Business & Tech

Neighbors Unite Against Ardmore Iron Hill

The Lower Merion commissioners have to approve a liquor license transfer before the restaurant can open. A group of neighbors don't want them to.

A vote to approve the liquor license transfer that would allow an Iron Hill Brewery to open in Ardmore Plaza was tabled again on Wednesday by the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners.

According to commissioner Steven Lindner and president Liz Rogan, the restaurant requested the delay to give it more time to address concerns regarding the impact the business would have on neighboring residential areas. The township now has until June 20 to approve or deny the transfer.

While the vote was pushed, Rogan took public comment from a large crowd, led by a trio of pastors from Main Line churches, that was uniformly hostile to the idea of another restaurant in Ardmore.

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The concern animating each of the speakers was the danger traffic in the area already poses to pedestrians, and the extent to which a new bar could aggravate this risk.

“I’m here to say right now our community is oversaturated, densely congested with traffic,” said Reverend James Pollard, who’s been pastor of West Spring Avenue's Zion Baptist Church for over four decades.

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Pollard said that he’s personally witnessed several “near misses” where a pedestrian was almost struck by a vehicle. (Another speaker, a local teacher, said she actually watched a young man on a bicycle get hit by a car in the area.) Pollard added that the intersection of Greenfield and Spring Avenue, which he said is often used as a “test strip” for the nearby car dealership, is particularly dangerous.

While he acknowledged the economic boon a thriving restaurant can provide, he said growth should be considered in the context of human cost.

“What price is a child’s life? What price is the safety and well-being of our senior citizens?” the pastor asked before, choked with emotion, he left the podium.

Reverends Carlos Bounds of Bethel AME in Bryn Mawr and Albert Davis of Mount Cavalry Baptist in Ardmore echoed these concerns.

“Today I was on Greenfield Avenue. I saw three liquor establishments in half a block…I ask you to consider what you’re doing to our community,” Davis said.

“We feel that our lifestyle, our well-being, is being violated because someone else wants to make a dollar.”

A neighbor to the proposed restaurant who said he begins his daily 12-hour shift at 4 a.m. introduced another issue: parking. He said he already often has to walk three blocks to get to his home at the end of the day and worried additional Iron Hill traffic could compound the problem.

Greenfield Avenue resident Annie Holland had a more elemental problem. She said the commissioners have not been responsive to the concerns of residents throughout the process.

“We’re talking to you each one of you,” she scolded. “You don’t hear us. You don’t care about us. That’s what so sad about this.”

After public comment, several of the commissioners took turns addressing questions and clarifying points.

Commissioner Phil Rosenzweig reminded the assembled that the only reason the township is able to influence the process at all is because Iron Hill could not acquire a liquor license from within the township, and so has to get approval to transfer one in from another Montgomery County municipality. If the restaurant had been able to purchase on in Lower Merion, “as a matter of law, they could do what they’re proposing and we would have nothing to say about it.” He said the public should welcome this opportunity to see to it that the restaurant addresses their concerns about traffic, safety, and parking.

Commissioner Brian Gordon validated the public’s concerns about traffic density, and provided some context. Some of the blame for the problem, he admitted, rests on his shoulders. About five years ago, in the interest of spurring growth, he helped create the ordinance that equalized the parking requirement for restaurants and other businesses in the township, despite the fact that restaurants almost invariably require more parking.

“It opened up every store and business in the township to the possibility of a restaurant,” Gordon said.

The Lower Merion Board of Commissioners will next meet on June 5 to discuss the license transfer. The public will again be invited to comment.


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