Towamencin: Housing talks on density intensify as development proposals pile up

A new voice has entered the discussion on how Towamencin could address the hot topic of housing in the township.

Local officials heard details this week of a housing affordability zoning audit the Montgomery County Planning Commission could do as talks swirl around several developments in the works.

“I am not here tonight to weigh in on any of the development proposals that may or may not be before you. But I am here to give you a brief snapshot of what I see, here in the township, and to offer you a service,” said Anne Leavitt-Gruberger, county planning manager with MCPC.

In 2023 Towamencin kicked off a series of surveys and public meetings to update the township’s comprehensive plan, and have since heard several updates about long-discussed projects including plans to add apartments around the intersection of Forty Foot Road and Sumneytown Pike, and behind a shopping center at Forty Foot and Allentown Road.

Recent talks have also included a focus on the Freddy Hill Farms site farther east on Sumneytown, whose owners have said they plan to close at the end of summer, and in May a developer presented plans for upward of 300 new townhouses on that site, following approval earlier that month of a separate plan for 33 new houses on the ‘Walton farm’ property adjacent to Freddy Hill, and a fresh proposal for as many as 400 apartments at Sumneytown and Forty Foot.

    Anne Leavitt-Gruberger, county planning manager with the Montgomery County Planning Commission, shows a chart to Towamencin’s supervisors depicting the median house prices in the township since 2015, during the supervisors meeting on Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (Screenshot of meeting video)
  

During the supervisors meeting on Wednesday night, Leavitt-Gruberger showed a series of slides outlining facts and figures about the township so far, including a chart of median housing prices starting in 2015, when the median price was just under $30,000; a slight downward trend through 2019, then a steady climb to just short of $450,000 in 2022 before falling the following two years.

“Towamencin is no different than any of the other communities, here in Montgomery County: Your housing prices have gone up over the years, and affordability is challenged in a lot of different ways,” she said.

One of the reasons why? The subsequent chart, of new housing construction in the township over the same span, with 48 new homes built in 2015 and 49 the following year, then a steep drop to 12 built in 2017, and zero new units in 2018, ’21 and ’24 and three or fewer in every other year since.    

“You’ve built very little new housing in the last ten years. There were units built in 2015 and ’16, but not very much since — which doesn’t provide opportunities for people to move here, and to grow your population,” Leavitt-Gruberger said.

    Towamencin’s board of supervisors, inset, see a sample of five ‘carriage homes’ similar to those that could be built in a project proposing 96 townhouses on a roughly 24-acre parcel on Old Forty Foot Road during the Aug. 28, 2024 meeting. (Screenshot of meeting video)
  

Forecasts by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission call for the township’s population to grow steadily over the next three decades, starting from roughly 18,000 in the 2020 census and growing to roughly 18,500 by 2030, then just under 19,500 by 2040 and to just shy of 20,000 by 2050, part of the more than 100,000 new residents projected across the county by then.

“I’m not here to tell you what the right choice is, what the wrong choice is, or how you should be growing. But you have a lot of proposals to consider and thinking to do about how you want to shape the township going forward,” Leavitt-Gruberger said.

As she spoke, the county official showed a series of headlines about the Freddy Hill, Walton farm and ‘Main Street’ proposals, and the site plans showing how many units could fit on each property.

“One of the things the planning commission mentioned, when we reviewed your draft plan, is that we could do a housing affordability audit for the township. This is a service that we’re offering to any municipality that is interested in taking a closer look at their municipal regulations,” she said.

“You’d think about ways that the zoning code could be amended to encourage affordability. I don’t necessarily mean ‘affordable housing,’ I mean allowing for different types of housing units to be built here. Maybe tweaking could be done to allow for accessory dwelling units, maybe there are zones in the township that would be suitable for a twin or a triplex that don’t currently allow for those housing types,” Leavitt-Gruberger said.

Doing such an audit would carry no cost to the township, and could be done within months. “There’s nothing binding about it: we’re really just making recommendations that we hope make sense to you,” as the comp plan is finalized and those developments are vetted, the county official said.

‘Density’ is bad word

Supervisors chair Joyce Snyder said she appreciated the zero cost, but had worries about one particular term mentioned by several residents in recent public comments.

“The other word is ‘density’ — which, as you may have gathered, is kind of a bad word in Towamencin right this minute. We are not necessarily looking to increase densities on existing plots of land,” Snyder said. “We would really want to talk about what can we do to address the housing shortage that exists.”

Leavitt-Gruberger answered that the county’s work would not necessarily address any specific project, but could update rules and regulation while reexamining certain areas if needed.

“I don’t necessarily mean dropping 1,000 new units down on an undeveloped piece of land. But: talking about maybe there are areas where there are ways to encourage better in-fill development. Maybe there are institutions that are not being used anymore, a school or a church, that could be converted into housing, but you could use better regulations to promote that sort of use,” she said.

    Site plan proposed by developer PSDC for the corner of Bustard Road, at top, and Sumneytown Pike, at right, as presented to Towamencin’s supervisors during their June 10, 2025 meeting. Current buildings include existing offices labeled Building B on Bustard Road and Building D at center, an office building at the corner labeled Building G, and the current Margarita’s Restaurant labeled building I at lower right, and the developer is proposing a medical office Building A along the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and three new apartment buildings labeled Buildings C, E and F. (Screenshot of meeting video)
  

“I don’t want it to sound like I am advocating for plowing over what people care about. I’m here to offer, potentially, suggestions you may not have considered before,” Leavitt-Gruberger said.

