Birmingham Township supervisors
have until the middle of June to decide whether to grant conditional use
approval for Otto’s BMW. The car dealership wants to use a neighboring property
as an expanded service area.
That property is the former
Sunoco gas station on Route 202 at Penn Oaks Drive, just south of the
dealership.
Michael Vadasz, Otto’s owner,
told supervisors during the May 2 conditional use hearing that he already has
an agreement of sale for the property. Conditional use approval is needed
because the applicant is asking for relief from front and rear yard setback
requirements and for the total site to have 60 percent impervious coverage.
Vadasz said the extra space is
needed for mechanical and body repair work, to program cars and assess damage.
He called it a “complete customer care” area.
He said no service work would
be done outside and that service bay doors would be open only for the entry and
exit of cars. To have them open at other times would not be wise, he said. “All
I would be doing is air conditioning or heating the outside.”
Traffic flow at the current
dealership property would remain as it is now, with a right in and right out
along Route 202. However, traffic would change at the gas station site. There
would only be one access from Penn Oaks Drive. The right in and right out on
Route 202 would be closed, according to testimony from two engineers working on
the project.
Matt Hammond, an engineer from
Traffic Planning and Design, said the 27 service bays planned for the site
would handle about 75 cars per day, but that overall traffic would be better
than if the site remained a gas station.
“There would be a 60 to 80
percent drop in traffic compared to a gas station,” Hammond said.
He added that people from the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation have indicated to him that they are
favorable to closing the two Route 202 driveway points, and that there could be
some changes to the traffic light at the intersection.
Landscape architect Joe Orsatti
said the service area would be properly screened so neighbors living to the
east of the property would not be inconvenienced. He said light standards would
be no more than 20 feet tall and the light would be aimed straight down. Even
with rooftop parking planned for the service area, a berm and tall evergreens
would keep the area from being unsightly.
There was no testimony from
neighbors and no one asked to be a party to the hearing. The hearing was closed
and supervisors have 45 days to render their decision.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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