Board could OK subdivision

Plans are for former supermarket site; no new uses suggested yet for 3 lots near intersection

Plans are moving ahead for a new approach to redeveloping the site of the former Giant supermarket in Upper Gwynedd.

Developer Hartford Properties has brought back to the township a plan to split the corner property into three smaller lots, and the township commissioners could give it the go-ahead next week.

“It’s just a lot line plan. No buildings are shown; no uses. At this time, the applicant is proceeding in that manner,” said Assistant Township Manager Mike Lapinski.

The supermarket site on the northeast corner of the intersection of Sumneytown Pike and Church Road has been a topic of conversation since early 2015, when the Giant at that location was one of several in the area closed by that company.

In May 2016 the developer first showed plans for a Royal Farms fuel station, convenience store and several retail buildings to be built on the site instead, and several versions of that plan were discussed and vetted by the township, with a small hotel first proposed, then removed, before the commissioners voted in May 2017 to approve a plan with four small retail buildings surrounding the fuel station and store.

Since then, the developer withdrew a request for a waiver to allow a canopy over the fuel pumps next to the station, and earlier

this month the developer unveiled a different look for the property: splitting the roughly 4.5-acre parcel into three smaller sites, of between 1.2 and 1.9 acres, with lot lines running through the vacant supermarket

building.

According to the plans presented to the township’s planning commission, the first lot would contain the southwest corner of the parcel, up to roughly 164 feet north and 111 feet east from the corner of Sumneytown and Church. The second lot would contain the northern end of the site, running roughly 163 feet

along Church Road and roughly 366 feet east toward the rear of the site, and the third lot would contain the rest, roughly 431 feet deep and roughly 104 feet fronting on Sumneytown Pike.

Representatives of the developer have said they currently do not plan to make any changes to the driveway entrances and exits

onto the two main roads, and all three lots would have easements allowing for drivers to cross each. During the planning commission meeting, representatives of the developer said they could not yet name any specific users, and said the split lots may make more sense to allow different types of uses on each of the three lots, within the commercial

zoning that encompasses all three.

The township’s commissioners discussed the plans during their Tuesday night workshop, and could vote the subdivision plans ahead during their action meeting next week.

“The only thing they’re asking for is the subdivision. There’s really not a land development plan,” said Township Manager Len Perrone.