GROWING PAINS
Commercial buildings not guaranteed in Town Center project
NEW HANOVER >> Developers of a massive 800-home project off Swamp Pike will not commit to a timetable for building the commercial portion of the project.
Meeting at their request with the township supervisors to get guidance on moving forward with the New Hanover Town Center project, which has lingered in the planning stage for more than a decade, developers said they will not build commercial elements of the project until market conditions are right.
The project calls for the construction of 793 dwelling units, some apartments, some townhouses and some single-family homes, along with 171,000 square feet of commercial space — at least as currently proposed.
The New Hanover Town Center, as its officially named, has gone through numerous variations over the years and has been revised five times just since 2017. The latest plan calls for 189 single-family homes; 290 townhomes; 103 “atrium” homes; 94 twin homes and mixed-use buildings with apartments over commercial space.
The single-family homes will be marketed at prices ranging from $420,000 to $450,000, developers said.
Town Center is proposed on 209 acres bounded by Swamp
The singlefamily homes will be marketed at prices ranging from $420,000 to $450,000, developers said.
Pike in the north, Route 663 in the east and Township Line Road to the west.
According to the phasing plan the developer has put together, the first two phases to be built would construct a total of 351 homes, as well as much of the infrastructure for the commercial portion, which includes a “big box” space for a supermarket, or similar large store.
But Benjamin Goldthorp, who represents developer R.P. Wynestone LP, a branch of Select Properties, said “market conditions” would determine when the actual commercial properties would be built.
He said market studies show that 20,000 people need to live within three to five miles of such a store in order for it to be successful. New Hanover currently has about 15,000 people, Goldthorp said.
The latest U.S. Census estimate for New Hanover, made in July 2018, indicated the township’s population to be 13,035.
Some of the people who will live within the new development will help boost that number, but it may be some time before the 20,000 threshold is reached, Goldthorp said.
And that would leave the township, and the Boyertown Area School District, with lots of new homes and the students who live in them, but no commercial development to boost the tax base and offset those expenses.
That was not what Supervisors Chairman Charles D. Garner Jr. wanted to hear.
A township solicitor for neighboring Lower Pottsgrove — where he helped negotiate a phasing plan for the 500-unit Sanatoga Green project ensuring commercial elements are in the second phase or pay a $375,000 penalty — Garner presided over pointed questioning about the project at Thursday night’s meeting.
“It can’t be 800 houses with no commercial,” said Garner. “If you’re promising us a town center, with commercial and office, I want to make sure it all gets built and not just 800 houses,” he said.
Impact on Schools
When one resident asked about the development’s impact on the schools, and if the developers would be making a contribution toward building a new school, attorney Marc Jonas said “that’s what property taxes are for.”
Boyertown Schools are currently enacting a redistricting plan and considering the closure of Pine Forge Elementary School as a way to make the most use of its facilities. Some of that plan seems likely to shift student population to the Berks County side of the district given that the three school buildings on the Montgomery County side are the district’s most crowded.
Last month, during a meeting at New Hanover/ Upper Frederick Elementary School, Superintendent Dana Bedden told the school board Boyertown has 6,819 students currently across all buildings.
The latest capacity figures, by school building, are as follows:
• High school — 88.5 percent capacity;
• Middle school east — 88.5 percent capacity;
• Middle school west — 88 percent capacity;
• Washington Elementary — 71.4 percent capacity;
• Boyertown Elementary — 62 percent capacity;
• Colebrookdale Elementary — 76 percent capacity;
• Pine Forge Elementary — 61.4 percent capacity;
• Earl Elementary — 63.7 percent capacity;
• New Hanover/Upper Frederick Elementary — 94 percent capacity;
• Gilbertsville Elementary — 103.7 percent capacity.
Several residents told the supervisors Thursday night that the Town Center project could result in another school being required to accommodate the new students.
Jonas said studies have shown that new townhouses and apartments, which comprise a sizeable portion of the housing total for the project, generate fewer school children than new single-family homes.
Impact on Roads and Traffic
Garner told the developers, and the other su
they would prefer the development’s roads to remain private roads and not become public roads.
That way, although the roads must meet all township standards, the township would not be responsible for maintaining them. That responsibility would fall to a homeowners association, he said.
But Planning Commission Chairwoman Sue Smith warned that keeping all the roads private would create problems for school buses given that they are not allowed on private roads.
