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Photos by Evan Brandt
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Only one final vote remains before the controversial track and container service facility at 181 Limerick Center Road gains final approval from Limerick Township.
Last night the supervisors voted 3-1 to authorize the township solicitor to prepare a final resolution granting final site plan approval for the 10-acre project. Supervisor Elaine DeWan was absent.
The final vote, to adopt or reject that resolution, will likely come at the next meeting, according to Township Manager Dan Kerr.
Given the vote last night, that pending final vote is likely just a formality barring any major development.
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| Tom Perkins, owner of TP Trailers and Truck Equipment. |
The project first started making headlines more than a year ago, when neighbors of the proposed project began turning up at public meetings in opposition.
The site's history is complicated For many years, the township’s zoning map indicated the parcel was split, with one part residential and the other office and light industrial.
But as it turns out, the map was wrong because township officials could find no record of a vote by an elected body that change part of the parcel over to residential.
Tom Perkins, owner of TP Trailers and Truck Equipment, owns the parcel with his sister and has variously tried to develop it with 50 townhomes, which was rejected by the township, as well as a business exactly like the one on Ridge Pike, which was also rejected, according to Supervisor Ken Sperring Jr.
The reason for the second rejection was that Limerick Center Road is not certified for enough traffic to accommodate sales of vehicles, explained Mark Kaplin, the lawyer representing Perkins.
This latest proposal is similar to the first, except that vehicle sales are no longer proposed.
This latest proposal is similar to the first, except that vehicle sales are no longer proposed.
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Representatives for TP Trailers address township supervisors
Tuesday night. The final site plan is projected in the background.
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Through the ensuring months, as resident opposition focused on Perkins ability to legally stack shipping containers three high, Perkins tried to negotiate with the township and the residents that his client would voluntarily limit the stacking height to two if no opposition was raised to a zoning variance request to allow sales at the sight.
But neither the township, nor the residents would bite, so the project moved forward as it was initially proposed.
In Feburary, as a result of the controversy, the supervisors tweaked the zoning code to limit the height. The existing zoning ordinances allow structures to be as high as 35 feet tall and three stacked shipping containers are below that height. But the new restrictions will not apply to TP Trailers.
Preliminary approval for the site plan, which calls for a 35,000 square-foot office/warehouse/five-bay shop was granted by the supervisors in December, 2018. Since then, the plan has been before the township planning commission, which ultimately recommended final site plan approval.
The vote Tuesday did not come before the various factions offered up some parting shots.
Neighbors have expressed concern about increased traffic and inadequate visual buffers between their homes and the facility.
Dan Walker and his wife Amy of Bella Rosa Court continued the question what activities will occur at the site and ask the supervisors to delay a decision until final PennDOT road permits and Conservation District approvals are given.
Kerr explained that township approvals are conditional upon the developers receiving those other approvals.
"We will comply with all the township's ordinances," Kaplin said.
"Not answering questions about what will happen there continues to frighten the neighbors," Dan Walker said.
Kaplin pointed out that his clients had held an open house for the community, attended by about 20 people, including the Walkers, showcased TP Trailers' current operation on Ridge Pike and explained what would happen at the new site.
"It's obvious you don't like what you hear, and yet you continue to defame the Perkins family," Kaplin said.
"I resent that," said Walker, to which Kaplin replied "I don't care."
There was even some snarkiness among the supervisors themselves when Supervisor Patrick Morroney tried to abstain, citing "a personality dispute" with Kaplin. "Well then I vote no," Marroney replied.
"Take the easy way out Pat," quipped Supervisors Chairman Ken Sperring Jr. "Learn the job you were elected to do Pat," he said, saying voting against projects that comply with all township ordinances would make Limerick vulnerable to lawsuits.
Morroney said he was "within my rights" to vote as he pleases.
48 Home Project approved
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| North Gate, calls for 48 single family homes off School Road. |
The TP Trailer project was not the only development to move forward Tuesday night, although the second one was distinctly less controversial.
Called North Gate, a 48 home project off School Road, near the intersection with Graterford Road, was put one step closer to final approval, this time with a unanimous vote.
Supervisors Chairman Ken Sperring Jr. pointed out that the project was originally approved by the supervisors in 2005 for 51 homes.
But now a new developer has altered the plan slightly, reducing the number of homes to 48.
It will result in the widening of School Road to 22 feet with two-foot shoulders on each side, and is expected to generate an additional 50 cars during peak traffic times. That will result in traffic impact fees of $337,147 being paid to the township for road improvements.
But the only objections voiced by neighbors had to do with the trails that will be built within the development to link with other township trails laid out in Limerick's master trail plan.
One resident, who indicated he is a police officer in another township, said the trails will bring crime, something Township Police Lt. Robert Matalavage said has not been the experience in Limerick.
And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting.
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