Article by Leslie Krowchenko, DelcoTimes.com Correspondent.
SPRINGFIELD — Four years after rendering its first unanimous decision, the zoning board again voted 5-0 Thursday night to deny the installation of billboards along Baltimore Pike.
The Bartkowski Investment Group sought permission to mount five back-to-back billboards in the 100, 500 and 800 blocks of the street. The sixth sign from the initial application, slated for the 700 block, was withdrawn.
The request was accompanied by a seventh application from BIG under the name Delaware County Outdoor to install a billboard in the 1400 block of the highway between the exit from Springfield Mall and the entrance to Extra Space Storage. While the original applications specified the signs would be 672 square feet, the new ones did not indicate a size.
BIG appealed the March 2010 zoning decision in Delaware County Common Pleas Court, which upheld the board’s ruling and affirmed the township’s right to ban billboards completely. The company then appealed the lower court decision to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, which ruled the board was within its rights to determine the proposed sites were not suitable for billboards, but overstepped in excluding them entirely from the township.
McNichol, Byrne & Matlawski, P.C. is a general practice law firm located in Media, Pennsylvania. Our attorneys have expertise in many areas of law, from land use and zoning, to personal injury, employment, civil and criminal litigation, to corporate/commercial and business transactions.