That could result in school buses picking up the Town Center’s schoolchildren on busy roads like Swamp Pike, Route 663 and Township Line Road.
And those are just some of the traffic headaches 793 new housing units could create, residents said Thursday night.
One resident said she had moved to New Hanover from King of Prussia, “because it was too crowded there,” and worried that with all the development occurring in New Hanover, the same problem would follow her.
“If this is built, Swamp Pike will have to become a four-lane road,” she predicted.
Swamp Pike resident Linda Taylor said: “I can’t get out of my driveway right now as it is.”
“I share your concern,” said Garner. “I drive on Swamp Pike all the time.”
Township supervisors from neighboring Douglass (Mont.) have expressed concern about the amount of traffic the development will route through Gilbertsville as drivers head for Route 100.
Sandy Koza, the township’s traffic engineer, said the project requires a traffic study that projects the likely impact of the additional vehicles owned by 793 households.
State law allows the township to impose a “traffic impact fee” on developers, based on those studies, and its own research, to help pay for road improvements necessary by the increased traffic.
In fact, the township just updated its research which showed residential growth in the township is expected to continue with more than 2,000 new homes and nearly 6,000 new residents by 2030, according to a draft township report.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission has projected the addition of about 6,800 people by 2025, representing a population increase of 98 percent since 2000 for this once rural township.
Similarly, the township will see more than 95,000 square feet of office and commercial retail space developed by 2030, according to the same draft township traffic projection report.
Koza said as each phase of the Town Center project is approved, the developers will be required to implement the road improvement related to the increased traffic it creates.
Land Clearing
Despite having no site plan approvals, Town Center developers have already started clearing the land for the project.
In August and September they caught the attention of township, county and state officials when they cut down trees and started grading land.
Engineer David Leh informed the supervisors last month it was discovered in late August that the developers had cleared a wide swath of trees and ground.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection inspected the site Aug. 26 and found that more than 25 acres of land for the project that has not yet received township approval has generated a notice of violation.
Nearby Minister Creek and its tributaries could have been polluted with sediment because adequate erosion controls had not been installed prior to the clearing, the DEP inspector found.
Leh said Thursday night that erosion control measures required by the Montgomery County Conservation District had been put into place and seemed to be working in most places.
Stormwater Concerns
That land clearing was undertaken with a permit obtained under the umbrella of a 2005 preliminary site plan approval from the township which gives the developer certain grandfathered rights, according to Township Manager Jamie Gwynn.
Among those rights are slopes for stormwater containment basins, which are what the developer is preparing to construct, that are less stringent than those now required, due in large part to conflicting standards in different sections of the township’s ordinances.
That was confirmed Thursday night, the same night Supervisor Ross Snook urged the developers to be sure that water from sump pumps in basements are included in the calculations used to determine the size of the basins.
Previous projects have left those figures out and, as a result, flooding has occurred said Snook, who is also the chairman of the township’s Environmental Advisory Board.
“We just want to be sure they work,” said Garner. “We’ve been having a lot of problems with flooding lately.”
In February, the supervisors heard from Douglass (Mont.) resident Darlene Eisenhard, who said developments in New Hanover are pushing stormwater onto her Aspen Drive property.
“I can’t use my back yard. My shed is ready to float away. We’ve never had it before and I’ve been here for 30 years. I know we’ve had a lot of rain, but we’ve had a lot of rain before,” she said in February.
“Kids are kayaking in the swales, she said. “That’s how bad it’s getting.”
Residents Dislike Plan
None of the residents in the near-capacity meeting room spoke up in favor of the project.
For example, despite the boost to the school district tax base, several speakers were not sure the region needs or wants, a large commercial center.
“This is supposed to be a small town, not a shopping center,” said resident Linda Weaver.
Jonas said the developer is only working within the zoning the township created. “We didn’t write the zoning, the township did, we’re just working within it,” he said.
But the assertion that the township supervisors drew up the zoning unassisted drew a sharp rebuke from Smith who said the previous developer, THP Properties, worked with the supervisors to draw up the zoning before going bankrupt in the recession.
Either way, “a previous board decided a town center was something we wanted in New Hanover and created ordinances to allow it and we’re seeing the result of that now,” said Garner.
After two hours of discussion Thursday, it was decided that a joint meeting between the supervisors, the planning commission and the developers will be scheduled in November to deal with a large number of waivers being sought by the developers.