Click above to see the Zoning Board’s Full Ruling
Lower Merion Township has filed a lawsuit against the Lower Merion Township Zoning Hearing Board and Giant Foods Stores (Carlisle. PA), the owners of the Giant Supermarket in Wynnewood.
The Lower Merion Zoning Hearing Board, in an October 20, 2022 ruling, granted Giant a variance from the zoning code, which prohibits “fueling devices” from being closer than 200 feet from a residential building.
Giant wants to reconstruct the gas station at the intersection of Wynnewood Road and Lancaster Avenue. One of the pumps at the gas station that Giant is proposing to build is only 168 feet away from the Wyndon Apartments. Another pump would only be 144 feet from the apartments.
In its ruling, the Zoning Hearing Board found that the “Zoning Code inflicts an unnecessary hardship on the Property’s development.
The township, in its November 21,2002 filing at the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas noted that three of the five pumps that Giant wishes to install would not require the relief from setback from the residential buildings.
In its filing, the township claims that Giant’s proposed “fuel pumps and associated tanks present legitimate concerns related to environmental hazards, fire emergencies, noise, traffic, and fumes.”
The township also argued that ” ‘The board improperly shifted the burden to the objectors’ to present substantial evidence to refute applicant’s case,’ and prove that the location of the fuel pumps within the setback will alter the essential character of the neighborhood or district in which the property is located.”
