320-home development gets sewer plan
It reads like a minor line item but means a big step ahead for one of Hatfield Township’s biggest developments.
The township commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a sewer management plan for developer Pulte Group’s “Del Webb North Penn” development.
“This resolution will accomplish one principal thing: This will allow the Pulte Group to submit for approval from DEP for public sewer service for their project, planned for the Baum Farm right next to Ralph’s Corner,” said planning and zoning officer Ken Amey.
The project in question was proposed by Pulte in August 2018 and would create a complex of 326 agerestricted houses — a mix of singles, twins and townhouses — on the 96-acre property formerly known as the Baum Farm, east of Forty Foot Road and north of Welsh Road, just north of the Ralph’s Corner shopping center.
Public talks were held in September and October 2018 on a zoning text amendment to allow an “active adult community” use for that project within the township’s Multifamily Elderly zoning district and to change the property’s zoning from RA-1 residential and LI light industrial
to that new multifamily elderly zoning.
Resident concerns voiced during those public meetings included the amount of parking available for visitors on the site, the impact of added traffic on nearby roadways, trail connections running through the property to the adjacent shopping center and open space, and the road links between the new development and nearby neighborhoods.
In response to those concerns, revisions to those plans eliminated a connection to nearby McArthur Drive and rearranged the mix of housing types to add less density near the existing neighborhood. The most recent plans show entrances to the development at the signalized intersection of Forty Foot and Clemens Road and across from the driveway entrance to the Lowe’s and ShopRite contained within the Hatfield Pointe shopping center, while the developer said during discussions that each unit will contain two resident parking spaces and an additional one-half space, to be located along the private roads that will run through the development. Both zoning changes were approved in November 2018, and the project received preliminary land development approval in November 2019. Review letters for the project are contained in the board’s meeting materials packet for Nov. 20, 2019, and state the project is estimated to generate 122 new weekday afternoon peak hour trips; would contain a total of 835 parking spaces, above the 815 required by township codes; would contain three rain gardens, five detention basis and two wet ponds to control runoff; and state the developer would make improvements, including a new restroom and driveway to nearby Clemens Park in place of paying a required traffic impact fee that would total just over $278,000; and would contribute a fee of just shy of $96,000 in lieu of replanting 547 trees that would be removed from the property.
At that time, board President Tom Zipfel said the project had been discussed at length over the prior two years and called it one of “the more significant developments that have come our way in the last few years.”
Since then, the applicant has continued to work toward final land development approval from the commissioners before construction, according to Amey and Township Manager Aaron Bibro. Contained in the board’s meeting materials packet for May 27 was a onepage plan revision allowing the developer to take the next step: submitting their sewer connection plan to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Hatfield’s commissioners are scheduled to next meet at 7:30 p.m. June 24, at the township administration building, 1950 School Road, if conditions permit. For more information visit www.Hatfield.org or follow @HatfieldPA on Twitter.
“This resolution will accomplish one principal thing: This will allow the Pulte Group to submit for approval from DEP for public sewer service for their project.” — Planning and zoning officer Ken Amey