Township meeting moved to middle school auditorium

The 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5 Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors meeting is being moved to the Indian Valley Middle School auditorium.

The move comes after a standing-room-only crowd came out for the Aug. 1 township meeting that included the start of a hearing on a request to rezone two tracts of land to allow more homes to be built on the properties.

The hearing will continue and a decision could be made at the Sept. 5 meeting.

The two tracts, one consisting of 12.34 acres at Oak Drive and Harleysville Pike (Route 113) and the other 43.25 acres at 448 Maple Avenue, are currently owned by Nationwide Insurance, which acquired the land along with its purchase of Harleysville Insurance in 2012.

Nationwide now plans to sell the properties, which have been rented out as farmland for several years.

If the rezoning is approved, the plans call for 87 townhouses at Oak Drive and Route 113 and 46 twin homes on the Maple Avenue tract, along with 23 acres being donated to the township that would allow the existing Alderfer Park to be expanded, representatives of the plans said at the August meeting.

If the change is not approved, the current zoning would allow the properties to be developed with uses that would have a greater impact on the area, including office space, day cares, a car wash and a nursing home, with large parking lots required, the representatives said.

Township residents opposed the plans, raising concerns that the additional development will increase traffic on already busy roads, take away from the township’s rural heritage and that additional homes will increase the need for services and schools, raising the costs of local governments, bringing increased taxes.

The opponents also said the suggestion of what could be done on the property under the existing zoning is a worst case scenario only, and that there are other uses currently allowed uses that would have less of an impact.