Conshohocken Borough Council Says Show Me the Money

For the past couple of months there has been a discussion about a bathroom facility along the Schuylkill River Trail behind The Grande. The bathroom facility was part of a condition imposed on Equus, the developer of the neighboring office building when it sought to add an additional floor to the building. The building is approved, but no yet built.

The residents of The Grande took issue with the placement of the bathroom facility, which would be adjacent to its property. The residents also feared that the facility would become an unofficial trail head and result in cyclists and runners parking in the community’s private parking lot.

bathroom current location — The red star shows the bathroom facility as it was originally planned. Just above it is The Grande. The other potential location just shifts it a short distance to the other side of the trail.

This led to a meeting between representatives from the Borough, The Grande and Equus to discuss if the bathroom facility could be placed in another location on the property. One location was viable, but it didn’t really solve the issue as it was still in plain view of the residences and could create a parking issue. The hope was that it could be placed on the other side of the office building.

So last night a representative of Equus appeared before Borough Council to discuss the situation and offered to provide $100,000 to the Borough in lieu of building the bathroom facility. Equus came up with $100,000 because that was the estimated cost to build the bathroom facility.

Members of Borough Council were amiable to accept a payment in lieu of the bathroom, but it was noted by staff and at least one member of Borough Council, Robert Stokley, that $100,000 was not enough. Borough Council President Ike Griffin even stated, “Show me the money” a few times. While he was attempting to be funny, it was frankly crass and unbecoming the position. Does Borough Council really want to make it sound like “show me the money” is how Conshohocken operates?

The developer, who we have never spoken with, didn’t create the situation. It was just giving the Borough Council what it asked for regarding the bathroom facility. Now that the residents nearby don’t want it and the Borough Council wants to please the residents, it is outlandish that it tries to make demands on the developer beyond its offer of $100,000. Borough Council created this situation, not the developer.