Corn can be seen growing on the “Movie lot” properties owned by the North Penn School District north of Welsh Road in Hatfield Township in Sept. 2024. Photo by Dan Sokil | The Reporter.
Developer planning combined development with adjacent land
The sale of the so-called “movie lots,” a 56-acre parcel in Hatfield owned by North Penn School District, has been delayed a second time, the first delay to investigate environmental concerns about pesticide contamination and this second one to combine development plans.
The district is attempting to sell the full parcel of lots to developer Pulte Homes. District CFO Steve Skrocki reported to the school board finance committee recently that the developer has requested a second extension on the sale timetable.
In mid-September the school board announced and approved a $15 million sale agreement with Pulte for the “movie lots” near Welsh Road in Hatfield Township. The lots total about 56 acres and are located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Welsh and Forty Foot Roads and are farmed on a year-to-year contract with an area farmer.
The parcels have been called “movie lots” because the strips roughly 100 feet by 20 feet had been given away by movie theaters in the 1920s as prizes for those attending movies. The land was acquired by the district over the years for non-payment of property taxes.
In the September meeting, the board said several offers had been fielded from developers seeking to acquire the lots, and voted to accept one from Pulte, contingent on the buyer receiving final approval to build 85 homes on that land. Pulte has nearly completed a “Del Webb North Penn” development, which Hatfield Township officials approved in 2019-20, of roughly 325 homes just west of the movie lots, and the township has held several public meetings to field feedback since Pulte submitted a conditional use application in March proposing to build 78 single-family homes on roughly 42 acres of the “Beach property” adjacent to both.
The board and Pulte originally reached an agreement in September that had a 90-day due diligence period that would have expired in mid-December, then agreed to an extension to allow more time for environmental testing on the site. The second extension, Skrocki told the board, is being requested because the developer is in talks with Hatfield Township staff and officials about combining those lots with the “Beach property” they own just north into one expanded development.
“Initially, they were working with the township on one development for one-half of the tract that they previously owned. Now that the movie lots are in the equation, they’re looking at the development in its entirety, as one development, and that’s required further conversations with Hatfield Township,” he said.
The latest requested extension would run until March 3, the CFO told the committee, and would cover the scheduled Jan. 27 date when the district has to appear in court to secure permission for the sale.
Skrocki added that he and district Superintendent Todd Bauer recently saw an updated plan from Pulte that showed the two tracts “as one singular development,” and doing so could allow more flexibility for the developer as they secure approvals.
Another consideration, the CFO added: the land is already zoned for residential use, so those talks with the township may center on how many units or what type, not the use itself.
“I think it’s really getting the right fit of density, I think that’s really what the ultimate issue is here,” he said.
Skrocki said that he’d aim to have an update on the project for the board and public at the board’s finance committee meeting, currently scheduled for Feb. 11.
No residents commented on the movie lots during the school board meeting, and that group voted the extension request ahead for full board approval on Jan. 23. A neighbor to the lots did give her own recent update: Patricia Houston-Martinez, who voiced concerns in September about possible environmental issues on the lots, gave her own update to Hatfield’s commissioners in their last meeting of 2024, announcing on Dec. 18 that she has enrolled in the state’s pesticide hypersensitivity registry.
“This means that, whether North Penn School District owns the movie lots or Pulte, they are required by law to notify me 72 hours before pesticide spraying that occurs within 500 feet of my property,” she said.
Houston-Martinez has also created a Change.org online petition calling for stricter testing and regulation on pesticide use in Pennsylvania, where she lists the health problems that she and neighbors have encountered, and the pesticide uses noted on the lots, claiming “this is not a coincidence, it’s a pattern.”
“I just have gratitude for my community in Hatfield. I’m glad that there’s a registry in Pennsylvania to help people like myself,” she said.
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 23 at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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