A recent discussion about sidewalks on Mt. Royal Boulevard among Shaler residents and township officials brought up a range of issues such as weighing the public good against imposing on property owners, and questions over what Shaler was, is and could be.
Nearly a dozen residents who spoke Jan. 27 before the commissioners’ public safety committee, consisting of three of the township’s seven commissioners, were all in favor of having sidewalks on Mt. Royal Boulevard.
Commissioner William Cross was most vocal in countering their arguments, saying that installing sidewalks where they don’t exist would impose on the property owners who would then have to maintain them.
The discussion came after the township approached homeowners on the southern side of Wetzel Road about the idea of a sidewalk from Mt. Royal Boulevard to Kiwanis Park. Of the 10, nine were not in favor of a sidewalk, township Manager Judy Kording said. One was “OK” with it.
A sidewalk is not feasible on the northern side of Wetzel because a dip in the road at the park entrance would make a crossing dangerous there, Kording said.
Those opposed to a sidewalk cited losing part of their yards and being responsible for maintenance among their concerns.
“I don’t feel it’s my place to impose on other people, ‘You must do this because I want that,’ ” Cross said. “We are not a sidewalk community.”
Mt. Royal Boulevard traverses Shaler to the west of Route 8, from Etna to Hampton. There are portions of sidewalk on one side or the other between Cherry Way at the southern end and Shaler North Hills Library at the north, in front of businesses and homes.
“The sidewalk issue is more about the next phase of Shaler,” resident Darwin Koval said. “We’ve heard a lot about what Shaler isn’t and what Shaler has never been. That doesn’t mean it can’t be.”
Building sidewalks is about the “greater good,” resident Todd Saulle said.
“It may be inconvenient to those people, but it benefits the whole community,” he said. “I understand they didn’t move there with that intention, but I still think it’s a matter of how does it benefit the most people.”
When Shaler was incorporated in 1900, it was not only not a sidewalk community, it was not a car community, resident Katie Grimm said.
“This country is becoming more and more isolated. We’re working from home, we’re on Zoom instead of meeting with people in the office, we don’t have a reason to get outside and meet our neighbors,” she said. “Shaler has the potential to do something about that. We’re not talking about a sidewalk on every single street in every single plan in the entire municipality, but a central business district anchors the community together. It brings the community together.”
Resident Julie Lalo, who lives near Mt. Royal Boulevard on Mason Drive, said businesses on Mt. Royal are “siloed” by the lack of sidewalks.
“I can only get to the school, the library and Mt. Royal Shopping Center,” she said. “I can’t get to my car mechanic. I can’t get to the other businesses that are just a little further beyond Wetzel because I won’t walk on Mt. Royal up there. There’s nowhere to walk other than a little toepath that’s just really dangerous. You’re siloing Mt. Royal by keeping us from being able to get from one chunk of it to the next.”
Lalo said she once lived in another community where she had a sidewalk in her front yard.
“I understand my responsibility to my neighbors, to the people who were walking from the coffee shop down to the hardware store,” she said. “I understood it. I took it very seriously. I had salt and shovels. I understood what I gave up for that sidewalk, and I was happy to do it.”
Katie Gresh, a resident and co-owner of Acrospire Brewing on Mt. Royal Boulevard, said she strongly supports exploring the possibility of sidewalks.
Making township businesses and resources accessible through sidewalks would further strengthen economic development, she said.
“With so many Shaler Township residents living and working within walking distance of local businesses along the boulevard and the remarkable resources we have, the library chief among them, these things that are on the boulevard appeal to all generations, all ages,” she said “Sidewalks would not only make our community safer but would position these businesses for further growth and strengthen them for success.”
A study of sidewalks similar to the township’s parks and recreation master plan, identifying problems and solutions, would help move the sidewalk discussion forward, resident Chris Watts said.
Construction of a $17 million community center at Kiwanis Park is among the plan’s recommendations.
But Lalo said the township should not modernize Kiwanis Park if it doesn’t put a sidewalk in.
“Don’t make it an attractive nuisance, ” she said. “It will just be dangerous. It really will.”