North Wales votes ahead School Street apartment building

A project is in the works that could add over a dozen apartments on a corner in North Wales.

Borough officials saw a preview earlier this month of plans by resident Donna Mengel to build a 14-unit apartment building on the 200 block of Main Street (Sumneytown Pike), at School Street.

“Why don’t we cut to the chase? I have two choices here: I can either sell the lot, or I can build on it, and I haven’t decided which I’m going to do,” said Mengel.

“I own quite a number of those Victorian homes, and the Federal homes, on Main Street, and I no more want an albatross in that spot than you do,” she said.

Mengel is one of the town’s most well-known residents by way of founding and leading the Lamb Foundation, a borough-based nonprofit which provides affordable housing and support services to senior citizens and adult individuals with mental, physical, and developmental disabilities who would otherwise be homeless. Mengel also currently serves on the board of the North Wales Water Authority and served 12 years on the North Penn school board ending in 2003; her late husband Dan O’Connell served on borough council for several stints through 2019 and was honored with a proclamation after his passing in 2023.

    Engineer John Koutsouros shows North Wales borough council the site at 201-205 North Main Street where a twin duplex was discussed during the Oct. 28, 2025 council meeting. (Dan Sokil – MediaNews Group)
  

During the Oct. 28 meeting, she and engineer John Koutsouros showed borough council a site plan depicting 201 and 205 North Main Street, a site that’s currently a parking lot, and plans for a proposed three-story, two-family detached duplex amid a stretch of other parcels also owned by Mengel.

“I own 201, 203, 149, 147, 145, 143, and then 121, and then my office (for Lamb Foundation) is across the street. So should I choose to build there, it is going to look like it fits, as opposed to something too new,” she said.

“I’m not going anywhere, so I want it to look very much like the neighborhood that I’m staying in,” Mengel said.    

Supporting documents filed with the plan indicate the total area to be disturbed is roughly 10,700 square feet, the building area would be just over 1,200 square feet, and the density would be just over 14 units per acre, and the site plan indicates the building would be just under 52 feet long by 24 feet wide, with access via an existing driveway onto School Street.

As Mengel and Koutsouros showed the plan, borough Manager Christine Hart explained that the parcels in question sit within an area addressed by a zoning change approved by council in 2023, where residential properties have now become part of the town’s commercial business district, and need relief from the town’s zoning hearing board for any residential project.

“The zoning hearing had been held, the relief was granted, so now we are looking at the use being permissible, as far as residential,” Hart said.

Any formal application would need vetting by the borough’s engineer, and the town and county planning commissions, and three waivers have been requested by the applicant which were spelled out in review letters and discussed by council. Those waiver requests have largely to do with sidewalk repairs, the dedication of rights-of-way to the town and upgrades to stormwater management on the site, Koutsouros said, and Hart said the net result of the plan should be a reduction in runoff.

“It’s pretty much all impervious already, so we’re actually gaining a lot of stormwater management,” she said, and Koutsouros added “and impervious (coverage) to grass will always help.”

Mengel added that she had yet to decide on a specific plan or design for the building itself, thus talks on the site configuration first.

“Should I choose to sell the property, contingent on my selling to whatever builder, I will have to agree to what they’re going to build there, because I live there. I have a vested interest for it to look like the neighborhood,” she said.

Koutsouros added that the original plan for the site would have made use of the existing driveway, which would create a “really difficult turn” for trucks and drivers heading on and off of the site, thus a proposed driveway reconfiguration along the frontage.

“Now we have a 24-foot drive aisle, that comes into the shared parking lot, and it’s a much cleaner application. That’s really the biggest change,” he said.

Council President Mark Tarlecki asked for specifics about parking on the site, and Koutsouros said a total of ten would be available on the site, in compliance with a request from the borough’s engineer. Council VP Wendy McClure asked if existing garages near that site would be affected by the project, and Koutsouros said those are located on other properties and wouldn’t be affected. Tarlecki then asked for specifics about landscaping and how much grass would be added to the site, and Koutsouros said those specifics would be hammered out if and when a formal architectural plan is submitted.

“Right now, it’s an asphalt jungle, so to add any grass there is helpful,” he said.

County planners have already indicated that the proposed use does fit with goals spelled out in the ‘North Wales 2040’ comprehensive plan adopted in 2018, and an update to that plan that’s currently underway, the council president added.

“Montgomery County Planning Commission has agreed that it does fit the mold of what we’re looking for in North Wales, in relation to the 2040 plan, the type of housing we have here, and the need for housing for population,” Tarlecki said.

Planning commission member Greg D’Angelo asked for specifics on whether the new building would be twin homes or twin duplexes with four or more units, and Koutsouros said current plans call for a two-family, semi-detached complex, with final details still to be finalized. Resident Valerie Orbell asked for details of the orientation of the new building, and Tarlecki said it would face School Street; Orbell then asked if the town’s Historical Architecture Review Board would also vet the plans, and Hart said they would.

“The plans, when it comes time for a building permit, will not be approved until HARB has put their seal of approval,” Hart said.

Council voted unanimously to grant the preliminary and final land development approval, subject to the conditions spelled out in the review letters.

North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Nov. 18 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information, visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.

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