A pre-pandemic plan to revive one of Towamencin’s busiest intersections is back on the drawing board.
Township officials heard an update Wednesday night from developer Mark Nicoletti about expanded plans for a "Main Street” development at the intersection of Sumneytown Pike and Forty Foot Road.
"We got our Main Street ordinance ready to go, the month before the pandemic hit in 2020. That certainly set us back at last a couple of years,” said developer Mark Nicoletti.
In 2018 into 2019, Nicoletti and his Philadelphia Suburban Development Corporation held lengthy talks with the township about a code update to allow new uses within the current village overlay area, an area of roughly 20 acres surrounding Forty Foot and Sumneytown.
The township’s planning commission began talks on updating the overlay in early 2018, and those talks continued before the township supervisors in summer 2019, with the board voting in early 2020 to allow different uses in each of several "sectors” currently zoned as village commercial and R-150 residential.
On Wednesday night, the developer gave an update, announcing that his firm has acquired more properties around that intersection, and that the township will hear more soon.
"Main Street is all the land around Walgreens, on the southeast side of Sumneytown Pike. One of the things that we’ve done constructively since then, is we’ve worked on buying all the empty office buildings across the street,” he said.
"In the last few years, we were able to buy all of them. Why is that important to Main Street? They are sitting on 35 acres of land — Main Street was originally around 25 acres, so it gives us additional land to have more retail, and reposition the apartments,” he said.
Plans are now in the works for new commercial and apartment construction close to the office buildings, in order to share parking and reduce new impervious coverage, and formal plans could be presented soon.
"Challenges? Absolutely, but the Main Street retail and apartment components, are going to be important to help us market the office buildings. No different than bringing the shopping center back will help us fill SKF again — they work in tandem,” he said.
Resident Tina Gallagher pointed out that PSDC owns many properties along Forty Foot Road, and said the largely empty buildings leave an impression on visitors and residents alike
"You are probably the number one property owner in our township, and you’re affecting many, many lives of people who live here. I think it would be prudent of you to try to work with those of us who live here, our committees, and our boards, and anyone who is willing to be on a committee, to be involved,” she said.
"This is where we live, this is where many of us maybe work as well. It’s our home, and you are in control of our destiny here, and our town, for the future. And there’s a lot of people very concerned about development, and what happens on this property,” Gallagher said.
Resident Lori Morrissey said she thought "it just looks derelict, it looks terrible,” and resident Jenn Foster asked if the developer would consider any short-term beautification measures on the largely empty lots before any plans are finalized.
"Even if you could make those properties look a little bit nicer, while they’re sitting empty. It looks horrible, when you come off the turnpike,” she said.
"I’m still struggling with: You’re buying properties, which is great, for a developer, but you haven’t filled any. How many more properties are going to be bought and left empty or vacant? Can we start filling properties you already own, versus buying more?” Foster said.
Nicoletti answered that he could explain the causes delays, or point out successful projects PSDC has already completed in the area, including the Bridgeview apartment complex, Courtyard Marriott hotel, a former culinary arts school on the opposite corner, "and people seem to love the new Starbucks” adjacent to the Marriott, he said.
In response to further comment about the slow pace of development of the former township administration building and police station on the east side of the intersection, the developer gave a glimpse at an alternative.
"Another developer wanted to buy that, and put in a drug store. We bought those properties in 2006, and we could’ve put a drug store there in a second. But the township wanted Main Street, and you wanted Main Street, and it took us years to assemble 25 acres,” he said.
More specifics will be presented to the township’s planning commission when that group next meets on March 4, according to the developer, and residents can learn more, and any plans approved by that body would then be back before the supervisors for further approvals.
Towamencin’s planning commission next meets at 7 p.m. on March 4 and the supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on March 20, both at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.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.
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