Lower Merion Residents Speak Out Against Haverford Billboards

A Lower Merion Township businesswoman bearing photos of a toppled billboard lying on a Delaware building was allowed to testify before the Haverford Township Zoning Board on Thursday night as the board continued its hearing on whether to allow five billboards in its township.

Lower Merion Township has joined Haverford Township in its battle against the 672-square-foot signs that are being proposed by Bartkowski Investment Group (BIG) because two of the billboards would be located along Lancaster Avenue in Haverford Township overlooking Lower Merion Township. BIG is also proposing three signs along West Chester Pike in Haverford Township.

Kathy Bogosian, one of the owners of The Camera Shop on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr, was allowed to testify as a resident near the end of the meeting, despite several objections from Marc Kaplin, the attorney representing Bartkowski Investment Group.

Zoning Hearing Board Chairman Robert Kane told about 30 residents at the hearing that the board planned to set aside one entire night for resident input, sometime in the future. A date had not been chosen by the end of Thursday’s hearing.

Bogosian said she often had scheduling conflicts on the nights when hearings were held and asked if she could testify on Thursday. She said that although she had already testified once, she had new information to share.

Kaplin objected on the grounds that Bogosian had already testified. Kane said he would allow the testimony.

Bogosian stood before the board and held up two photos depicting a fallen billboard laying on top of a building. She said she had found the photos on a 6 ABC Web site and according to the news report, the accident had occurred in Delaware.

A report on 6abc.com (WPVI) stated that high winds during a Feb. 25 storm caused a billboard to fall on a bowling alley in Prices Corner, Del.  No one was injured, although patrons were inside the bowling alley when the sign toppled, WPVI reported.

Photos of the fallen billboard from WPVI, two of which Bogosian showed at the zoning hearing board hearing, can be found here. 

As soon as Bogosian held up the photos for the board and the audience to see, Kaplin objected.

“She has no personal knowledge to testify what the cause was,” Kaplin said.

The board members passed around the photos.  Zoning board solicitor William Malone said the second photograph had some editorial writing on it and asked that the board refrain from having an opinion about the writing itself.

Kaplin objected to the photos again.

“She said she pulled it off the Internet,” he said.

The audience applauded when Malone said he would allow the photos to be entered into evidence. But after more objections from Kaplin, the board took a two-minute recess.

When the board reconvened, Malone said the board would accept the first of the two photos, which did not contain any writing on it, to be entered into evidence, but would not accept the second photo, which contained writing.

Bogosian, a Villanova resident who is president of the Bryn Mawr Business Association, said the proposed billboards presented a “health, safety and welfare concern.” 

Bogosian said she was concerned that someone in Bryn Mawr could get hurt if a billboard was installed along Lancaster Avenue and it fell over. 

“It’s a very tight area,” Bogosian said.

Another resident, Tom Hartmann of Havertown, testified before the board at the start of the hearing. Hartmann was allowed to go first because of a disability.

“I think that the wool is being pulled over the eyes of this community,” Hartmann said. “According to testimony, advertising on billboards do not distract drivers.  Of course it distracts drivers.

“Isn’t the whole purpose of billboards to gain drivers’ attention, attention that should be paid to the road?”  Hartmann said. “In a populous community like ours, it will necessarily result in more pedestrian and traffic fatalities.”

Hartmann said he personally finds billboards “distracting, even dangerous as I drive.”  He said he disagreed with a traffic statistician’s testimony that advertising does not increase accidents.

“I’ve already been involved in one serious car accident in bad weather, which itself is a distraction,” Hartmann said.  “I am now living with a traumatic brain injury as a result. For me, distractibility is not just a statistical matter.”

Hartmann told the board that he would like to submit a recent statistical study that showed that visual clues can distract drivers.

Kaplin objected to the submission on the grounds that it was hearsay.

Lower Merion Township Solicitor Bill Kerr and Haverford Township Solicitor Jim Byrne said they did not have any objections to the study being submitted.

Kane decided that he would allow the attorneys to review the study before a decision was made on whether to submit it as evidence.

Also at the hearing, Kerr cross-examined traffic engineer Greg Richardson of Traffic Planning and Design of Pottstown.

Kerr questioned Richardson about his summary report of accidents from 2005 to 2009 on a segment of Lancaster Avenue which runs from Elliot Avenue to what Richardson described as an area “all the way past the Lower Merion Township building.”

Kerr said the report showed that there were 510 accidents along that stretch of Lancaster Avenue from 2005 to 2009.

Of those 510, 472 were not weather-related, but 36 were caused by a driver who was distracted and 59 were caused by a driver running a red light.

Kaplin objected and asked what the point of Kerr’s line of questioning was.  Malone recommended that the board allow some leeway.

Kerr said the study showed “that the bulk of the accidents in this corridor was caused by driver error.”

Kaplin interjected: “So what if it was driver error! ... If you want to bring in another expert and question what the methodology was, that’s a whole other issue.”

After Bogosian’s testimony, the board adjourned and the hearing was continued until April 7 at 7 p.m.