Even though representatives from MC Outdoor Advertising were not at Tuesday night’s Ambler Borough Council Committee meeting, residents from Ambler, Lower Gwynedd and Upper Dublin still packed the house to speak out in opposition of the proposed billboards in Ambler.

Tony Isabella, Council President, reassured the community gathered, “We are not for these billboards.”

MC Outdoor Advertising, with a mailing address in Malvern, has sold a lease for a 675 sq. ft. billboard to Brosnan Oil of New Jersey, property owner of the Shell Station and Dunkin Donuts at Butler Pike and Bethlehem Pike.

Since the application for the billboard, Ambler Borough has declared their current sign ordinance invalid and has six months to rewrite the ordinance to include specifics on size, height, width, distance apart, etc on billboards. The Borough has thee months left in this time line.

The current ordinance explicitly states no billboards, however, Brenan said that billboards have been deemed a legitimate form of business and must be allowed to a degree deemed acceptable by the municipality.

Joseph Brenan, Borough Solicitor, said while the Borough can limit where the billboards can go by limiting where they can’t go and where they can, they can’t dictate where exactly a billboard can go by saying, for example, billboards can put it in the back corner of the borough facing the sewer lot. Brenan said that is called “defacto taking.”

Isabella added that MC Outdoor Advertising has approached a club in town, of which four of the council members sit on the board, and the club voted against allowing a billboard on the building.

He added that if no other businesses lease MC Outdoor billboard space to rent then there won’t be any billboards in town.

Richard Dresher, of Upper Dublin and on the Fort Washington Rescape Committee, said, “I’m very concerned about Upper Dublin and Whitemarsh…very worried about ourselves and about Ambler. … We stand ready to help.” He added that there has been talk of putting billboards on the 309 Expressway and on the turnpike in Upper Dublin.

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