The former Rite Aid building at Valley Forge Road and Sumneytown Pike in Towamencin is seen in Nov. 2023. Photo by Dan Sokil.
Applicant seeks waiver from parking requirements
A vacant building on a busy corner in Towamencin could soon have a new user.
Township officials heard about approvals needed for a possible Goddard School in a former Rite Aid building at Valley Forge Road and Sumneytown Pike.
“We’re using the existing building, on an existing lot, in a very visible corner in the township, for a new use: a day care,” said attorney Kate Harper.
Located on the northwest corner of Valley Forge and Sumneytown, adjacent to North Penn High School, county property records indicate the Rite Aid was built in 2006 and totals just shy of 11,400 square feet; the site drew headlines in summer 2021 as one of several area stores tagged with anti-mask and anti-vaccine graffiti amid the Covid pandemic, then was one of several Rite Aid stores across the region closed in 2023 as that company neared a bankruptcy filing in response to mounting costs related to opioid lawsuits.
During the supervisors meeting on Sept. 11, board Chairman Chuck Wilson summarized the request from the Goddard School, explaining that the school is seeking a variance from Towamencin’s zoning hearing board from the number of spaces required, and the board’s decision was whether to send their solicitor to support or oppose the request.
Harper then explained the reasoning behind the request: “We don’t have any place else we could put more parking.”
Current codes for child day care centers require one parking space for every employee, and one additional space for every 150 square feet of space inside the building for classrooms, a number Harper said the current site can’t meet because it and the surrounding properties are already developed.
“We have one for every employee, and we have about 30 more. But the review letter that we received said we need 90. We have about 50 spaces. If we don’t get the variance, we just can’t do it,” she said.
“We can’t fix it, we don’t have anywhere to go with it. And we do think it’s a really good use of an existing building,” Harper said.
Similar codes for adult day care centers require one space per employee, plus one space for every 250 square feet of space, and Harper questioned the reason behind the difference.
“Both adult day care and kid day care involves parents dropping and picking up. We’re not a school. Everybody doesn’t have to be there at 8:20 (a.m.). People come from about 7 o’clock to about 9 o’clock, or maybe even later, and they pick up from about 3 o’clock to 6 o’clock,” she said.
“If we don’t get the variance, we’re done. We can’t have a day care center there, there’s just no way we can do it, because we’re using an existing building, and existing parking,” Harper said, adding that the township planning commission did support the request.
Wilson then asked if the supervisors wanted to send the township’s solicitor to the zoning hearing board to oppose the request, and none of the board moved to do so. He then asked if the board wanted to send a letter in support, and all five voted to do so.
Supervisor Kofi Osei then repeated comments he’s made frequently on land development projects in the township: Should the board revise those parking requirements?
“This keeps happening. The high school is going to be noncompliant with our parking requirements. This property’s going to be non compliant with our parking requirements, and I think a lot of properties in the township are not compliant with our parking requirements,” he said.
“We should probably reduce all of our parking requirements, just so we make this stuff easier. Especially as we’re looking at all of this redevelopment, so we don’t have all of these vacant buildings,” Osei said.
Wilson added that he recalled the child day care requirement was higher because schools for kids might have high-demand times that need that many spaces.
“They’ll have parents come in at times, for parents day, or special events — I think that’s probably why that parking requirement exists. Depending on how many kids you have, you can have a couple dozen other cars there, possibly,” he said.
Harper replied that the applicant would be willing to agree to a condition “that we not have full-school events” that would cause such demand.
“We are willing to offer that, and do that,” she said.
Supervisor Laura Smith asked if the school had looked into shared or overflow parking arrangements with the adjacent Calvary Baptist school and church, and Harper said they had had early talks, but nothing in writing yet.
“We did reach out to them, but we couldn’t make something happen in time for the zoning hearing,” scheduled for Oct. 3, Harper said.
“One good thing about the church: we’re closed on the weekends, when the church is open, and doing their thing,” she said.
Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on Sept. 25 and the zoning hearing board is scheduled to next meet at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 3, both at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.
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