Columbia Avenue may have seen better days.

But local officials are hoping that, with the help of some federal grant money, they might investigate ways to make the corridor's future as bright as its past.

Last week Manor Township Supervisors lent their support to a proposal by the Lancaster County Planning Commission, which will seek $1 million in federal funds that will allow the county to study revitalization of the commercial strip.

Columbia Avenue serves as the border between Manor Township to the south and East Hempfield Township to the north. East Hempfield officials also support the plan, said Bob Krimmel, township manager.

The corridor was the subject of an Aug. 15 story in the Sunday News, though James Cowhey, executive director of the Lancaster County Planning Commission, said, "We've been thinking about Columbia Avenue for some time."

Columbia Avenue was the first commercially developed strip in Lancaster County, built out between the 1950s and 1970s. Between Stone Mill Road and Rohrerstown Road, a distance of less than a mile, stand nearly a dozen empty storefronts or vacant buildings, some in deteriorating condition.

Some of the outmoded commercial buildings have far less parking and landscaping than is common along newer commercial corridors. The parking lot of the CVS Pharmacy at Good Drive serves as primary access to Columbia Avenue for many residents of Manor Township's Manor Ridge neighborhood — a prime example, officials say, of something that would never be permitted under modern development codes.

Still, numerous thriving businesses call the corridor home. The Wheatland Shopping Center is filled, Stone Mill Plaza has been upgraded, the Giant food store expanded; and the El Serrano restaurant underwent a lengthy, opulent upgrade in the mid-2000s.

"There are so many disparate frontages" along the strip, Manor Township Supervisor John May said. "Beautification would help. ... I think we could be helpful in rehabbing the area, at least making sure our zoning ordinances don't discourage it."

The money for the study would come through the federal Environmental Protection Agency, via the county's Land Recycling Program, which seeks to spur the redevelopment of "underutilized sites, usually old industrial sites," Cowhey said.

Cowhey said that if the county receives the grant money, planners will be very careful to solicit public input. "Some landowners, I think, are a little sensitive" to the suggestion that the corridor is in decline, he said, citing letters to the editor in the Sunday News from merchants defending the strip and those who do business along it saying it is vibrant.

"We would do a lot of public participation and make sure that this is the community's plan, not ours," Cowhey said.

Whatever may emerge from the public input and expert analysis, Cowhey said he suspects that revitalization may only come via public-private partnerships. "The land is privately held, but unless there is an incentive," reinvestment may lag.

"That's government's role, to try and create the conditions that spur that reinvestment," he said.

Still, May said, it's important that residents don't feel that some "solution" is being imposed upon them.

"The neighborhood is really going to have to sit down and work together," he said.

Gil Smart is associate editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at gsmart@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-8817.