North Wales Eyeing ‘2040’ Comprehensive Plan Update

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

North Wales residents Mike Fellmeth and Judy Miller write ideas on a vision wall during a “North Wales 2040” community forum in 2017 to gather feedbac

A new year will start with a look back for North Wales Borough.

"We are going to schedule an audit of the North Wales 2040 comp(rehensive) plan,” said councilman Mark Tarlecki.

"This is to bring it up to date on what’s been accomplished, to help administration and borough council make decisions in the future, on what we still need to pursue,” he said.

The North Wales 2040 plan 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, but that update was ultimately voted down due to resident concerns about whether it would allow dense development and would not protect historic properties.

Since 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 that was presented in 2021, a sidewalk project along Center Street constructed in 2022 and meant 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.

Several 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, while residents have started talks on how to revive the borough’s business alliance, and ways it could recommend incentives for attracting businesses to town.

The town has also seen personnel turnover since the plan was finalized, including a new liaison to the Montgomery County Planning Commission, four of nine council seats that have changed hands, and multiple seats on the planning commission that have turned over after the departures of longtime members. Multiple residents have submitted letters of interest for open seats on the planning commission, borough Manager Christine Hart said Tuesday, which council could approve later this month before the comp plan update gets underway.

"We’re beginning work on that next month, and we’re hoping it doesn’t take too long to do,” Tarlecki said, adding that he’ll report back to council on the results of that update.

Another project on the planning commission’s to-do list for 2024? A new look at the town’s subdivision and land development ordinance, which governs the approvals any land development project in town must secure from town planners, the planning commission, and council before starting construction.

"We will be reviewing and restructuring the SALDO, this year, for North Wales, so that’s going to be our long-term work,” he said.

County planner Tim Konetchy, the borough’s liaison to MCPC, also provided the local planning commission with a series of reports from the county body, including one that Tarlecki encouraged his fellow councilmembers and the public to consider.

"He was able to provide us with basically a housing audit for all housing units, in all the municipalities of Montgomery County, and some information about North Wales in particular,” he said.

That report analyzed sale data from 2022, and showed that in that year, the borough contained a total of 1,370 housing units, and the median sale price for houses in the borough was just under $318,000; for single-family detached housing — "that means a single-family home on a lot,” Tarlecki said — the median price was roughly $430,000; for single-family attached housing the median price was roughly $274,000; and no price was determined for multifamily housing, due to fewer than five such sales being reported to the county.

"There was a price increase. Obviously, the attractiveness of moving to North Wales has caused a little bit of a bump in people wanting to move here, so they’re willing to pay higher prices,” Tarlecki said.

"The average price increase for a house was $7,500, from 2021 to 2022, so it’s a 2.4 percent increase. So it’s reasonable. And the point of me bringing this to you is that North Wales is a very attractive place to buy a house,” he said.

Comparable prices elsewhere in the county ranged from lows around $250,000 to highs around $880,000, the councilman added, putting North Wales "right in the middle of the pack,” if not on the affordable side.

"North Wales is an attractive place for people to move into and buy property. I thought you might be interested to hear that,” he said.

Council President Sal Amato added that he thought that price increase was a sign of the success of the comprehensive plan.

"I think that also shows us how important the 2040 plan is, and to ensure we’re following that plan, and we move forward with the achievements and those goals we had in that plan. Because that makes us more desirable as a community. Thanks for that update, and thanks to the planning commission,” he said.

One other topic was also discussed by the planning commission last week, Tarlecki added: a resident request to enclose a deck at a home on Eighth Street, and no action was taken by the planning commission pending more information from the homeowner. The county reports didn’t provide specifics on income levels of owners or residents of those types of housing, he said, or whether multiple unrelated residents live in a house that’s still considered single-family, and the planning commission is also monitoring talks at the county level on a new county comprehensive plan looking as far out as 2050, and on topics including affordable housing shortages across the county.

"We’re built out here. We can only do pocket development. We can split a lot, and put another house on it, and that’s about the extent of it,” Tarlecki said.

North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 23 and the town’s planning commission next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 7, both at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.

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