Cars drive past new business wayfinding signs on Main Street at Susquehanna Avenue in Lansdale on Wednesday, May 8 2024. Photo by Dan Sokil | The Reporter.
Economic development talk dominates council.
The next time you walk or drive by the intersection of Main Street and Susquehanna Avenue in Lansdale, look up.
There, you’ll see a few new additions, on the north side of the pedestrian crossing, and on the south.
“You might notice some wayfinding signs, as you traverse Main Street now. Keep an eye out for those,” said councilman BJ Breish at a recent council meeting.
A pedestrian walks past new business wayfinding signs on Main Street at Susquehanna Avenue in Lansdale on Wednesday, May 8 2024.Council and its economic development committee hold near-constant talks on ways to promote and encourage businesses in town, and have passed several incentives to do so, including electric rate discounts for businesses that create or save numbers of jobs in town, and a façade improvement grant program, when the town subsidizes upgrades to building exteriors.
In recent months, Breish and EDC member and new councilman Michael Yetter told council, they’ve added another goal: the new business signs, recently installed by borough staff on both sides of the intersection.
On the north side, just steps from the crosswalk traversing Main at Susquehanna, the first round of signs installed in early March include a blue-and-green sign pointing toward Well Crafted Beer Company, located in the basement of the onetime arts center at 310 Madison Street, and a white-and-green sign for El Limon, the new Mexican taqueria that opened in September 2023 just next door at 314 Madison.
Across Main, a third sign sports the red-and-white logo of Pinnacle Ridge, the winery located since 2021 inside 34 Susquehanna Avenue, the former circulation offices of The Reporter. Three new signs were added in April: two on the north side for The Mitre Box and Mike’s Shoe Repair, with each bearing their logos for the shops just a block away, and a sixth sign on the south side points to Liberty Vapor on Madison Street.
According to Director of Community Development Jason Van Dame, the business is responsible for acquiring the sign, then can deliver it to the borough and staff will install them at no cost. Rules for the program are found on the borough’s website, and include dimensions of the sign, that it “must be of a retail or commercial nature, that relies on customers to come to the location as a primary means of doing business,” and that the business must be “within 500 feet from West Main Street between North Towamencin Avenue and Broad Street.”
A pedestrian walks two dogs past new business wayfinding signs on Main Street at Susquehanna Avenue in Lansdale on Wednesday, May 8 2024.Economic Development Committee chairman Andrew Carroll also updated council on several ongoing EDC projects, including new subcommittees to discuss marketing, experiences, and commerce and workforce development, each of which are discussing ideas to promote the town.
“We’re looking at finding new and exciting ways to welcome new businesses to town, to actually get them here, and make sure they can avail themselves of our resources, and seeing if there’s some low-hanging fruit” the committee can tackle soon, Carroll said: “We’re hoping to bring some real, tangible ideas to full council soon.”
