North Wales seeks survey input for goals in 2025

Borough officials are ending one year by asking residents what they’d like to see tackled in the next one.

Council members and staff gave a reminder in their final meeting of 2024 for residents to fill out a survey about the town’s top priorities for ’25.

“December 31st is the deadline for the comprehensive plan audit survey, so if you have not sent in your thoughts on the comp plan update, or audit, your days are dwindling to be able to do so,” Assistant Manager Alex Turock said last week.

Back in January, council announced plans to take a fresh look at the town’s “North Wales 2040” comprehensive plan, which 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.

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 to connect the town with neighboring Upper Gwynedd, a revision to the transit-oriented 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 nearly complete at 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.

An online survey developed by the borough was first posted in mid-November, and asks a series of questions where residents can rank their priorities, among several long-discussed projects and topics addressed in the earlier plan, and others that have arisen since. The online survey also includes a link to the earlier plan, and feedback from local residents will steer future talks, Turock told council during their year-end meeting on Dec. 10.

“Those projects will be reassessed in the new year, and I imagine priorities will be reviewed based on that information,” Turock said.

Councilman Mark Tarlecki added that the town’s planning commission, for which he is the council liaison, held a meeting in early December to discuss updates to the town’s subdivision and land development ordinance, “mainly with regard to trees, and planting, and landscaping,” including what native plantings should be used in town, and what can be planted in floodplain areas. That update will be brought before council in the new year for a final vote and more public input before it’s adopted, the councilman said, as that group works on updating its own priority list.

    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 feedback for the borough’s next comprehensive plan. (MediaNews Group file photo)
  

Turock added that staff are currently reviewing their list of vacant positions on various volunteer boards and commissions, and will contact those with terms expiring at the end of the year to ask if they’re interested in being reappointed for future terms.

Council also ended the year by adopting their 2025 budget, with no tax increase for the upcoming year and minimal changes since the formal budget presentation by staff in mid-November. The $8.6 million budget keeps taxes at the 7.0 mill tax rate last modified in 2023 for ’24, which produces a tax bill just over $907 or $75 a month for the town’s average resident with a property assessed at just over $129,000. Projects funded in the 2025 budget include the end of work on the arts and cultural center, continuing a sidewalk project along Center Street, and seeking a new energy contract for the town’s public buildings, along with planned new police hires, road paving projects to be determined by the town’s engineer after winter weather is over, purchases of new public works vehicles and equipment via a state grant awarded in October, and various minor park upgrades.

    New lighting hangs in a renovated room within the borough-owned former church and office building at 125 N. Main Street in North Wales in late Oct. 2024.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter   

Another change that will start in 2025: council voted to adopt a fee schedule for the new year that includes new rental fees for the arts and cultural center, which Turock said were based on talks with similar facilities in the region.

    New lighting hangs in a renovated room within the borough-owned former church and office building at 125 N. Main Street in North Wales in late Oct. 2024. (Photo courtesy of North Wales Borough)
  

Those new fees are set at $100 per hour Mondays through Thursdays and $150 per hour Fridays through Sundays to rent the conference and banquet hall, an additional $200 to rent the chapel and performing arts space, a $75 per hour change for individuals or for-profits to rent the office and classroom space there, and a $1,200 fee for exclusive use of all three spaces, on evenings and weekends only, for five hours minimum plus $300 per additional hour.

    A newly furnished conference room can be seen in the borough-owned former church and office building at 125 N. Main Street in North Wales in late Oct. 2024. (Photo courtesy of North Wales Borough)
  

Amato added that the fee schedule could be revised at the same time next year based on input from users, and councilwoman Anji Fazio said she thought the exclusive use fee was “a really good price” for the full rental.

North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 14, 2025 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com