Ok, here we go again: Ardmore residents vs. car dealerships. I will have to say that once again, although I support the Ardmore business district, in this case, I am siding with the neighbors and I will tell you why.

Why is simple: there is another car dealership that glows on residential and that is Ardmore Infiniti on Lancaster Avenue - and that glow despite "how wonderful" it was all supposed to be, does indeed (like a comment on Main Line Times website says) glow all the way to Woodside and Montgomery Avenue - I actually noticed it myself one night a few weeks ago at night when I was at the light on Woodside and Montgomery facing the Exxon Station. I couldn't believe how bright it was. Also like that comment says (and I hope that person will register and post here), Toyota should have bigger fish to fry right now making cars safe, right?

All of the car dealerships seem to be going to that "glow" effect. The dealerships across from Ardmore Worst Shopping Center are pretty bright too. But at least there while garish, it is not so bad as the car dealerships that start on the other side of the Bernicker Lot. Those car dealerships lot lights are so bright -- too bright.

While I can't dispute what Christine from Ardmore Initiative says in the article about trade-offs when residential is so close to business districts, it seems to me that the trade-offs are not fair. It seems to me when it comes to things like light pollution, that the residents tend to get the short end of the stick. And while it is true that Toyota has been very generous to the community with (for example) lending their space for non-profit events, and that I am pretty sure the Paul family are still amazingly generous in other charitable circles, that has nothing to do with what is being discussed.

Living near car dealerships is not easy, but these lights only make things more unpleasant. It makes me think again of the overpriced birdbath planned for Bryn Mawr Trust at Ardmore Ave and Lancaster: forget about the fact that I still think that is a waste of money unless Bryn Mawr Trust wants to pay for it (including maintenance), I wonder if we would have had to have that new gateway if both ends of Ardmore didn't represent an auto mall? And add the Ardmore Redevelopment Plan and all the other infill development proposed, what will the sum of ALL that extra lighting look like for the Ardmore of the future? Oh it'll be a "bright" future all right....

So unfortunately, as much as I like both Christine from AI and Mike Silver, in this case, I am going to side with neighbors and say no I don't think there should be quite so much light. I also like what that Chatham Road resident said about illuminated car dealerships being like giant illuminated billboards.

I would now open the floor up for comment and discussion if there are any takers. I will note that Ross Weiss is a busy beaver again - I see him in this article and one about turf fields for Agnes Irwin (he was Mr. Shipley not so long ago).

Main Line Times > News
Ardmore Toyota's request to LM lights up neighbors
Published: Thursday, March 4, 2010
By Cheryl Allison

Some neighbors are telling Ardmore Toyota, “You light up my life.”

They don’t exactly mean it in a good way.

For residents of streets like Chatham, Marlboro and Wellington roads across Lancaster Avenue, the amount of light emanating from the car dealership — not so much the main showroom and service building as two car lots on the south side of the road — has been a recurring concern since it was built in 2005.

It flared up again recently when the dealership brought forward long-delayed plans to light up the showroom façade.

The plans were the topic of a long discussion at a Lower Merion Planning Commission meeting Monday night. The matter was ultimately tabled for more engineering review and will not now come before the board of commissioners for a vote until after the planning board takes another look at it April 5.

According to township planning staff, the issue of façade lighting goes back several years to when they learned that the dealership had installed wiring and fixtures to light part of the building front after the township had approved a preliminary land-development plan and lighting plan.

The area of white translucent panels, when internally lit, would create a squared-off arch shape, a signature feature of Toyota dealerships, according to Ardmore Toyota attorney Ross Weiss.

When the township learned about the additional-lighting plan, it informed dealership owner Max Paul that the façade could not be illuminated until he received approval of an amendment to the preliminary plan.....lighting was a major concern of neighbors south of Lancaster Avenue when it opened parking lots for used-car sales on that side of the street. Conditions of approval for those parcels included requirements for shielding of light fixtures and a cutoff time of 11 p.m.

Ardmore Toyota’s interest in activating the façade lighting now is “not limited to security or [helping customers] finding [its] location,” Weiss acknowledged. “It has to do with branding and advertising.” Given the recession and the impact on car sales, as well as Toyota’s recent corporate problems of safety recalls of some models, it’s an important additional marketing tool....Before Monday night’s meeting, the dealership had arranged a “test drive” for planning staff, neighbors and Ardmore Commissioners Cheryl Gelber and Jane Dellheim on a night in January. It has also submitted plans, which have been revised more than once, to show that it can comply with the energy code.

Carl Watson, a lightning engineer who is a consultant to the township, said the initial plan to light the entire area was “so far over the energy code, it’s scary.”

In each of the revised plans, the number of panels proposed to be lit has dropped. By this week the dealership had dropped its request to 28 panels, which would be lit in a sort of checkerboard pattern.

A complicating factor, however, is that the township has recently discovered that shields on some of the fixtures lighting the used-car lots had at some point been removed, a finding that was backed up by neighbors. They said the glare from the lots has significantly increased in the last several months.

While Weiss said his client has told him it has no knowledge of the shields being removed, he said Paul has acknowledged that they are gone and has ordered new ones installed.

However, because neighbors have also complained that the time when the outdoor lighting has been turned off has been creeping later, to well past 11 p.m....There were supporters of the dealership’s plans. Mike Silver, a former chairman of the board of Ardmore Initiative, and two other officers of the business authority praised Paul and Ardmore Toyota for having been “excellent corporate neighbors.”

Among other things the dealership has offered its showroom as a venue for First Friday Main Line events and last November hosted the “Taste of Ardmore” event, a major fund-raiser for Ardmore Initiative.

“This has been a terrible time for car dealers and especially for Ardmore businesses,” Silver said, telling the planning commission, “I think we have a responsibility to keep our businesses alive,” and saying, pun intended, “let there be light.”

“I don’t feel sorry for their reduced sales, because we have reduced sales on our street” — of homes and home prices, responded neighbor Valerie Whalen, saying she’s worried the dealership’s new lighting “will further cheapen the neighborhood.”

Chad Trexler of Chatham Road likened the lighted façade to “essentially a two-story billboard” for the dealership.

“I sympathize with the neighbors’ concerns and I would like to see a compromise,” said Christine Vilardo, executive director of Ardmore Initiative. “But Lancaster Avenue is a downtown business district. When you choose to live in proximity, there are trade-offs.... Businesses need to be able to advertise themselves.”

Neighbors and planning-commission members noted, however, that Ardmore Toyota, unlike some of the other Lancaster Avenue dealerships, is an extraordinary situation because it is so close to homes.