Commissioners Plan to Keep City Avenue Intersection Delays Under a Minute

The Lower Merion Township Building and Planning Committee voted 7-4 Wednesday night to establish a "preferred level of service" for intersections along the proposed City Avenue Transportation Service Area (TSA) that would allow the township to share traffic improvement costs with developers if the TSA proposal is approved.

Robert Duncan, director of building and planning for Lower Merion Township, told the Building and Planning Committee that he was not asking members to vote yet on the proposal to establish a City Avenue Transportation Service Area, which will allow the township to establish a traffic impact fee and charge that fee to developers for off-site roadway improvements within the TSA district.

Instead, Duncan asked the committee to first vote on establishing a preferred level of service for intersections within the proposed TSA district.

Level of service ranges from a grade of A, which is the best, with a delay of less than 10 seconds at intersections, to F, which is a congested area with a wait of more than 80 seconds at an intersection, Duncan said, showing a chart explaining the levels of service.

The Transportation Service Area Advisory Committee (TSSAC) has recommended a preferred level of service of D, which is a delay of 35 to 55 seconds, Duncan said. The committee did not chose Level A as the preferred level of service, because the township would then be financially obligated to bring the service up to A, Duncan said.

Within the proposed TSA, three of the intersections are currently at Level F, two are at Level E, which is considered the limit of an acceptable delay at 55.1 to 80 seconds, and the rest of the intersections range from A to D, Duncan said.

Duncan stressed that TSA is not a zoning designation and is separate from the proposed City Avenue rezoning project, meaning that the committee could chose to approve one but not the other, if they chose to do so.

Commissioner Cheryl Gelber said she did not feel ready to make a decision on the desired level of service without more information on how to improve the intersections.

Duncan said it was important for the committee to establish a preferred level of service so that the approval process for the TSA proposal could move forward.  If the TSA is approved on schedule in August, the township will be able to charge an impact fee on at least two recent development approvals, but if it is delayed until after Sept. 17, the reach back period under the state Municipalities Planning Code will have passed.

“If you delay, it’s just more developers that will come that you can’t collect impact fees from,” Duncan said.

Two residents spoke during public comment and both said they thought the committee was being rushed to make a decision on the preferred level of service.

Richard Kaufman, a resident of Bala Cynwyd, said, “I don’t see how you can ask these people, rushing through at 11 o’clock at night, how to make a decision like that and how you make a decision of a level of D when you don’t know what the development’s going to be.”

Duncan responded to Kaufman and said, “In order to get to a point where you establish an impact fee, you have to determine a level of service.”

After more discussion from the commissioners, Gelber made a motion to table for a few weeks the vote to establish the preferred level of service.

Commissioner Liz Rogan urged the committee to move forward with the vote.  “Guys, really, there was a lot of work on this. … If we go to an E (for preferred level of service), the township will be picking up the cost.  If we go with D, the developer will split the cost with the township.”

Gelber’s motion to table the vote failed.

The committee then voted 7-4 to recommend that the preferred level of service for intersections within the proposed City Avenue TSA be established as D.