Town Center inches to approval
308 senior living units, retail use, 160 townhomes planned for 30-acre parcel
LIMERICK » A large development project on 30 acres with more than 300 senior living units and 160 townhomes at the intersection of Ridge Pike and Swamp Pike is inching its way through the approval process.
Tuesday night, the developers from Ridge Swamp Associates LLP, went before the Limerick Township Board of Supervisors hoping to convince officials to ease up on some of the design requirements, primarily landscaping.
In addition to the townhomes and the 308 senior units — comprised of a mixture of independent living, assisted living and “memory care” units — the plan also calls for three retail build-
ings that have 32,000 square feet of space on the first floor, with apartments above.
Called Limerick Town Center, the project was made possible by changes the supervisors made at the developers’ request to the township zoning code to allow the three uses on the same parcel, said Robert Brant, the attorney representing the developers.
In exchange, the developers agreed to extend Lewis Road through the property to Swamp Pike, thus allowing northbound drivers to avoid having to make a right turn onto Ridge Pike and then the very sharp left onto Swamp Pike, and vice versa.
However, the plan now includes a traffic circle, for the intersection of Swamp Pike, Lewis Road and the proposed new road, Arcadia Drive, which Supervisor Ken Sperring did not like at all.
The developers said the circle was required by PennDOT.
“That’s a disaster. Whoever designed that at PennDOT should be fired,” Sperring said.
“When all is said and done, we’re making $3.5 million in public improvements as a result of this project,” said Brant, including some water and sewer work.
As a result of the rewrite, the project already has zoning approval and has received “conditional use” approval as well, the result of a public hearing, related to the uses on the property. However, Limerick Town Center it has not yet received a preliminary site plan approval, something the developers hope to obtain at the June 28 planning commission meeting, said Brant.
After a long discussion Tuesday night, the majority of the supervisors indicated their support for some of the changes being sought by the developers, although Township Solicitor Joe McGrory was quick to emphasize that no official vote was being taken.
The changes included re-
ducing or eliminating green buffers, that would have forced the removal of some of the townhomes, and planted medians at some of the entrances that would have eliminated even more of them.
Mark Quigley, a principal in the project, indicated that the project is not financially feasible with fewer than 160 townhomes, each of which will have at least three bedrooms.
“If we go below 160, this doesn’ t happen,” he told the supervisors.
Supervisor Thomas Neafcy protested the removal of the planted median in the entrance off Swamp Pike.
“We set these standards in the ordinance and every time someone comes in and wants to waive them, this board says OK. I don’t understand it,” he said.
“This is unprecedented, this is a huge project in our community and there has to be some give and take,” said Supervisor Kara Shuler who agreed to all the developers’ requests except one to waive open space fees.
Although Brant noted that the plan meets the township’s requirements for parking, Supervisors Chairwoman Elaine DeWan still expressed concerns about there being enough of it.
If preliminary site plan approval is recommended at the June 28 planning commission meeting, the developers must still get an affirmative vote from the supervisors as well before proceeding to final site plan approval.