allow for the hotel and larger office buildings along the western unit block of Fayette Street between West Elm Street and West First Avenue to Robinson Alley.

This will be third hearing, even though the second one was just a formality with no new testimony (so in reality this is the second one). Expect a lot of discussion on parking.