Hearing begins on rezoning request

Residents raise concerns about plans for 133 new homes

With a standing-room-only crowd of about 250 on hand — most of whom were township residents opposing the plan — a hearing on a request to rezone two tracts of land to allow more homes to be built on the properties began at the Aug. 1 Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors meeting.

The properties, one at Oak Drive and Route 113 and one on Maple Avenue, are currently owned by Nationwide Insurance.

If the zoning changes are approved, the plan is to build 87 townhouses on the Oak Drive and Route 113 property and 46 twin homes on the Maple Avenue tract, along with donating 23 acres to the township, which would allow the existing Alderfer Park to be expanded, Scott Mill, of Van Cleef Engineering Associates, said in answer to attorney Robert Gundlach Jr.’s questions at the hearing.

If the zoning change is not approved, though, the current zoning would allow 48,000 square feet of office space with a required 180 parking spaces, a day care for 120 students, with 43 required parking spaces, and a four-bay car wash on the Oak Drive and Route 113 property, he said. The Maple Avenue property could have a 208 bed nursing home, with 197 parking spaces, a day care for 20 students, with 12 parking spaces, and 236,000 square feet of office space with 859 parking spaces, Mill said.

Traffic Engineer Gregg Bogia said the plans for the 133 proposed homes would produce significantly less traffic than if the properties were developed under the plan that would be allowed under the current zoning. He also said the housing plan would not have an adverse impact on existing road conditions, bringing disbelieving scoffs from residents who have raised concerns about traffic and the development tak-

ing away from the nature of the township’s rural heritage.

The tracts have been rented out for several years as farmland.

Land planner Ken Amey said the properties are in areas designated for growth in the Montgomery County Comprehensive Plan, the Indian Valley Regional Comprehensive Plan, which covers six towns including Lower Salford, and Lower Salford’s Open Space Plan.

“The value of a regional comprehensive plan is it allows municipalities to locate certain uses in areas where they are most appropriate,”

Amey said. “It allows the areas with infrastructure, such as the Harleysville area, to accept new growth because that’s appropriately where it should be.”

Joe Morrissey, president of Foxlane Homes, said the proposed three-story townhouses are planned to sell for $319,900 to $370,000 and the twins, which will be designed to look like single family homes that are connected, for $399,900 to $450,000.

There is a market for the homes, he said, because Lower Salford is a great township in a great school district and is in close proximity to major roads, including the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Resident Josh Camson

urged the board to disregard the worst case scenario shown in the plans for what would be allowed under the current zoning, calling it a “red herring.”

“We love where we live and we love the rural feel of where we live,” Camson said, characterizing the proposed housing plan as “suburban sprawl.”

Joni Brennan, whose home adjoins one of the properties, said traffic is already a problem.

“I already cannot get into or out of my driveway during rush hour times, she said.

Brennan said she takes the turnpike each day.

“I have to take the long way around to get on,” she said.

Darryl Knechel, who farms the land, urged everyone to come together for the good of the community.

“Everybody in this room cares about Lower Salford and they’re gonna be here tomorrow, but the developer is gonna be gone. He’s here to fill his pocket as full as he can and all he cares about is selling homes,” he said.

“I’m the last dairy farmer in Lower Salford Township. I’m one of six in Montgomery

County,” Knechel said.

He can get other farm land in neighboring Upper Salford, although it will involve longer tractor drives in the traffic on public roads to get there, he said.

“My loss will be a little bit, but we can go on,” he said, “and I believe the community, our community of Lower Salford Township, will lose far greater.”

Life comes from the land and many people today don’t know where their food comes from, he said.

Resident Marybeth Hufnagel said a petition opposing the zoning change was signed by more than 1,100 persons. A YouTube video by opponents of the change had been viewed more than 5,000 times as of the meeting night.

Residential development costs taxpayers more than the amount of tax money collected from that development, Hufnagel said, along with listing already approved housing developments in the municipality.

The new development brings more traffic to a town where the Main Street, Route 63 (Sumneytown Pike) is already heavily travelled and cannot be widened, she said.

“More traffic lights or better timed lights are not a long-term solution,” Hufnagel said.

Resident Bill Jack said Harleysville Insurance, which Nationwide bought, supported farming and the community.

“Nationwide and the developers are showing greed instead of valuing our community, and we should not support their efforts,” Jack said.

Stacey Knechel, Darryl Knechel’s wife, said she’d like to see plans showing a best case scenario under the existing zoning, such as building single family homes.

“Nobody’s saying that Nationwide can’t sell their property,” she said.

“We want to have it limited to what’s the smallest impact that it can be. It’s not gonna be farm land,” she said. “We know that.”

In answer to resident questions, Darryl Knechel said Nationwide had let him know they were planning to sell the land and asked if he was interested in buying it, to which he said he was interested, but couldn’t match the price a developer would pay for it.

The Lower Salford Township

Planning Commission, which is an advisory board, has recommended approving the requested zoning change.

The decision on whether to approve, deny or take no action on the request, effectively denying it, will be made by the Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors. The hearing will continue at the board’s 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5, meeting.

“Our job is to do what’s best for the entire township,” board Chairman Doug Gifford said in answer to a resident’s question at the Aug. 1 meeting.

The 23 acres of donated land is a plus for the plans, he said.

“I think everyone here should remember that our decision is not whether we favor having a farm there or development there,” Gifford said. “I’ll take the farm every time if you give me that choice, but that’s not the choice.”

The question to be decided, board member Chris Canavan said, is whether the rezoning plan in total is a better one or has less negative impact than what could happen under the existing zoning.