Towamencin votes ahead zoning change for Sumneytown Pike apartments

A long-discussed development project on Sumneytown Pike in Towamencin has prompted another round of pushback from residents.

Township officials sounded off last week on the latest update to plans for developer PSDC’s proposed “Main Street” complex of hundreds of apartments planned for Sumneytown and Forty Foot Road.

“Ultimately, if the ordinance is passed, we have to come in with a conditional use master plan showing the redevelopment of the site. What we’re providing is a concept plan of what the ordinance would allow,” said attorney Matt McHugh on behalf of PSDC.

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 that could be converted into apartments or a hotel, assembling over a dozen different parcels for a possible office and retail development there.

In June the developer showed a complex of several new buildings proposed behind the current office building on the corner, with up to 400 apartment units possible under their requested zoning change; in July the board and developer debated the building heights and number of parking spaces and dwelling units per acre that should be allowed there, and on Aug. 26 the attorney gave another update.

“The only change was to match the 250 units and the two spaces per unit of parking. What you saw was a reduction of a little over 225 parking spaces, mostly on the southeastern property border, where Boone Way and Morgan Way are,” he said.

Since the July presentation, the attorney added, the Montgomery County Planning Commission has submitted a review letter noting a series of issues already discussed by the township and its planning commission, with an ordinance allowing the 8.5 units per acre and 250 total units up for the board to consider voting ahead for a formal hearing in October.

Supervisors sound off

Supervisor Chuck Wilson asked if the developer could bring a map showing the various sectors of the property and the uses that would be allowed in each area, and the attorney said those visuals are included in the review letters and documentation that will be shown during the October hearing. Wilson asked if the changes in the latest update correspond to a map shown in earlier talks on the same area back in 2020, when residents on Reiff Road objected to high density housing being allowed on parcels near their neighborhood, and the attorney said they did.

“You wanted to eliminate the residential uses there — since there’s no residential anymore, there’s no need for a residential density requirement,” McHugh said.

That change is one reason he’d back voting ahead the latest plans, Wilson replied.

“This is my main reason for supporting this, is that we’re able to get that residential (development) away from Reiff Road,” he said.

Supervisor Kofi Osei said the village commercial district below that overlay would still allow developments like single family homes and duplexes there, he added, and the board could — and Osei said, should — be combined with a larger look at that area.

“Every municipality is having this same conversation, about office to residential conversion,” he 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)
  

Osei then said he’d vote in favor of the developer’s request, with two changes: that the restriction on the number of stories in the code be removed, while leaving the building height restriction in place, and that parking requirements be reduced to 1.5 per dwelling unit, in line with Osei’s calls over the past two years to reduce parking requirements throughout the township.

“We don’t solve any issues by forcing three buildings when they can get 250 apartment units in two buildings. We should want to leave more space for commercial establishments, or green space,” Osei said. “I don’t know why we’re asking them to pave more than they want to pave.”

Supervisor Kristin Warner said she would prefer the parking requirement stay higher: “In my own personal experience, you end up with more cars than people sometimes. This person needs (a car for their) job, this car breaks down, you’ve gotta rent another one. Our township sits on a turnpike. People moved here because they have jobs that require getting on the turnpike and going somewhere. We’re a different bird than other places,” Warner said.

Supervisor Amer Barghouth said he was opposed to the zoning change, for now, and would rather see current buildings owned by PSDC on the other sides of that intersection filled before any new construction: “To me, this is not really solving anything.”

Residents share concerns

Several residents aired their gripes against PSDC and slow progress on other projects the developer has promised around the township. Harry Rieck said he thought reducing the parking requirement was “absolutely ludicrous,” and said “Everybody here is saying you need to listen to the residents. And your comments tonight prove to me that you’re not listening to residents about anything.”

Bruce Bailey said he also agreed with reducing the paving wherever possible, particularly since the site is so close to the Northeast Extension “You’ve got water issues already. Almost every meeting, people talk about flooding. Don’t forget, the Pennsylvania Turnpike is a wall, it’s like a great wall that splits our township. There’s only a few opportunities for water to flow downhill, as it goes through Towamencin.”

Lori Morrissey asked what would happen to the pond at the center of the complex, and McHugh said it would remain. During a visit to the site this week, Tony Wager of Hatfield and his nephew Zachary Alderfer of Harleysville took turns casting their lines into the pond, and said they hadn’t heard about the proposed development plans but both would be opposed.

“I’ve never fished here before. My friend told me about this spot — he said, ‘Why don’t you go down to Margarita’s?’ and I’m like, ‘OK…?’ Now I see this, and I said ‘Ohhh,'” Alderfer said.

As they watched their lines and took turns looking for the perfect spot around the pond, a third local who declined to give her name walked her dog along a path around the pond.

“I get it, people need housing, but they should find somewhere else to build. This is nice here. A lot of people that work here, walk around here — it’s just a nice area,” she said.

Back in the hearing, Morrissey asked what uses would go into the buildings that are there now, and McHugh said that’s part of what the new ordinance would spell out.

Pat McKeever asked if the board should consider approvals for the PSDC project at Forty Foot and Sumneytown as a way to spur movement on PSDC’s long-awaited redevelopment of a shopping center north on Forty Foot at Allentown Road: “I’m tired of seeing empty buildings, that haven’t been moved forward. I think this is a way to hold them accountable, for the eyesore that is that strip mall.”

Lisa Shughart said she was struck by a comment from the developer that the new residential was easier to fill than the existing buildings: “His response was, ‘it’s easier to do’ for him. But sir, we are the ones that live here. We are the ones that have to pay for what is easier for you to do.”

Wilson then asked McHugh to confirm that the new residential units originally discussed in earlier versions of the plans on the north side of Sumneytown would no longer be allowed, and McHugh agreed, and said the approval documents could be modified to say so.

“They had a right to go ahead and build those, and there was a lot of opposition from the residents on Reiff Road. If we pass this, those (planned buildings) are going to be gone, and it’s going to be on the other side of Sumneytown PIke, where it’s not affecting neighborhoods so much,” Wilson said.

The board then voted three-to-two in favor of advertising the ordinance, with Wilson, Warner and Snyder in favor and Barghouth and Osei against.

Towamencin’s supervisors meet at 7 p.m. on Sept. 10 and 24 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.

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