Neighbors Blast Mercedes Expansion Plan

More than two dozen residents from the Edgewood Drive neighborhood attended last night’s Planning & Zoning meeting to express opposition to a proposal by Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich to build a new 18,500 square foot, 30-bay service facility at 217 Post Road West, at the corner of Edgewood, following expansion of its showroom at 261 West Putnam Avenue, currently underway.

Last year the commission approved Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich’s plan to expand its combined service center and showroom at 261 Post Road West, about 200 yards down the street, by about 7,500 square feet, bringing that facility to about 30,000 square feet. To accommodate that expansion, the dealership temporarily moved its sales operations to the facility at 217 West Putnam Avenue, formerly an Infiniti showroom.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Lou Liodori, general manager of Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich, explained that the dealership hopes to raze the existing structure at 217 West Putnam, following completion of the facility at 261 West Putnam, and build an entirely new, 30-bay service center, in order to better serve its customers and gain new operational efficiencies. He said the dealership’s plan is to consolidate all service at the new facility at 217 West Putnam and all sales at 261 West Putnam.

Following completion of the service facility at 217 West Putnam Avenue, Liodori explained, the dealership would then bring a new application to remove the existing 16 service bays at 261 West Putnam and convert that ground floor area into showroom space.

Liodori added that the dealership is not seeking to grow its customer base via the service center expansion — rather, the additional capacity is needed to provide better flexibility to handle periods of peak demand among existing customers, he said.

Neighbors who oppose the plan, however, say Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich, which was acquired in July by Penske Automotive Group, is seeking to build a "regional service center" for the purpose of attracting more customers from out of town. They say the service center will have an adverse impact on the abutting residential neighborhood because it is too large for the site (nearly double the size of the current building) and will generate increased traffic in the area, exacerbating what is already a dangerous traffic situation on Edgewood Road.

As explained by dealership officials, the two sites are joined by a driveway/access road which traverses behind 261 West Putnam and the Porsche dealership next door, cutting across Edgewood Drive to where it picks up again behind the building at 217 West Putnam. This access road is currently used to transport vehicles between the two facilities. In addition some service center employees use it as a pedestrian route to get to and from the buildings as well. That means the vehicles and the employees must cross Edgewood Drive.

Dealership officials, in response to a request from the Town to keep as much traffic off west Putnam as possible, plan to continue to use the access road to shuttle vehicles between the two facilities. They explained that once the new service center is completed, customers will continue to drop off cars at 261 West Putnam, and the cars will then be shuttled to the facility at 217 West Putnam, and back again once they are ready to be picked up. 

Neighbors, however, say the shuttling of the cars across Edgewood, which began late last year, is already creating a dangerous situation — and that an increase in service center traffic will only worsen the problem.

"The current traffic situation there is pretty bad," said Larry Simon, 48 Edgewood Drive, adding that the situation "has gotten much much worse" since the dealership starting using the facility at 217 West Putnam last fall.

He and several other neighbors described how the cars and trucks which are legally parked on the east side of Edgewood every day block sight lines and make it harder for drivers to see the dealership cars and workers as they dart across the road. Numerous residents also described the hazards caused by the carrier trucks unloading cars on Edgewood, which the town also currently permits.

Mike Warner, of RTM District 3, a vocal opponent of the project, said although he doesn't live in the neighborhood, he has used Edgewood for many years, three days a week, to get home from his workouts at the Y, “and your radar had better be on high alert when you approach that intersection from the north — because there’s often a car carrier on the right; there’s a left turn lane that’s often backed up; and usually there’s someone with a new car dodging out of a driveway to the left."

"We know that a dealership can have a very damaging impact on traffic," Warner said. "I would ask you to listen to the neighbors and turn down this application."

Studies conducted by three different traffic engineers — one from the Town, one representing Mercedes-Benz and another hired by neighbors — come to different conclusions about the number of additional cars the proposed facility will bring to the neighborhood, with figures ranging from as a few as 75 cars serviced per day to up to 800 “trips per day,” causing confusion for the commissioners and complicating the approvals process.

Neighbors also expressed concern over the facility’s hours of operation — currently proposed 6 a.m. to midnight — and the noise it will create since power tools and an automated car wash will be in near continuous use.

After hearing nearly three hours of testimony from attorneys, dealership officials, traffic engineers and neighbors, in a meeting that lasted until the early morning hours, the commission was unable to get a handle on the overall impact the project will have on the neighborhood and thus requested an extension, which Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich granted, to postpone its decision on the application until its Dec. 13 meeting.

As reported on Greenwich Patch last month, to build a 24,000 square foot, 24-bay regional service center on Old Track Road. Neighbors have come out against that plan, as well, saying it is too large; outside the scope of the Town's needs and thus not in conformance with the Town Plan of Development; and will generate additional traffic to the detriment of the neighborhood and safety of pedestrians.