Lititz is once again in jeopardy of becoming a ghost town.

Fifty years ago the Lancaster Shopping Center was built and that began the migration of business to the new centers, strip malls and eventually, Park City. The Acme Market was among the first to leave the downtown business district, eventually to be followed by the general stores (Zartman's at Broad & Front, Gearhart's at Broad & Juniper and Doster's at Main & Sturgis). Then the men's clothing stores (Neff and Hiestand's on Main) and the shoe stores (Hershey's on Main).

As more stores moved to the centers, fewer customers were attracted to downtown which caused more stores to move or close down. We were saved by our bicentennial celebration and the foresight of our borough leadership. Those forward thinking men (sorry, the ladies were still in the kitchen and the sewing circles) re-defined Lititz. They discovered the tourist and the tourist discovered us.

Rather than sell products (like shoes, clothing, clocks or groceries), our downtown began marketing "cute". The tourists loved it. At about the same time the Lititz Bicentennial Committee, finding itself with cash left over at the end of 1956, formed itself into the Lititz Historical Foundation-under the leadership of Dr. Barry Horne and others. The LHF, working with borough council devised an "historical district" and incorporated it into the new land planning concept called "zoning". The tourists loved it.

Lititz was the first community in the country to have a "historical district" and the local ordinance creating it was adopted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for designating historical districts. Unfortunately the state has gone on to improve the law, we have not kept up and Lititz, today, could not qualify for that designation through the state. The section of the Lititz Zoning Ordinance dealing with the Historical District is unenforceable in the Commonwealth courts.

Today, the automobile threatens to strangle the life out of our tourist, historical and craft business base through its growing appetite for PARKING.

The much-vaunted old Lutheran church at Broad & Orange was suffocated by Section 307 of the Zoning Ordinance of the Borough of Lititz. The Park View Hotel is much in need of the tender machinations of a new owner. No one will buy it because it only has four parking spaces and Section 307 would require fifty or more-depending on the purposes served in the remodeled facility. And don't even think about suggesting that they rent from Farmers Bank since they already have an approved variance because they don't have enough parking spaces for their employees.

First Stage Theater was almost shut out of their facility on North Lane because of parking, as had been the fate of the Cornerstone Baptist Church which had earlier tried to move in there.

The ugly dirty white building at Broad & Lincoln has the same terminal problem-six parking spaces and a requirement for dozens. The Odd Fellows are working with the Legion to sell their property for the Legion to expand. A larger Legion will require additional parking and there just simply isn't any. It's even worse if the Legion doesn't buy it since the new owner would have to create parking without having the Legion parking lot to start with.

It is my understanding that the Section 307H2(l) requirement for one parking space for each 200 square feet of office space was made to go away for the approval of the new Borough Hall because the Zoning Board accepted the argument that the construction would not add any new staff or new customers (A continuation of a non-conforming use). This bit of legerdemain is fine with me if it is applied evenly throughout the commercial district. That building doesn't even have enough off-street parking for the ever-growing police fleet. (Which reminds me, how come I never see tickets on the police cars parked along the yellow curb? Why is it legal and safe for a police car but not for my Fiat Spider?)

I can not think of a single business in our downtown commercial district that does have enough dedicated off-street parking for its employees and customers (according to our beloved Section 307). Rather than create an environment for new business to establish itself in the borough we have a punitive ordinance that fails to face reality and keeps business away from our town.

The solution? We recognize, in our zoning, that Lititz Borough is composed of various zones-residential, commercial, industrial, professional and historical. We must also recognize that overlying all of those are the concepts of rural, suburban and urban. Yes, that last word was urban!

Urban zoning would take into account the nature of the area, the inability to meet the strict requirements of suburban zoning and provide SUITABLE alternatives. Those alternatives will require some creative thinking on the part of our elected officials (now enhanced by the presence of some very savvy former kitchen-dwellers) whose only response to date has been demolition.

"They" say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It's broke!