Supervisor Kofi Osei said he was interested in reviewing the township’s definitions and terms to make sure they comply with current state and federal ones, while supervisor Kristin Warner said doing so “seems a little redundant to me” with the comprehensive plan update already underway, a view supervisor Chuck Wilson echoed.

“I see the need for this, but I would rather this be done at the local level, with input from our residents and our consultants and our staff, so it’s in line with what we envision our community to be going forward — than have the county push their housing initiatives on us, which is what I view this,” Wilson said.

“You’re doing it for free, get your foot in the door, and then there’s more to follow – in my opinion, just from seeing previous things like this,” he said.

Supervisor Amer Barghouth asked how the audit would be done, and if resident input would be part of that process. ALG said it would be “an informal desktop review,” with the county examining current codes, definitions, permitted uses, and “anything else that happens to jump out at us.”

“Maybe there are some regulations that seem burdensome, maybe there are standards that could be tweaked. Some communities have reduced parking minimums, to allow for more flexibility in a development’s design,” she said, a topic Osei has addressed frequently in recent meetings.

“I’m not here to push ‘the county’s agenda.’ I don’t have one to push. If it’s not of interest, that’s OK: it’s absolutely something that you can pursue at the local level, with your township consultants,” ALG said. No formal action was taken on the MCPC proposal, but township Manager David Kraynik said he’d incorporate the board feedback into an action item for talks at a future meeting.

Plenty of public comments

Resident Steve Hull said one term caught his ear — the reference to accessory dwelling units, such as garages or extra rooms, that could be converted into living space.

“She said a special word: ADU, accessory dwelling unit. I just put a garage in my backyard. I was told, ‘do not try and get a variance, because you will be declined,'” he said.

“But, if we suggest ADUs are acceptable, I guarantee I’m going to put a toilet, and a sink, and a kitchen out there, and rent it out for $1,200 a month. Everybody down Weikel Road, every garage, you can turn it into an ADU. How many toilets do we allow on an acre? Look at Los Angeles, they have ADUs everywhere. You can get a ten-by-ten foot shed, and put a sink in it, and it’s a building,” Hull said.

Based on recent talks about housing codes allowed in the township, Hull said, he has already started talks with his neighbors about buying their properties to redevelop with more units, and that trend could only be accelerated if higher density is encouraged. He then added that, as a teacher, he has seen firsthand and via studies that show students perform better in smaller schools they can walk to, and questioned whether either would be possible if the township is further developed and higher density per acre or smaller lot sizes are allowed.

“Let’s say you lower it to one-third of an acre. I guarantee I’m not the only one thinking this: I will buy every property next to your houses, tear them down, and put townhouses up,” he said.

On Weikel Road, Hull added, houses along a recently repaved stretch of road are all two-acre plots, with one house now, but as many as ten possible if higher density is allowed.

“My house is probably worth $700,000 or $750,000. But if I could tear it down and put three townhouses in there, or maybe a higher density and six, maybe they sell for $500,000 apiece — that’s a great deal. I would do that every day of the week,” Hull said. “I guarantee I’m not the only person watching this and investing in real estate. I will do that, and the last thing I’ll do is tear down my house, and turn it into townhouses, and then live over in Kimberton or somewhere where they have bigger lot sizes.”

Osei replied to his comment by noting that the most recent proposal for Freddy Hill included talks about lot sizes of one-quarter-acre which are allowed under current codes, and only on properties of ten acres or more.

Casey Hannings, the resident who has led a petition and created an Instagram account calling for preservation of as much of the Freddy Hill site as possible, said the board should balance any future development talks with the environmental impact.

“Once this space is gone, once this type of development goes through, you don’t get that space back. And any detriments that happen are irreversible. You pave over the landscape, put in a bunch of houses, and it’s gone,” he said.

“There is not any other space like Freddy Hill Farms left in this township. And there is an urgent need, across the nation and globally, to protect spaces like this. There is an overwhelming interest, in this community and township, to acquire and preserve open space, and protect the environment. And it would alleviate many of the concerns that my neighbors share, whether it’s traffic or congestion,” or runoff or other worries, Hannings said.

One option he shared: a community in Delaware County recently used provisions of the state constitution to decline a development that would have built on wooded area similar to those up for consideration here, he told the board.

“I’m hoping you can use that as inspiration to protect that grassland environment, and the creek, and all the creatures that live there,” he said.

Ashley Campisi of Kriebel Road said she saw during recent storms that “the water runoff on Kriebel Road is still horrible,” and was able to clean grates and inlets before the most recent storms, but worries about the impact of more paving and development on largely vacant properties.

“With all these new homes being talked about and put in, the stormwater is going to get worse, not better. I have neighbors across the street who get water in their basement every time we have downpours, and their pumps can’t keep up,” she said.

“We all moved into these homes because of the open space, the beautiful views, and seeing nature in our backyard. Building more homes isn’t the answer. I feel the space could be used for a better use: maybe putting in a splash pad, walking trails, rec areas, something for children to do. More homes isn’t the answer.”

And Jay Minnicks added another consideration: he and his wife live on Bridle Path Road and have a pool in their yard that’s used by neighborhood kids, but have recently noticed a new problem.

“Last year, there was quite a bit of deer…I’ll call it scat, spread around our property. I’m concerned about the health issue. If the housing goes through, on Freddy Hill Farms, what’s going to happen to those deer? Where are they going to go? Will the township hire a hunter to take them out for us? I really think it’s a safety issue,” he said.

As for the comprehensive plan update, Snyder said in a subsequent report that a final meeting of the township committee tasked with that update was held in late May, the township’s consultant overseeing the plan update is making final revisions, and the latest draft plan will be brought forward for talks and possible adoption at an upcoming meeting.

Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on July 9 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.

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