Towamencin Revives Talks on Welcome Sign Near Turnpike Interchange

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

A welcome sign that’s been up for discussion for nearly a decade is back on the drawing board.

Township officials heard an update this week on a proposed "Welcome to Towamencin” sign that could greet drivers as they arrive at one of the township’s busiest intersections.

"The goal was to announce you’re in Towamencin, be memorable, be durable, be seen day or night, and be reasonable to maintain,” said land planner Peter Simone.

"I don’t know what people’s perceptions of Towamencin are — they get off of the ‘Lansdale’ interchange, do they know they’re in Towamencin Township?” he said.

Talks on a gateway sign leading into the township began in April 2015, when staff told the township supervisors of a request from Philadelphia Suburban Development Corp., the developer who has completed several large projects near the Turnpike entrance.

At that time, PSDC asked if roughly $75,000 set aside in development fees for public art per township codes could instead be used on a gateway sign welcoming visitors to the township. Later that summer, Simone presented several concepts to the supervisors showing the township logo, the word ‘Towamencin’ below three streaks shaped like a rainbow, located on the side of one of the two large mounds of fill material near the entrance to the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Rendering by Simone-Collins Landscape Architects of possible gateway sign that could be displayed on Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission near Northeast Extension entrance at Sumneytown Pike in Towamencin, as presented in 2015.

Three of the five members on the board of supervisors have turned over since then, and Simone gave an update Wednesday night on steps taken since those initial talks nine years ago. He and township staff have continued talks with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to delineate what land near the interchange PTC controls and where the township could add a sign and/or landscaping near the interchange, and the planner has shown the township’s public works and parks and open space committees several options.

"These mounds are made of spoil material, they’re shale, there’s no real soil, and you can see the very minimal growth over the last seven years that’s happened there,” Simone said.

"The ideas were, can we do some attractive plantings there? Because of the lack of soil, and the difficulty in establishing and maintaining them, we thought it was sort of a fool’s errand, to try to grow something that’s going to be attractive, on these mounds,” he said.

Since the 2015 talks, the turnpike commission opened a new slip ramp in 2017 leading from the turnpike to Sumneytown Pike on the south side of the interchange, just west of a new Royal Farms fuel station and store, which could prompt a change in the location of any welcome sign.

In 2015 the early concepts showed a welcome sign depicting the township logo in six-foot-tall letters at what Simone dubbed site A, on the south side of Sumneytown facing north toward drivers exiting from the previous turnpike toll plaza, but not visible to drivers arriving on the new ramp. A new site B could be placed on the left side of the new ramp, facing south for drivers heading north on the ramp to Sumneytown, or the design consultant could evaluate options at a site C, north of Sumneytown and east of the old toll plaza ramp, visible to drivers coming from both the old and new ramps.

"If you wanted to continue to pursue this, we could do renderings for location C, looking from different vantage points,” Simone said.

Supervisor Joyce Snyder asked if the planner saw any issues with the use of the funds: "As much as I love this idea, and I truly do, that’s not art. That’s not even remotely art. So I’m a little confused as to how we are going to use an art fund to create that.” Supervisors Laura Smith and Chuck Wilson said they recalled during the 2015 talks that similar developer contributions were used for a sculpture outside an office building at Sumneytown and Forty Foot Road not far from the interchange, and other public improvements in the township’s designated village overlay zone.

"It wasn’t designed to be museum art, it was just a name that was slapped on (the fund) for creating signage in the village area,” Smith said. Simone added that the designation could be changed by the supervisors, within the village overlay area: "If the board wants to say ‘This is art,’ then it’s art.”

Supervisor Kristin Warner said she wasn’t on the board but watched the mounds of fill be built, and asked if they could be removed; Smith said that conversation was also held years ago.

"There is nothing we can do. We went round and round with every government entity, and basically the turnpike (commission) can do what they want to do. They are pretty much Superman without kryptonite,” Smith said.

"Maybe in 20 years, if they need to fill a hole somewhere, they could come back and take that dirt. But we cannot do anything about it except make nice with them. And try to slap a pretty sign on it — some art — and dress up our township,” she said.

Supervisor Kofi Osei, the board’s newest member, said he saw little hurry to advertising the name until long-promised developments at Sumneytown and Forty Foot, and farther up Forty Foot and Allentown Road, materialize.

"I’d rather not tell everyone we’re in Towamencin until we have an actual village there,” Osei said.

Warner then asked if the board could consider a mix of signage and trees on land that is available for use. Simone said while cost estimates haven’t been updated since the 2015 presentation, more recent talks with the public works committee centered on adding trees along Sumneytown and the ramp frontages.

"We haven’t designed it, we’ve just sort of generally talked about ‘Yeah, let’s put a lot of trees there,’ because that’s never a bad thing, to have some large trees in a space like that, to fill it up and make it look less stark,” he said.

Warner said she saw a sharp contrast between the turnpike interchange and the PSDC properties, largely stripped of trees, and the heavily wooded rest of the township: "When you drive through, what’s pretty about it is the open space, and trees. I always thought the turnpike and the rest of the township are like two different planets, almost.” Simone answered that ongoing talks with the open space and parks committee on an updated township comprehensive plan include a suburban forestry plan, "really making a concerted effort to plant more trees in the township.”

Board chairman Chuck Wilson asked if the township would need permission from the turnpike commission to plant trees on their properties along the roadway, and traffic engineer Chad Dixson said initial talks in 2022 with PTC didn’t get into that level of detail.

"The general response was, within the areas immediately along Sumneytown Pike, and at the terminus of the ramps with Sumneytown Pike, they would be open to those type of things. Further down into the toll plaza, or along the main line, probably not so much. And there’s a process you have to follow,” he said, with more detailed plans showing sizes and types of plantings required for approvals.

Township Manager David Kraynik said he thought the town’s planning commission should give feedback, and is already working with Simone on the comprehensive plan update. The planner said he can get updated quotes for the cost of the sign, and could also look into costs and types of trees and landscaping, and Snyder said she thought cost could be a factor.

"If an elm is going to cost me $250, and a native chestnut is going to cost me $1,000, guess which one I’m gonna choose? But I would like to look at if we can get native plantings along Forty Foot Road and Sumneytown Pike; that’s one of the things I’d be real interested in hearing more about,” she said.

Matt Chartrand, a member of the township planning commission, said he wasn’t part of the 2015 talks but is not a fan of the sign suggestion.

"The sign that we presented here, really beats you over the head. It’s like getting hit with a mallet, when you come off the turnpike there, to tell you where you are. I just don’t think that fits with what we are, and where we are,” he said.

"I love the idea of plantings, because the hillsides are going to naturalize to what it is, but putting a nice beautiful sign in the middle of what could be a mound of weeds, I just don’t think that’s gonna represent us well, personally,” Chartrand said.

Joe Meehan, chair of the parks and open space committee, said he thought the mounds were "a punch in the face to Towamencin, by the turnpike commission,” and urged the board to "never, ever give up getting them removed.”

Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.

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