Assessment Overview
- Elkins Park is two districts not one
- Opportunity to enhance neighborhood oriented commercial
- Opportunity to create a unifying architectural and signage theme to enhance the identity of the district
- Opportunity to enhance facades to create a stronger village character
- Most key intersections need traffic calming to encourage pedestrian safety
- Inadequate parking management throughout
- Limited economic impact area – this is primarily a neighborhood serving commercial district
- One way streets at High School hurts commercial vitality
- Positive architecture and character to district
Enhancement Opportunities
- Introduce a traffic roundabout and pavilion at Elkins Park Train Station to slow traffic and create a gateway entrance
- Retrofit Elkins Park Bank for a restaurant with outdoor dining terraces
- Enhance pedestrian walkways and landscape features along train tracks that connect the Elkins Park Train Station to Gerard Avenue
- Extend Ashbourne Market to the corner and improve the facades to create a neighborhood village character; possible apartments above
- Establish a more defined intersection and gateway entrance at Montgomery and High School Road
- Swap some or all of the SEPTA parking lot with the municipal parking lot to improve short term and long term parking management for commercial uses
- Create a pedestrian walkway between the village center and the Montgomery Avenue parking area; possible second floor parking deck
- Reconfigure traffic patterns to create clearer circulation and more two-way streets
- Plant street trees in residential and commercial areas
Below are views of the draft plan.
Plan View
High School Road looking toward the Elkins Park Train Station
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