A key date is fast approaching for North Wales residents to sound off on the future of their borough, and a new event is now on the calendar.
Council heard an update Tuesday night on an upcoming meeting slated to talk about an update to the town’s zoning map, urging anyone interested to attend and share their thoughts.
"August 2nd is a very important date,” said borough Manager Christine Hart.
In March, council announced that the borough planning commission had started talks on text amendments to allow new uses in areas like the transit-oriented development district that was adopted in 2009. That TOD zone was the subject of an attempted update in 2014, which was voted down due to resident concerns about dense development and protecting historic properties, then was successfully updated in 2021 to modernize definitions and allow new uses in the area.
Since the earlier round of talks, borough council and its planning commission has worked together to develop a "North Wales 2040” comprehensive plan, written starting in 2016 and adopted in 2018, then worked with the Montgomery County Planning Commission on town-wide projects like
a walkability study presented in late 2021.
Last year council announced that the borough planning commission and MCPC had begun a review of the town’s entire zoning map, an open house was held in May to field feedback, and earlier in July Hart showed council a one-page summary of the changes included in the latest update, meant for easy public discussion.
"The planning commission did review this in detail, they submitted it to council, administrative staff, and our solicitor,” Hart said.
"We’ve reviewed it again, and we’ve made some changes that we’re asking the planning commission, as a courtesy, to re-review,” she said.
"We want to vet this as much as we possibly can,” Hart said, as she scrolled through the site and council observed.
"We are trying to encourage as many questions as possible, as many concerns, if anyone has a concern for clarity, seek the answers now while we’re in this session on August 2nd,” she said.
Depending on the feedback during that hearing, the planning commission could vote the update ahead to council, which could then hear further feedback and input in their Aug. 8 and 22 meetings before a possible vote to adopt the new code at their Sept. 12 or 26 meetings.
"Hopefully council will be able to see this and vote on it in a public hearing, at the first or second meeting in September,” she said.
Council President Sal Amato asked what residents could do if they can’t attend the meeting in person, and Hart said she and staff were looking into ways to stream and/or record the meeting for viewing afterward, with details to be posted on the borough’s website and Facebook page closer to the meeting date.
"We’re going to try really hard to bring as much disclosure to this as we can,” she said. "August 2nd is going to be a good gauge on whether or not we have to have another one of those (hearings) prior to advertisement, or if we can forge ahead.”
In recent months council has also
heard from resident Justin Copenhaver about efforts to revive the borough’s business association, which had advocated for revitalization efforts in the 2000s through 2010s before largely falling silent after the arrival of COVID-19. In a January meeting, Copenhaver fielded input from council and residents about what they’d like to see a new version of the business alliance do, and have begun to develop a set of goals and possible brand identity for use downtown.
Councilman Mark Tarlecki reported Tuesday that he’d recently met with Copenhaver to discuss next steps, and the resident plans to hold a
casual happy hour-style input session, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on August 10 at Ten7 Brewing Company located on Beaver Street.
"One of the challenges that Justin is facing is getting input from residents. We’ve talked about how it’s important to have residents involved, as well as businesses, as well as community folks,” Tarlecki said.
The evening input meeting will be "an open invitation to anybody who wants to come and discuss what they would like to see, as we create a partnership between the business community and the residents,” he said.
"There’s a huge challenge in North Wales now, trying to balance the new with the old. We have a lot of new residents moving in, and we still have quite a few residents who have been here for a long time,” Tarlecki said.
He then cited a young couple in his neighborhood who just moved to town from Philadelphia: "They’re Gen-Z, and those are the type of people that we have to attract, but we also have to keep in mind the residents that have been here for 20, 30, 40, 50 years as well.”
Hart added that she’d make sure staff publicize the date and time on the borough’s website, social media channels and Savvy Citizen notification system as details are finalized, and Tarlecki said any and all input would be valuable.
"He wants to gather information, he wants to survey residents, and survey anybody who has a stake in North Wales, to see what they would like to see going forward, and to set up an identity for North Wales, and how we attract people to make sure that we have a good quality of life for all the residents that live here.”
North Wales Borough Council next meets at 7 p.m. on August 8 and the borough planning commission next meets at 7 p.m. on August 2, both at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit
www.NorthWalesBorough.org.
This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit www.thereporteronline.com.
