The North Wales Hotel at Fifth and Walnut Streets in North Wales. (Photo courtesy of North Wales Borough)
Developer had proposed apartments in 2015, townhouses in 2017
A new set of plans for the landmark former McKeever’s Tavern site in North Wales proposes demolishing the nineteenth century building and replacing it with a four-story building containing 35 apartments and covering much of the block..
Council members heard an update Tuesday on the latest concept from the developer and a list of waivers they’re seeking.
“Council needs to decide whether it wants to oppose many of those items, and to send me as the solicitor, to state the council’s opposition, ask the appropriate questions, and make appropriate arguments,” said borough solicitor Greg Gifford.
Located at the corner of Fifth and Walnut Streets, the building in question was originally built in the 1890s as the Colonial Inn, then known as the North Wales Hotel through the 20th century, and most recently operated as McKeever’s Tavern until being closed in early 2014. After it closed, council and residents discussed the future of that building and its possible demolition or preservation.
A developer proposed plans for that site, starting with a four-story apartment building in place of the old hotel, but that plan was voted down by council in early 2015, replaced by a plan to build ten townhouses on the same property that was voted down at the end of 2017.
In 2020, staff said a new plan was in the works to convert the existing building into apartments and add a new apartment building next to it. The borough’s planning commission discussed and voted ahead those plans in 2022, which called for a new 31-unit apartment building with off-street parking and 3,400 square feet of commercial and café space on the first floor, but little new news was reported until May 2025, when staff said yet another new plan was in the works.
On Tuesday night council heard an update on talks that were held July 2 at the borough’s planning commission meeting, summarized in a formal memo from that group to the zoning board and included in council’s meeting materials. Gifford and borough Manager Christine Hart summarized that memo and the new plans, detailing how developer Greg Flynn — who had proposed the two earlier plans in 2015 and 2017 — has now come back with a new plan that would demolish the nineteenth century building and replace it with a four-story building containing 35 apartments and covering much of that block..
“They’re proposing to raze it in totality,” Hart said.
“Parking on the first floor, with some commercial space, and bike racks and so forth. Second floor would be 12 apartments, third floor would be 12 apartments, and fourth floor would be 11 apartments, according to these plans,” Gifford said. “What Mr. Flynn, I believe, will probably argue is that it’s not economically feasible to build this with less than 35 units. 24 units won’t be enough.”
As they spoke, the manager and attorney showed a proposed site plan of the proposed building, with the nineteenth-century hotel taking up one corner of the block, and the proposed apartment building filling up nearly the entire block.
Utility lines cast shadows across the front of the former McKeever’s Tavern building on Walnut Street in North Wales, as seen in June 2022. (Dan Sokil – MediaNews Group)“This is all building — it kind of takes up the whole parcel, with the exception of a small corner that has parking,” Hart said.
A total of nine waivers have been requested by the developer and his consultants, were discussed by the planning commission, will need action by the zoning board, and were summarized by the solicitor for council to consider whether to support or oppose.
A first waiver asks for a 7.6-foot setback from Walnut Street; eight feet is required by borough codes, and the attorney said “I can’t imagine anybody would be opposed” to granting that waiver. A second asks for a 14.6-foot setback from Fifth Street where 12 feet is the maximum allowed: “A little bit further off of the street is a good thing, so that’s a no-brainer,” he said.
The third requested waiver drew more discussion: the developer is asking for a waiver to allow a setback of just over three feet from the rear of the property, in an area where 20 feet is required by borough codes, a distance Gifford said may be too close for comfort for neighbors.
“I would be surprised if that neighborhood didn’t get their own attorney to fight this. Because that would be putting a four-story building, literally towering over their home. Claustrophobic is an understatement, because that would be a very large building,” Gifford said.
Similar proposals drew pushback from neighbors and council in Lansdale in the 2010s, the attorney added, and the zoning hearing board could also push back on the fourth requested waiver, which asks for a building height of four stories and 48 feet in the town’s transit-oriented zoning district, where three stories and 40 feet are the max allowed. Hart said that zoning code update, approved by council in 2023, was developed after multiple years of discussion and vetting, with the idea that any new construction fit in with the existing three-story maximum heights around town.
Fifth on the waiver list is the number of units: the proposed 35 apartments on a lot of less than an acre equates to a density of 54 units per acre, where a max of 30 units per acre are allowed, and waiver number six requests no landscape buffer at the rear yard since only three feet of space would be available.
Parking would also be up for discussion: a seventh waiver asks for permission to provide a total of 48 parking spaces, of which 42 would be onsite and six on the street, where a total of 56 parking spaces would be required by code.
“Obviously, if it was not four stories high, and you knocked off 11 apartments, it would have enough parking with a three-story building, and wouldn’t need any zoning relief. Otherwise, that’s going to create something of a parking nightmare,” Gifford said.
Eighth on the waiver list is a request to allow a loading area on the street of roughly 44 by seven feet, while codes require an off-street loading area of 36 by 12 feet, and the last waiver seeks permission for “a minor intrusion” within a sight triangle at the intersection of East Walnut and Sixth Street, dimensions Gifford said are currently being vetted by the borough’s engineer.
After vetting that list of waivers, the planning commission ultimately voted to stay neutral on the application when it’s heard by the zoning hearing board on July 29, Hart told council. Councilwoman Wendy McClure said “the ones that stick out right away for me” are the building height, density and setback waivers. Council President Sal Amato said he’s concerned about the impact on neighbors, both visually and in terms of traffic.
“It seems to me like it’s going to be a building that really blocks in the residents in the back, and kind of shuts them off into an alleyway,” Amato said.
As they shared their thoughts, council members saw one possible outcome: a rendering of a four-story glass and brick building that the developer showed the planning commission as a sample of what could be built.
“I’m just so anxious to have something in that spot, and I know all of our residents are, too. To people that drive by, asking ‘What in the world’s going on?’, here we have another presentation that doesn’t quite fit what we need,” McClure said.
“I want to be as cordial as possible, to try to have a discussion about things that we might be able to work together, to make it work,” McClure said.
North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on July 22 and the zoning hearing board next meets at 7 p.m. on July 29, both at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
