LOWER MERION – Lower Merion officials are considering an ordinance change that will allow longer parking in a section of one of the township’s major business districts.

During a recent police committee meeting, Lower Merion’s staff put forth an ordinance that would allow for three-hour parking at meters on Rittenhouse Place in Ardmore.

Gerald Adams, director of parking services for Lower Merion, outlined the ordinance change and its rationale.

“The business owners and business offices on Rittenhouse Place had reached out to us to request a change from the two-hour maximum parking time on Rittenhouse Place and to actively change that to a three-hour minimum parking time on Rittenhouse Place,” Adams said.

According to Adams, the rationale for the change is that there are places, such as doctors’ offices, and there are businesses that do significant consulting work where customers could be in for longer than two hours. There are also salons that have six or seven chairs and perform tasks that can also take longer than two hours.

Adams said customers with these longer appointments end up having to run out to put in an extra quarter to make up the extra time. Other times, they have to go through the trouble of moving their cars to the other side of Rittenhouse Place.

“Three-hour time limit would still be considered short-term parking. We do consider anything four hours and under as short-term parking,” Adams said.

According to Adams, parking lot number 10 in Bryn Mawr also has some three-hour parking meters to accommodate the Bryn Mawr Theater.

According to township officials, Rittenhouse Place has nearly 100 parking meters.

“Rittenhouse Place has 99 parking meters, with 85 of those parking meters having a 2-hour maximum parking time,” according to the staff memo on the proposed ordinance change. “There are also 14 meters that permit 10-hour maximum parking.”

The vote last week was only to authorize the township staff to advertise the change. If the advertising is approved by the board at its next meeting, the ordinance change could then have a public hearing with a final vote in April.