Support for ‘Newbury II’ plan
Proposal calls for 32 twin homes off Hancock Road, Prospect Avenue
Residents who live near a proposed development in Upper Gwynedd had plenty to say about the possible project Monday, and will have another chance to sound off next month.
“Officially, I want to say that Newbury will not oppose the rezoning. The plan is basically OK — but I have four or five items that I would like to have the plan work with,” said resident Glen Johnson.
Johnson lives on Newbury Court and is president of the homeowners’ association of the current ‘Newbury One’ development, located just off of Prospect Avenue south of Hancock Road. The current Newbury development is just to the northwest of the proposed site for ‘Newbury II,’ and attorney Ed Mullin, land planner John Kennedy and landscape engineer Tim Woodrow explained details of how the second
project would fit on a parcel recently acquired from nearby Sanctuary United Methodist Church.
Plans for the 8.3-acre property have been in development since early 2014, according to Kennedy, and the latest version shows a complex of 32 twin homes to be built around a cul-desac to the northwest of the current Newbury homes, with roughly 100 feet between the closest of the old and new buildings.
“The original starting point was a 20-foot setback, plus the existing 20foot yard, so 40 feet from the face of the building to face of building,” Kennedy said.
“We tried very hard to work with the neighbors to really push these back as much as possible, and try to be able to save some trees,” he said.
The development would need a change in the township’s zoning code, from the current R-2 residential which allows single family homes to the R-4 zoning which allows twin units. That change is among the approvals the developer is seeking, and a hearing Monday night led to no formal action by Upper Gwynedd’s board, but that permission could be granted at their Aug. 22 meeting.
Johnson led roughly half-a-dozen residents who said they did not oppose the rezone request, but had problems with finer points of the project itself — including the proximity of the closest new homes to those that currently exist. Pointing out features and distances on the most recent plan, Johnson said eliminating the closest set of twins would remove several of the buffering problems the residents have, including the fate of trees there now.
“You can see, the staggered line goes right through house number nine, which means a good portion of the woods, perhaps more than half, will be gone,” Johnson said.
Residents in the current
Newbury development would also like a berm to be built between their homes and the new ones, to buffer sound and dust coming from the construction site. Johnson specified the berm be roughly 115 feet long, 15 feet wide and 3 feet high,and that it be built before any construction begins.
“It’s all open there, and we’re just going to get nothing but a dust bowl” without it, he said.
Several other residents
asked about stormwater management features to control water running off of the new Newbury toward their homes, and Kennedy and Woodrow said they intend to place stormwater retention basins on two corners of the property, with details to be finalized during the planning process.
Other resident concerns included construction of a fence around the stormwater basins, marketing of the new homes, and a contribution from the new project
to the homeowners’ association to complete pubic improvements — such as, Johnson said, dredging of a fountain in the current Newbury development that is clogged from runoff from the new Newbury site.
“‘In consideration of the association not opposing the rezoning of the property, developer shall pay the association a sum of’ — they have $40,000; I want $60,000,” Johnson said, reading from a proposed agrement.
Other resident questions had to do with stormwater flow off the Newbury II site, and commissioners Jim Santi and Ken Kroberger said that problem should be at least improved with the construction of three stormwater basins at nearby Pennbrook Middle School.
“Tonight is strictly a hearing for a rezone. It has nothing to do with what’s going in there, and nothing to do with anything in the development itself,” said Santi.
No residents spoke out against the proposed Newbury II project, and Mullin said he would take the feedback from the residents into consideration before final board approval is granted. That approval could come at the commissioners’ next action meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the township administration building, 1 Parkside Place; for more information visit www.UpperGwynedd. org.