More Drama for One Ardmore Place: Nearby Business Owners File Suit Against Lower Merion Township
Six business owners neighboring Carl Dranoff’s One Ardmore Place project at the site of the Cricket Parking Lot have filed a lawsuit against Lower Merion Township. The suit claims that Haws Terrace, an access road behind the parking lot, was deeded as public land and isn’t allowed to be sold to a private developer to create a 8-story, mixed-use complex.
A newsletter sent out by JustLaws, one of the law firms representing the business owners, sheds some light on the suit:
Haws Terrace has been an integral part of the Cricket Parking Lot since 1958, when Lower Merion Township converted the land around Haws Terrace into the Cricket Parking Lot.
Since 1958, Haws Terrace has provided the only access for fire engines and other emergency responders to provide emergency services to these Cricket Lot businesses.
Moreover, business owners say the closure of the parking lot will cripple their businesses, hence the lawsuit:
The Cricket Lot businesses project that without any convenient parking for customers, their businesses will all fail during those two years of construction and disruption.
The project seeks to add a luxury residential complex with ground floor retail and an above ground parking structure. It’s been controversial from the get-go, with upwards of 90 concerned citizen’s recently staging a protest to have the sale of the parking lot blocked.
As Philly.com reports, Lower Merion Township has moved forward with the plans and Dranoff has been granted $10.5 million in state redevelopment grants to help make the project become a reality.
