Code change in works could spur tile factory project
LANSDALE » A code change that’s in the works could be a sign of a new project coming to one of Lansdale’s largest properties.
Talks are underway on a potential change to the town’s parking regulations in the industrial district that could clear the way for future development of the former American Olean tile property.
“This came about from the land development that Stoltz had filed on 1000 North Cannon Avenue, the North Penn Business Park,” said borough land planning consultant John Kennedy.
“As many of you know, they’re in the process of adding a number of buildings, that will add about an additional 750,000 square feet of space to the site,” he said.
Located north of Cannon Avenue’s intersection with Eighth
Street, the property at 1000 N. Cannon was once the location of the American Olean Tile plant, which was originally founded by brothers Roy and Malcolm Schweiker as Franklin Tile, then Lansdale Tile, and was the region’s largest employer producing tiles for millions of homes worldwide for nearly 80 years until being shuttered as American Olean in the late 1990s, according to MediaNews Group and Lansdale Historical Society archives.
Montgomery County property records indicate the property was sold for $9.9 million to Freedom Properties LP in 1998 and from Freedom to North Penn Holdings LLC for $10 in 2014.
Borough officials discussed ways to attract new businesses to that site by extending Ninth Street in the early 2000s, then again in 2014-15 as SEPTA built a new rail station and partially extended Ninth Street along the southern edge of the former tile property, while council approved a code change that could allow un-lotted residential uses there.
Developer Stoltz Real Estate Partners assisted with the Ninth Street extension and was cited in 2018 when the borough applied for grant money to cover paving the northern part of Cannon Avenue.
Starting in January, a new plan has been discussed by the borough’s planning commission, which shows a series of four warehouse buildings containing 157,500 square feet to 242,500 square feet to be built on the site, with the northernmost of the four buildings located partially in Hatfield.
In May, Hatfield Township’s board heard an update on litigation regarding the zoning of the part of the property in that township, while Kennedy gave Lansdale’s borough council an update June 3 on that side of discussions.
“One of the things that they brought up in working through their application, in land development, is the fact that the current ordinance requirement for parking in the industrial district is one space per 400 square feet, which quite honestly is rather aggressive,” Kennedy said.
Since the uses on the Cannon Avenue site are not yet known, Kennedy told council, staff are recommending an ordinance amendment that could allow a developer to see, via conditional use application, a lowering of that ratio, and would apply to more industrial properties than just the one.
“We don’t really know exactly what type of use they may have, and there are some variations: whether it’s just a straight warehouse use or whether it was light manufacturing, or a distribution center for an online store of some kind. They all have different parking ratios,” Kennedy said.
Requiring that a ratio change go through the conditional use approval process would require the plans to go through council, not the zoning hearing board, and would let the borough attach conditions in a public hearing rather than the zoning board rule on a by-right use.
“We felt that this not only could provide the owners of the North Penn Business Park the ability to get some relief, but it also could actually spur some industrial development in other properties, that are sizable properties,” Kennedy said.
Further conditions in the draft ordinance would require that the owner or applicant must track the parking and uses on that property, must notify the borough zoning officer of any changes, that zoning officer have the right to inspect the property, and that the owner would not be able to use on-street parking to meet their requirements, nor would they be able to lease out unused parking to third parties — a provision Kennedy hinted was done with a certain global retailer in mind.
“I’m sure many of you have seen all of the Amazon delivery trucks that are on the roadway today. They literally cobble together parking lots wherever they can get them,” Kennedy said.
Stoltz, borough staff, the borough’s planning commission and Montgomery County’s planning commission have all vetted the draft ordinance, and the borough planning commission voted in May to recommend council approve it.
The code committee then voted unanimously June 3 to direct staff to prepare and advertise the change in ordinance for parking requirements in the industrial district, and full council could approve the same thing June 17.
A subsequent hearing would then need to be held to field public feedback on the ordinance change, Hitchens said, and if council adopts it at that or a subsequent meeting, further conditional use hearings would be needed on specific plans.
“I’m sure the applicant wouldn’t be happy with me saying that, but I think that’s the safest, most appropriate route,” he said.
Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on June 17 online; for more information, visit www. Lansdale.org.