Car wash plans tabled over traffic concerns
New business would occupy vacant site at the Welsh Road, DeKalb Pike corner
Plans for a new car wash at the corner of Route 202 (DeKalb Pike) and Route 63 (Welsh Road) are up for discussion, but have been tabled for now.
“The board tabled action on that until the meeting on April 9. They opened the hearing, let them put their case on, but there’s an issue there with regards to traffic,” said Township Manager Larry Gregan.
Plans were presented during the township supervisors’ March 26 meeting for a new car wash, including a roughly 4,600-square-foot building within a 1.8-acre lot at the northeast corner of DeKalb and Welsh Road, the site of a former Atomic Tire store, according to Gregan and submitted plan documents. The property is currently zoned C-Commercial, with the car wash use allowed by conditional use from the board, and plans call for enough car stacking for 66 vehicles, and a total parking area of 34 spaces for employees and customers.
The version of the plans shown Monday night includes a right-turn-only driveway from Welsh Road onto the property, which would use an existing curb cut there, and a full movement driveway entrance and exit at an existing curb cut on the DeKalb Pike side of the site — spots Gregan said the board want township staff to examine more closely.
“The board wanted the township traffic engineer to
review the (traffic) study, and provide any comments on the statements they were making with regard to the traffic study,” Gregan said.
The current plans are contained within the board’s meeting materials packet for March 25, and show how the car wash building would run roughly parallel to DeKalb Pike, with the DeKalb driveway flowing into a looping road running along the building toward Welsh Road, then back along the opposite end of the property, before a tighter turn into the car wash building itself. The car wash building would then empty out into the parking lot, which drivers would then pass through to get back to the dual movement exit onto DeKalb.
“The issues that we have
with it primarily have to do with access, and some of the left turn movements that they want to make into and out of the site, and whether or not they’re feasible and practical,” Gregan said.
After lengthy discussion by the supervisors, Gregan said, the board voted to table any further action on the plans until the traffic engineer’s review is completed. A second approval item relating to the same project was also included on the board’s March 25 agenda, and was also tabled: a request from the same applicant, ProReal Ventures LLC, to reduce the amount of landscaping currently required by township codes.
“As part of that, the applicant has requested a reduction in a landscape buffer along one side of the property,” said Gregan.
“The board tabled that, pending a review of their landscape plan” by the township’s landscape engineering
consultant, he said.
Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners also discussed the proposed car wash plans during that board’s March 20 workshop meeting, after being notified by Montgomery Township staff that the project could create extra traffic near an intersection on the border of both municipalities. Upper Gwynedd’s board briefly discussed whether to take any formal action to oppose the project, but voted to withhold any comment or input until the plan progresses farther in Montgomery Township.
Montgomery Township’s supervisors next meet at 9 p.m. on April 9 at the township administration building, 1001 Stump Road.