Board OKs plans for Freddy’s Steakburgers, Firestone store

TOWAMENCIN >> A new restaurant and an adjacent auto service center have gotten another goahead from Towamencin’s supervisors.

The board voted unanimously Wednesday night to grant final land development approval for a proposed Freddy’s Steakburgers restaurant and Firestone service center on Forty Foot Road.

“I can taste that burger already,” said Supervisor Jim Sinz.

Starting in January, a team of consultants has presented plans on behalf of Freddy’s Steakburgers and Frozen Custard, a national fast food chain founded in 2002.

The new restaurant would be located on property owned by the Clemens Family Corporation just behind the Chick-fil-A restaurant on Forty Foot Road, with a configuration similar to that restaurant of a building surrounded by a drivethrough with two order boards on two queue lanes that merge as they surround the building.

In February the board granted conditional use approval for the drive-through use, and attorney Jim Garrity returned Wednesday night for the next approvals, presenting an updated preliminary and final plan with the Freddy’s and Firestone sites clearly indicated.

“This is a 10-acre site, most of which is built out already. It was rezoned back in 2006 or 2007, and broken into phases, so we’re here tonight talking about two-thirds of phase 2B,” Garrity said.

“I say two-thirds because one-third, the township was nice enough to release for us: the parking lot in the lower-left-hand corner, so that we could solve some parking problems,” he said.

The original plans already approved for the site show the property now up for development as one large building with several restaurants inside, Garrity said, but the owner has developed an alternative, with the Freddy’s restaurant of roughly 3,000 square feet just east of the planned Firestone, which would be roughly 7,800 square feet.

“We went to this board to get a conditional

use approval for the drivethrough for the Freddy’s, and then we received a special exception from the zoning board for the Firestone store,” Garrity said.

“Apparently, they do some repairs there, so it’s not purely retail, although it’s about 98 percent retail sales of tires and batteries,” he said.

A second special exception was also secured, to allow an eight-feet-tall fence around the trash receptacles for Freddy’s, and the planning commission has since vetted and approved the updated plans, Garrity told the board.

“We think it’s ready for approval. The review letters don’t have anything that we have a problem with,” he said.

Garrity and township engineer Tom Zarko outlined several conditions and criteria outlined in their review letters that required board attention or approval. Since the original plans involved the widening of that portion of Forty Foot Road, Garrity told the board, the applicant is seeking to apply part of the value from those improvements toward their traffic impact fee for the newest project.

Zarko and township Solicitor Jack Dooley said their research has found the total cost of the Forty Foot widening to be about $1.5 million, part of which has already been credited to the same applicant.

“When the original development came through, with the Wawa and Chick-Fil-A, that would’ve otherwise generated a traffic impact fee of half-a-million dollars, but of course that was not paid, because of all of the work that had been done,” Dooley said, “so the remaining credit would be approximately $1 million.”

Based on the estimated trip counts to be generated by the restaurant, the corresponding fee for the Freddy’s and Firestone project would be roughly $105,000, Zarko said, leaving a remaining credit of roughly $900,000.

“Do we get a check for that?” Garrity joked, and Dooley replied “No, you don’t. Nice try, though.”

Several other waiver requests were contained in the view letters, and agreed to by the applicant, according to Zarko and Garrity.

Those included waivers for the paving material to be used in the parking area, the distance of parking from the building walls, that the perimeter of the site be landscaped with a continuous screen of plantings, and that storm sewer pipes be of certain sizes and angles and located in certain areas, all of which Zarko said could be waived to match similar characteristics on the rest of the site.

“We have no issue with the waiver requests, with the exception of the traffic impact fee, which Jack has explained — it’s really not a waiver, it’s a credit,” Zarko said.

Garrity asked if the board would consider a second credit for the construction of the nearby Butch Clemens Park and athletic fields at the time of the earlier development. Based on the building sizes, Zarko estimated the parks and recreation fee for that project would be in the neighborhood of $5,300.

“The ballfield cost a little more than that,” Garrity said, and the board members all agreed they would have no problems with granting a second credit.

Zarko said one other issue was raised in the review process, but has to do with a neighbor: the North Penn Water Authority has said they have problems with stormwater flowing onto their site, just south on Forty Foot Road, from the site planned for the Freddy’s and Firestone, and had planned to re-grade parts of their site to fix that issue.

“We went back and did a review of this plan and this project, and found a swale had not been installed on this site, to take water into an on-site basin,” Zarko said.

“We have a comment that ‘That swale should exist,’ and the applicant has indicated they are willing to do that, so therefore the water authority will not have to go forward with that grading permit application,” he said.

Supervisor Rich Marino asked how fast the work could begin on the restaurant site, and Garrity said they would begin as soon as the credit questions are formally documented and finalized.

“The tenants are anxious to go,” Garrity said, adding that the timing could depend on how fast he and Dooley hammer out their agreements.

“Jack, we want our custard,” Supervisor Laura Smith replied.

Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7:30 p.m. on June 12 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.Towamencin.org.