Freddy Hill Farms, owned by the Seipt family, is pictured in 2012. (Credit: MediaNews Group file photo)
Comments to be incorporated into comprehensive plan update
Residents have had plenty to say as Towamencin finishes an update to its comprehensive plan, and one priority is clear.
“We had a total of 47 comments, and I think it’s interesting to note of the 47 comments, we had 32 comments of people saying we really need to save the Freddy Hill parcel as open space,” said planning consultant Peter Simone.
On March 7, the Seipt family announced online they had “decided to close Freddy Hill Farms and Freddy’s Family Fun Center at the end of the 2025 season” after more than five decades operating on Sumneytown Pike near Troxel Road.
Freddy Hill originated in the early 1970s when Joanne and Fred Seipt expanded a dairy farm into a store, processing plant, ice cream parlor — which remained open through the 2020 pandemic — and entertainment complex that includes two miniature golf courses, a driving range, a golf school, batting cages and a petting zoo, along with seasonal events such as hay rides and a corn maze, according to MediaNews Group archives. Joanne passed away at age 78 in 2012 and Fred passed in 2023 at age 88.
After news broke about the closing, social media lit up with recollections of time spent at the complex, and suggestions about what could happen there, with many calling for the township to find a way to preserve it. The week after the announcement, township officials recalled time they had spent at Freddy Hill, and said they had early talks with the Seipt family near the start of a comprehensive plan update that began in 2023, but nothing since, while urging residents to share comments and take a survey for the plan update.
Simone summarized that feedback for the supervisors on Wednesday night, saying dozens of comments had been submitted, with roughly 75 percent asking that the Freddy Hill site somehow be preserved.
“My sense is, there’s a lot of sentiment in favor of that, in the community. Open space, and environmental protection, generally was very high in the survey,” he said.
“I think there’s a lot of nostalgia for the Freddy Hill property, because people grew up going to it, their kids grew up going to it, it’s part of the community. I thought it was interesting that a lot of people reacted to that,” Simone said.
Of the remaining feedback, seven comments asked the township to pursue the recommendations of a connectivity study spelling out where the township could add sidewalk, trail and bike connections throughout Towamencin, six urged more open space, two said the township should focus on preserving historic structures, and “there were four comments from folks who said ‘We don’t need this plan, it’s a waste of money’,” Simone told the board.
Supervisor Kofi Osei said he’s heard similar feedback from residents since the closing was announced.
“I’ve been talking to a lot of residents. I’m someone who grew up here, and went to Freddy Hill, and they very specifically want to keep the entertainment use. It seems there’s not that much to do, outside of Freddy Hill, in the township, and I would agree,” he said.
Resident Joe Silverman added his own comments about possible preservation, and noted a potential drawback.
“It would be a nice idea, except if you think about it, a builder doesn’t want to build houses with all the noise and racket going on” from kids playing sports at the current complex, Silverman said.
“It’s normal to have recreation, screaming, and happiness, but I don’t know that you’d want to build houses right next to that. I’d like to see it preserved, I remember when it was built years ago, but just a thought that a builder might not go for that, so you have to consider that, too.”
A total of 33 pages of comments have been received from residents and the township’s planning commission, environmental advisory council, and open space advisory committee, Simone said, and residents should keep in mind the goals of the plan.
“The comprehensive plan is a guide. It doesn’t obligate the township to exactly follow the actions that are in the final plan. It’s an aspirational document,” he said.
“It’s a statement of community values, and what things you’re interested in as a community. This board, and subsequent boards, are not bound to act on these recommendations, but they are hopefully recommendations that have some general consensus in the community.”
In their comments for the plan, the planning commission suggested the plan address the topic of increased density for housing, and whether the Towamencin Village area surrounding the intersection of Sumneytown Pike and Forty Foot Road should allow more dense development than the rest of the township.
“Overwhelmingly in the survey, residents said they want the village developed, and they wanted shops and restaurants and personal services. And our market study said, to support that, you need to add some additional housing there,” he said.
Montgomery County’s planning commission has also vetted the latest draft of the update, and has suggested the township perform a zoning audit to examine whether certain housing standards and criteria are still appropriate for the areas where they apply. Info has also been shared with the board about towns that have recently moved to eliminate parking minimum requirements, in order to reduce impervious coverage and runoff issues, along with info on rental houses and towns loosening land use regulations to spur more housing development.
A second topic requiring board input: whether the plan should call for any changes to Sumneytown Pike, as the main thoroughfare was once proposed to be fully widened from three to five lanes through the township, after a proposed “North Penn Expressway” running parallel to that roadway never proceeded past a planning stage, and the new comprehensive plan could call for bike lanes and trails along that roadway instead.
“In the connectivity study, we recommended that you do some of the bike and ped(estrian) improvements, and I think we would recommend those should be done first. It really won’t take away from future road improvements” along the same route, Simone said.
“That’s something Montgomery County Planning Commission commented, they said: ‘Be specific, what do you guys want? Three or five lanes?’ That’s something we would like feedback from the board of supervisors on,” he said.
Silverman said he recalled talks on the proposed North Penn Expressway being proposed as far back as the 1960s, then talks in the 1980s about whether Upper and Lower Gwynedd, Towamencin and North Wales Borough wanted the plan to continue.
“Somewhere around 1985, PennDOT decided to have a meeting of the four towns, and determine if people really wanted this. It turned out that nobody wanted it, except for North Wales, ’cause it would’ve taken all the traffic out of North Wales. So the plan was cancelled, and all the properties that were acquired by PennDOT were sold back to people,” he said.
“The idea was there. Of course, nothing happened. I thought it would’ve been a great idea. And here we are, there’s nothing much you can do with Sumneytown Pike,” he said.
Osei said he thought the planned Route 309 connector route, with a phase currently under construction in neighboring Hatfield and meant to divert truck traffic from the Northeast Extension in Towamencin to 309 in Hilltown, “does a lot of what that (expressway) project was trying to do.”
“I just want to say outright that I prefer the three lane option for Sumneytown Pike, versus five lanes. Between the expense, and it also doesn’t seem as needed as I think it may have been before,” he said.
Feedback from the residents and advisory groups will be incorporated into an updated draft, Simone said, and that draft will be brought back to the board in a future meeting in April or May for further talks before a final version of the plan is adopted.
Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on April 9 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.
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