Madison sale agreement OK’d

Developer will cover costs of road widening, utilities, electrical upgrades for a parking lot

LANSDALE >> A large milestone has passed, and a timeline is now coming into focus for development of Lansdale’s Madison Parking Lot.

On Tuesday night, the borough’s Parking Authority approved a formal sale agreement with developer Equus Capital Partners, announcing a total of $2.5 million in public improvements that will be part of the project.

“This is a big step. We have to take each step at a time — we can’t take the fifth step before we take the first step,” said Borough Manager Jake Ziegler.

For much of the past several years, the borough Parking Authority and Equus have discussed a possible agreement of sale, which would sell the borough lot to the developer in exchange for construction of several buildings, public improvements, and in early versions a parking garage. Over the intervening years, the plans have been changed several times, most notably to remove a parking garage on the Madison side now that SEPTA has nearly com-

pleted its own parking garage across the rail tracks, and a pedestrian bridge to connect the two.

Ziegler and Parking Authority Solicitor Joe Clement outlined the details of the latest version Tuesday: the project will now contain 175 residential apartment units, 17,500 square feet of commercial space, a public place about 10,000 square feet, and a recreational trail running along the tracks. Related to the project, but likely to start sooner, will be the widening of Madison Street from the current two lanes with parking parallel to the road, to a widened street with parking perpendicular to the road, which Clement said should create roughly 70 new parking spaces. Those spots will be added to roughly 35 new public parking spots

elsewhere on the lot, and roughly 200 spots surrounding the seven apartment buildings at various angles on the triangular lot.

Those plans are largely identical to the last version presented to the public in March, Clement said, but the $2.5 million price tag comes from public improvements the developer has agreed to do, including the street widening and the digging of bores below the rail lines for sewer and electric utility lines.

“The other thing that many of you know is of great necessity for this borough is the Richardson substation upgrade,” Clement said, referring to a borough electric substation at the northwest corner of the lot that was installed in 1974.

“That’s about a $650,000 capital expenditure that’s on the borough’s books right now, that will be covered through part of the purchase price,” he said.

Other funds will be available

for the borough and parking authority to determine what to do with, and Clement said in exchange the authority will agree to the waiver of certain permit fees associated with connecting utility lines for each apartment unit. Each of the 175 apartments would typically require a $3,200 sewer fee and each of the 21 planned commercial units would require a $3,500 fee, which would be waived in exchange for construction of the utility lines and other improvements.

“The rest of it is in professional fees and services, which is a little bit of a moving target, but the Parking Authority is coming out on the plus side,” Clement said.

The Parking Authority voted unanimously to approve the agreement, and doing so starts a new timeline: Equus now has 180 days to secure their land development approval from the borough, and could request up to two 60-day extensions;

any further extension would require they pay a $10,000 fee.

“Assuming that everything moves forward, that Equus moves forward in the way they want to, they’ve said they want to break ground in the first quarter of next year,” said Clement.

While the lot plans are vetted by the borough planning commission, code committee, and then council, the Madison Street widening project would be similarly vetted, with the possibility of bidding out that project this coming winter.

“This is one of the times throughout this process that Equus is really pressuring us to move as quickly as we can,” Clement said — to which Authority Chairman Dan Dunigan said, “the tables have turned.”

In response to concerns from local residents and businesses, more parking has been added along the widened portion of Madison Street, according to Clement

and Dunigan, and the public will have changes to share their thoughts as the plan proceeds through council. Ziegler said the plans could come before the planning commission in November or December, and the road widening project should be out to bid by the end of the year.

“We’re advancing the process. It will now become a subdivision and land planning project, for the borough itself to approve,”

Dunigan said.