Apartment building plans were approved in 2019
One of the borough’s biggest buildings, one discussed for much of the 2010s, could be back on the drawing board.
Council members heard hints this month that a planned apartment building at Third and Walnut Streets could be back for updated approvals soon.
“Possibly: It’s been approved with conditions, and they have recently resubmitted a plan addressing a lot of the conditions that were put on the project,” said borough Director of Community Development Jason Van Dame.
Starting in late 2015 developer Ross Ziegler put forward plans for a six-story apartment building with roughly 200 units to be built on the block surrounding the corner of Third and Walnut streets. Plans for a smaller building secured conditional use approval in late 2017, before the developer added two more properties next to the first, and in early 2019 presented an expanded version with 204 apartment units, energy-efficient fixtures and utilities, and an automated parking system below the building.
The expanded version of the apartment building plans was vetted throughout 2020, received approvals from council that October, and secured time extensions in 2021 citing delays caused by the pandemic and costs for building materials.
Architect Mike Rosen points to features on the latest version of plans for “Walnut Crossing Apartments,” a proposed six-story apartment building on the corner of Third and Walnut Streets in Lansdale, during the borough planning commission on Sept. 18, 2018.The three-story stone building where the apartments will be built was the first church built in Lansdale, constructed as the Lansdale Episcopal Methodist Church around 1880, according to the Lansdale Historical Society. Around 1920, that congregation moved closer to Broad Street and the building became a Loyal Order of Moose Lodge, then the Third and Walnut Bar until that establishment had its liquor license revoked in 2014 following reported assaults, a stabbing, a brawl that injured a Lansdale police officer, and numerous citations there.
Street signs can be seen on the corner opposite the former church building at Third and Walnut Streets in Lansdale on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024.On Aug. 21, during a lengthy public hearing on an update to that downtown business overlay, Van Dame referred to the Third and Walnut project, saying the height and density concerns from "a very high number of units in a small area" were among the reasons the town's planning commission and code committee took up talks on changes to the overlay and its incentives and allowances.
Construction vehicles remain parked in a fenced-off vacant lot adjacent to the former Lansdale Episcopal Methodist Church building at the corner of Third and Walnut Streets in Lansdale on Wednesday, June 16 2021.That project wasn't discussed during the hearing, but after the overlay was approved Van Dame said the latest update would not apply to the Third and Walnut project plans already approved.
"We can't go backwards on anything, we can't go back to a property and say 'You can't do this,'" he said.
Any updated plan would likely be brought before the council's code committee for further talks, and/or public feedback, before any approvals.
A truck speeds past a former church building at Third and Walnut Streets in Lansdale on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024."If that project does move along further, then that will become much more public," Van Dame said.
Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 4 with the code committee meeting at 7:30 p.m. that night, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.
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