Good news! Late yesterday, the Wynnewood and Shortridge Civic Associations reached agreement with LA Fitness and Federal Realty about the hours of operation for the proposed LA Fitness in the old Borders Building at the Wynnewood Shopping Center. I am happy to report there will be no 24/7 operations for LA Fitness and that the hours of operation (and other terms and conditions) which were negotiated are reasonable, realistic and mirror operations of LA Fitness in other locations. In short, LA Fitness agreed to open at 5 am and close at 11 pm during the week. Hours of operation on the weekends are more limited.
As previously reported, negotiations have been ongoing for months, and we’ve spent many hours in meetings with both LA Fitness and Federal Realty. A negotiated settlement began to materialize as the date of last evening’s meeting of Lower Merion’s Zoning Hearing Board (“zoning board”) approached. It was clear the zoning board meeting would be make or break and it was — LA Fitness and Federal Realty agreed to our terms and conditions yesterday enabling them to be presented last evening by our counsel to the zoning board for adoption. While the zoning board’s formal decision will not issue for perhaps a month, it is clear the zoning board was very pleased the parties had reached agreement thereby obviating the need for a full-blown hearing with the presentation of witnesses and testimony. We expect the zoning board will approve the conditions we’ve negotiated and do not foresee any issues being raised by the zoning board with respect to them.
We had a great partnership with our sister civic association, Shortridge, and its president, Joan Hindin, in this remarkable joint endeavor, and we were very well represented by our attorney, Ken Aaron. We also owe a debt of thanks to the Merion Civic Association which passed a resolution opposing 24/7 hours of operation in a residential community like ours and even came to the meeting to present the resolution to the zoning board! This is another example of your civic associations working around the clock — together — to preserve the quality of life we so enjoy in our neighborhoods.
There will be more to come on developments at the shopping center — and more work to be done — so please stay tuned!
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