Round Two for Springfield goes to............SPRINGFIELD!
After 3 years of Zoning Board Hearings, oral arguments were heard by Judge Chad Kenney on Friday, March 23, 2012 in Delaware County Court.Attorneys for Springfield Township, Owner of Absolute Realty and two resident interveners, Rose Grelis and Mary LeTourneau, and BIG argued points of BIG's appeal of the Springfield Zoning Board decision, some listed below:
Municipal wide billboard ban vs site specific ban
Whether or not the Zoning Board has jurisdiction about site specific relief had the decision gone BIG's way.
Whether the Zoning Board abused its power in its' decision
Whether or not more evidence should/could be introduced in County Court
Whether the exclusion was justified by the township
After six days, the Judge affirmed the Zoning Board's decision. BIG can and most likely will appeal this decision to the Commonwealth Court, but for now, a hearty congratulations to Springfield Township Commissioners, Jim Byrne, Solicitor and residents!!
Billboards Will Degrade The Environment in Newtown
Paul Seligson, a Newtown Square resident, writes a letter to
the editor of the Marple Newtown Patch on the billboard issue in town.
March 24,
2012 Proposed location of billboard: West Chester Pike/Rt. 3, between Mill Hollow Lane and cement bridge leading to Edgmont Township opposite Subaru dealership.
When my wife and I first heard of a Digital Outdoor Monument Sign being considered for the township property at the very front of our homestead, we thought for the sake of Newtown Township and to avoid three larger placed 68-feet-high billboards over air rights of existing Newtown merchants, we could live with this and be a team player.
Having driven down to south Rt. 202 in Westtown Township to inspect a sign of the same size, (photo below) please notice the sign size vs. me standing at the left pillar. I believe the sign size for the scale of this piece of land is just too large.
The sign would sit atop an 8 foot berm and begin 5 feet above that for a total of starting at 14 feet high. In total, the top of the sign would be approximately 35 feet up from ground level. Going into the woods, with all the pillers and façade treatment, it would probably reach a distance of 50 feet.
For the first time in decades, drivers heading east at the Five Points intersection in Bryn Mawr are gazing at a blank wall.
AdSmart Outdoor Advertising Inc. in recent days removed a large vinyl-wrapped billboard from the upper wall of a building on Old Railroad Avenue, leaving only a wooden frame.
The 8 ½-by-34-foot sign has been the subject of a dispute between the advertising company and Lower Merion Township since 2009.
On Feb. 1, a Montgomery County Common Pleas Court judge affirmed a 2010 Lower Merion Zoning Hearing Board decision that the off-premises advertising is prohibited under the property’s C-2 commercial zoning.
The township then issued an enforcement letter, ordering AdSmart to remove or cover the sign or face fines.
AdSmart Outdoor Advertising Inc. in recent days removed a large vinyl-wrapped billboard from the upper wall of a building on Old Railroad Avenue, leaving only a wooden frame.
The 8 ½-by-34-foot sign has been the subject of a dispute between the advertising company and Lower Merion Township since 2009.
On Feb. 1, a Montgomery County Common Pleas Court judge affirmed a 2010 Lower Merion Zoning Hearing Board decision that the off-premises advertising is prohibited under the property’s C-2 commercial zoning.
The township then issued an enforcement letter, ordering AdSmart to remove or cover the sign or face fines.