Sketch plan showing concept for upgraded playground at North Wales Elementary School. (Sketch plan courtesy of North Wales Home and School website)
Home & School Association and parents planning phased project to modernize school playground
Borough officials have taken a second look at one of the town’s key planning documents and promise more detailed talks on a specific project.
“We did complete the audit of the 2040 comp plan. And there’s a list of about 20 to-do items,” said councilman Mark Tarlecki.
In January council heard an update from the town’s planning commission, for which Tarlecki is the board’s liaison, about a fresh look at the North Wales 2040 plan, which was originally developed in a series of public meetings starting in 2016 and was meant to update a prior plan from 2007, by spelling out goals the town’s residents wanted to accomplish, while also compiling demographic and historical data in one place.
Prior to that plan, borough council had discussed expanding the town’s transit-oriented zoning district in 2014, and that update was ultimately voted down due to resident concerns about whether it would allow dense development and would not protect historic properties.
After the 2040 plan was adopted in September 2018, council and the planning commission have taken up several of its recommendations, including a borough-wide sidewalk study presented in 2021, a sidewalk project along Center Street constructed in 2022 to connect the town with neighboring Upper Gwynedd, a revision to that TOD district that was finalized in late 2021, and a town-wide zoning map update and text amendments that were adopted in September 2023.
A handful of projects mentioned in the plan are also in progress: renovations are now underway to a borough-owned former church and office building on Main Street that will be modernized into a rentable space for use by local nonprofits and for community events, and residents have started talks on how to revive the borough’s business alliance, and ways it could recommend incentives for attracting businesses to town.
On April 9 the councilman gave an update, saying the planning commission and its new members had completed the 2040 plan audit along with the town’s liaison to the Montgomery County Planning commission, who could come to council “very soon” to present the results of that audit.
Among the pending projects that could fit in with that plan update: the planning commission has started talks with home and school association parents from North Wales Elementary School, who are in the early steps of planning a series of upgrades to the school’s playground.
“The first phase is something that’s known as a ‘Gaga pit’ — it’s this little octagonal structure, kind of like a free-for-all, for all the little guys and girls to play in,” Tarlecki said.
The second phase of planned improvements could be a sensory garden, near the current picnic table and basketball courts, and the school’s parents have already begun fundraising for that garden, with a tentative timeline aiming to start work by late summer. Those parents have developed a flier with background on the project, and a QR code that directs anyone who scans the code to a dedicated website describing the project and accepting donations, and showing a concept sketch of what the revamped playground could look like.
“They want us to help get the word out to help them,” he said.
Staff and the borough planning commission have offered to let the parents advertise that project during upcoming town events, and talks on the playground project could proceed hand-in-hand with the 2040 plan update.
“It’s actually linked to two of our goals, in the North Wales 2040 plan: we’ve mentioned parks and open spaces, and programming for those areas, as well as the enhancement and support of institutions within the borough. Those are two links to the 2040 plan, which this idea will help,” Tarlecki said.
Permit waiver gets OK
Council voted unanimously on April 9 to approve another minor waiver for a major project: an $80 waiver for work at the town’s arts and cultural center project at 125 N. Main Street.
“We are working under two grants with the renovations; however, this is somewhat out of the scope of work,” borough Manager Christine Hart said.
The former church and adjacent office building at 125 N. Main Street have been discussed since late 2016, when council bought both as the church faced declining membership and growing maintenance costs. In the years since, the office space has been rented for art classes and use by local nonprofits, and the church area hosted several public concerts after the St. Luke’s United Church of Christ congregation held their final services there in April 2022. The town then developed plans to renovate and update both buildings, including upgraded HVAC systems, widened doors, natural gas heat instead of oil, and conversion into flexible space for shared use by local nonprofits or agencies, creating spaces to provide services in a local setting during emergencies like the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two grants were secured in July and October 2022 respectively, and that September the town hired outside consultant CM3 Building Solutions as an energy services company to oversee and detail the energy efficiency portions of the project. In June 2023 council awarded a $2.7 million contract for the work, last fall they started talks on who would manage that center and activities within, and in March council approved a third grant request for extra features and furnishings there.
On April 9 Hart added another item, telling the council that the subcontractor working on water lines at the site had found a problem that could not be seen beforehand.
“While we were redoing water lines in the interior, at the connection it was realized that underground, there was galvanized pipe that was very old and clogged. We’re to the point where Cooper Mechanical has put the permit in, on our behalf, so law requires us to ask for a waiver even though it’s our permit,” she said.
Council then unanimously approved the waiver request, and Hart said she’d give updates on the renovation work in future meetings.
Parks board member departs
Council voted unanimously on April 9 to accept the resignation of resident Rachel Wise from the town’s parks and recreation volunteer board.
In a letter to council, Wise said she “appreciate(d) the opportunity to have served in this role for the past three years, but the time has come for me to focus on other endeavors,” and said she she still planned to volunteer at events organized by that board.
Parks board minutes kept by Wise and summarized by Hart included dates and times for several planned events, including a spring planting event on May 18 at Fourth Street Park, the town’s annual summer kickoff and food truck festival on June 8, and plans for upgrades to various parks and the policies that oversee them.
Vacancies currently open on volunteer boards include three open spots on the town’s human relations commission, running through 2024, 2025 and 2026 respectively; one each on the Historical Architectural Review Board (must be a licensed real estate broker) and on the Nor-Gwyn Pool Commission running through 2028; two on the zoning hearing board, running through 2025 and 2027 respectively, and one on the parks and recreation board, running through 2027.
Anyone interested in serving in any of those positions can contact Hart with a letter of interest and resume by emailing [email protected] or at 300 School Street, North Wales PA, 19454.
Wildlife worries
Mayor Neil McDevitt also addressed concerns raised on social media about wildlife in town, specifically at least one fox reported roaming through neighborhoods with apparent health problems.
“There are a lot of state, and federal, and local laws, regarding the treatment of wildlife. We can’t just shoot something, because it looks sick. We can’t just trap an animal, because we don’t like the way it looks,” McDevitt said. “I know people care about the animals, but we just can’t do everything that people want us to.”
North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on May 14 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.
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