Plans are coming into focus for a development that could add several hundred apartments to an office park on Sumneytown Pike near Forty Foot Road.
Township officials saw the latest version of developer PSDC’s Main Street project this week, spurring lengthy talks about development in Towamencin.
“Part of the proposal here, and the necessity for the density, is that it’s going to spur and help the Main Street development, which will include restaurant and retail uses,” said attorney Matt McHugh on behalf of PSDC.
“These are things we think will help spur development of an overall vacant office park, to help provide some of the things residents are talking about that they want to see,” he said.
Talks began back in 2018 on a code update to allow new uses within the township’s current village overlay area, an area of roughly 20 acres surrounding Forty Foot and Sumneytown. Few updates on that site followed until early 2024, when PSDC said they had acquired more properties around that intersection, and that summer the developer said they had acquired properties on the south side of Sumneytown in addition to the north side, including a large office building on the corner, assembling over a dozen different parcels for a possible office and retail development there.
During the township supervisors meeting on June 11, McHugh and engineer John Alejnikov showed the latest plans, and gave new numbers, presenting a complex of several new buildings proposed behind the current office building on the corner, and the Margarita’s restaurant just to the east.
“This is a concept plan, just a presentation of what could be developed under the ordinance. Ultimately, when we move forward, we’ll have to come to you for conditional use (approval), and lay out the buildings, and some of the uses may shift,” McHugh 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)The attorney showed an overhead site plan with several proposed buildings labeled alongside those that exist now: a proposed one-story medical office ‘Building A’ would be located on the south side of the property overlooking the nearby Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and between that building and Bustard Road an existing lab ‘Building B’ would be office space.
Three other new buildings, labeled buildings C, E and F on the plans, would each be new three-story apartment buildings surrounding a proposed ‘Building D’ clubhouse in what is now a dental lab building at the center of the site, and a garage on the north side between Margarita’s and the office building, which could be converted into a hotel, would remain.
How high?
“We would prefer to pursue a height of 50 feet, which would be more in line with a four-story building, but if it’s the pleasure of the board we’re still going to honor that promise of three stories,” he said.
Supervisor Kofi Osei asked if the rest of the board would consider leaving the current height requirement in place, instead of requiring shorter buildings: “I wonder why we would want three stories versus four?”
“I know there’s a lot of antagonism versus PSDC, but this is an existing parking lot, and there are increasing vacancies. It is worthwhile to look into not having the vacancies there,” he said.
A sign with leasing info for developer PSDC stands in front of the Walgreens on Forty Foot Road in Towamencin in Sept. 2024.McHugh said the taller building height would allow more units in each building and remove some of the current impervious cover to add green space, and the maximum density possible would be for 400 apartment units, while the lower height would allow for a total of just over 250 units.
Supervisor Chuck Wilson said he’d “like to see you maintain the three stories that you originally promised,” and supervisor Amer Barghouth said he’s “completely oppose(d) to this rezoning amendment, the 250 residential units, the hotel, all of it.”
“Cramming 250 multifamily units, rental units, in there makes no sense. Especially when this board is also looking at two land developments further up on Sumneytown Pike,” Barghouth said, referring to proposals roughly half a mile east on Sumneytown for over 300 new houses on the Freddy Hill Farms site and a proposed 33 townhouse development on the ‘Walton Farm’ just behind it.
“I’ve heard a lot of concerns from residents in the past meetings about the impact on their lives of all the proposed developments, especially in terms of stormwater, flooding, road congestion, crowding at the elementary schools, and straining the volunteer fire department. I think these concerns are legitimate, and should be taken into account,” he said.
Plenty of parking?
As for parking, the current draft ordinance requested by the developer has a limit of 1.75 parking spaces per unit, which the planning commission recommended be increased to two, and the current concept plan accounts for a total of three spaces per unit.
“We think 1.5 really is more in line with current market standards for parking demand. We think two is excessive, we have the space to do it, but it’s a matter of impervious and available green space,” McHugh said.
Wilson asked if recent trends of home prices increasing and families moving back in together meant the parking requirements should be higher, and McHugh said the developer could provide parking studies that show actual parking demand at similar developments “certainly well below three: in the 1.5 to 1 per bedroom” range.
A sign with leasing info for developer PSDC stands at the corner of Forty Foot Road and Sumneytown Pike in Towamencin in Sept. 2024.Osei replied by noting he saw a conflict between the request for more parking, and a desire for less impervious: “If they want less pavement, why are we requiring more pavement? I don’t understand why we are saying ‘Stormwater, stormwater,’ and ‘Please pave over the existing green space.’”
McHugh said the apartments would be mostly one- and two-bedroom units, with “very few, if any” school-age children.
Residents have their say
Gisela Koch asked if all of the development was necessary: “We have a lot of empty office buildings that are open and empty,” and others could be converted instead of building new. I don’t think we need to build more offices. We need some entertainment in this township, things for people to do, or a nice restaurant or coffee shop,” she said.
Shannon Main asked about pedestrian safety between the proposed site and the other three sides of the intersection of Forty Foot and Sumneytown, and asked about the impacts to restaurants already there.
“You see people crossing the street that are parking in this lot, to go to The Mill, on a regular basis. You also have people at Margarita’s, that parking in your spaces now. They’re the two places that most people in our township go to. Are we taking away anything from Margarita’s?” she said, and McHugh answered they were not.
Russ Vincent said the developer should keep their years of prior promises in mind: “It’s my opinion that PSDC has failed this community. They have failed to bring in new business, they have let business leave, land sits empty, buildings sit empty. Now they want to put up apartment buildings? Where are we going to put all those kids? There’s no room in our schools,” he said.
Bruce Bailey said he agreed with a higher parking requirement, and warned about pedestrian safety.
“I watch people trying to cross at Sumneytown and Forty Foot Road, and nobody obeys the lights. The crossing lights for pedestrians are in conflict with the traffic lights, they both get the go-ahead, and the car wins out,” he said: “I’m against the development there. It just doesn’t fit in.”
McHugh said he’d take the input and draft an updated ordinance using feedback via review letters from the township’s consultants, and would be back at a future meeting for further talks.
Towamencin’s supervisors meet at 7 p.m. on June 25 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.
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