Limerick Truck Project Approval Gets Political

Those most opposed to the TP Trailer project lives in the homes on the roads off West Cherry Lane.

The expected approval of the controversial truck servicing project on Limerick Center Road came with more than a dash of politics Tuesday night.

The vote was 3-1 with Supervisor Patrick Morroney voting against it and Supervisor Thomas Neafcy absent. Voting in favor were Elaine DeWan, Chairman Ken Sperring Jr. and Supervisor Kara Shuler who said "we follow the law and I will stand up for the law every day of the week."

Last month, the board voted, also by a 3-1 margin, to authorize Township Solicitor Joe McGrory to compose the final site plan resolution they approved last month.

Sperring lashed out at opponents of the project, Amy Walker and Preston Luitweiler, saying the board had no choice but to follow the law or expose taxpayers to an expensive lawsuit the township would lose, and that the two are lying to voters.

Both Walker and Luitweiler are now candidates for township supervisor and will face off against Sperring and Planning Commission Chairman Michael J. McCloskey in November.

DeWan, whose term is also up this year, is not running for reelection.

Sperring said "you two are out campaigning with Sean Kilkenny, and if you win he will probably be the next solicitor because we know the games you play. But he just told another municipality they have to follow the law. You go out and campaign and say all the wrong things because you don't understand how things work."

Kilkenny is a municipal attorney, and the first Democrat to be elected Montgomery County Sheriff.

TP Trailers has a facility along Ridge Pike.

In February, the Montgomery County Democratic Committee endorsed him for reelection.

Sperring was probably referring to an Aug. 30 article in PATCH which reported that Kilkenny had given Norristown, where he is borough solicitor, advice similar to the advice Limerick Township Solicitor Joe McGrory had given.

McGrory told the supervisors that the TP Trailers project complied with township ordinances and voting to reject the final site plan approval would invite a lawsuit Limerick would likely lose.

The Norristown matter has to do with approval of a charter school and the paragraph to which Sperring was evidently referring reads as follows: 

Solicitor Sean Kilkenny warned the council that if they rejected the application, CSMI could take the case to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, where he believes they would win. "They've satisfied all of the legal requirements," he noted. He added that such a court case would likely cost the municipality a few thousand dollars in court fees.

Sperring continued, "I'm tired of this board being bashed for following the law. You yourself Amy told me you would have paid $10 million in taxpayer money to buy the property from Mr. Perkins, or run up thousands in legal bills. Do your research and come in here and tell the truth." 

After the meeting, the sparring continued. After urging a reporter to "quote me accurately," Sperring asked "is spending $10 million of taxpayer money in the public interest? She didn't deny it."

In fact, Walker said afterward, that Sperring's account of their conversation was not entirely accurate.

"Mr. Sperring called me before I announced my candidacy and asked me 'what do you want us to do? Buy the property?' I told him it would be nice if the supervisors spent time on things that enriched the residents' quality of life rather than destroying it. I never said the town should buy it for $10 million."

Preston Luitweiler addresses the Limerick Supervisors in January.

Also after the meeting ended, Sperring told Luitweiler "learn the job before you come in here and tell us not to follow the law."

Luitweiler replied "You didn't listen to what I said. I said there are things the supervisors could have done that are within the law. You keep berating me in public, but it's not going to do you any good." 

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Luitweiler said the township should have required a traffic study to determine the impact of the increased truck traffic on the already busy road.

He said "I hope Mr. Perkins can find a way to make peace with the neighbors," whose property values, he said, would drop as a result of the project's construction.

"You will own the consequences of the vote you take tonight," Luitweiler told the supervisors. "It would have been nice to see some action by this board to ameliorate the impact on the neighbors."

The property, and proposals for it, have a complicated history. 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 changed any part of the parcel over to residential.

Tom Perkins listens to objections at a meeting last year.

Tom Perkins, owner of TP Trailers on Ridge Pike, 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, Sperring said last year.

The reason for the second rejection was that Limerick Center Road is not certified for enough traffic to accommodate sales of vehicles, Mark Kaplin, the lawyer representing Perkins, explained in 2018.

This proposal approved last night is similar to the first, except that vehicle sales are no longer proposed, thus removing the snag that sank the last one.

In the wake of a wave of opposition that surfaced last July and at subsequent planning commission meetings, the developers decided to submit a plan that requires no variances, meets the codes in every way, and requires no waivers but one, Kaplin said.

Now that the project has been approved, only time will tell if its handling has an impact on the supervisors election.

The supervisors undertook some other interesting discussions last night, but they will have to wait for subsequent articles in The Mercury. You can get a sense of those discussions in the Tweets from the meeting below.

Political Overtones to Truck Project Decision

Limerick Ready to Vote on Truck and Trailer Project

Photos by Evan Brandt

Prior to appearing before the Limerick Township Supervisors seeking final approval for a new facility on Limerick Center Road, TP Trailers put on a display of their wares along heavily traveled Ridge Pike.

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.

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.

Representatives for TP Trailers address township supervisors

Tuesday night. The final site plan is projected in the background.

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

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.

Track Facility on Track for Approval

Limerick Welcomes New Police Officer, Congratulates Lt. Matalavage on Graduation

Photos by Evan Brandt

NEWEST OFFICER: Limerick Township Supervisors Chairman Ken Sperring, left, administers the oath of office Tuesday to the township's newest officer, Reggie Theodore while his daughter Keana holds the Bible. At right are Lt. Robert Matalavage and Police Chief Brian Skelton.  

In the photo above,  all five pose for a photo. Theodore was born in Haiti and became an American citizen in 1989, said Skelton. He graduated from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and worked for the Philadelphia Police Department.

There was more police news to be had at Tuesday night's Limerick Supervisors meeting.

Limerick Police Lt. Robert Matalavage and 
Police Chief Brian Skelton.

In addition to swearing in Reggie Theodore, Limerick Police Chief Brian Skelton congratulated Lt. Robert Matalavage upon his graduation from the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety's School of  Police Staff and Command.

At the school, Matalavage took classes in leadership, statistics, human relations and a variety of other topics related to making him a better policeman.

Skelton said Matalavage did very well, earning a 3.7 GPA and graduating near the top of his class.

Congratulations to all on a job well done, and soon to be well done.

Summer is a slow time in municipal meeting season and, as an illustration, township Manager Dan Kerr reminded the few present that the Aug. 6 supervisors meeting has been cancelled.

But there was still some work to be done.

The intersection of Royersford Road and Linfield-Trappe Road.

Chief among these was getting started on a project that Kerr said could take several years and as much as $5 million -- the re-alignment of the intersection of Royersford Road and Linfield-Trappe Road, which is notoriously misaligned and the scene of many accidents.

Township Engineer Khaled Hassan said the first step will be to install a temporary traffic signal to make it safer.

"Every approach will have time to cross," Hassan said.

On July 5, bids for the temporary signal will be advertised and the board will hopefully award those bids in August, Hassan said. 

"Anything to make it safer," said Sperring.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

New Officer and New Graduate

Seven-Lot Subdivision Would Finish Raven's Claw

Photos by Evan Brandt

GETTING AN EARLY START: Liam Kaufman, who attends Spring-Ford Area School District's 9th Grade Center, was unanimously appointed by the township supervisors board as a student member of the Limerick Parks and Recreation Committee. The past two years he has volunteered as a counselor-in-training at the township summer camp= and will start as a full-fledged counselor this summer.

The majority of Tuesday's Limerick Supervisors meeting was taken up with discussion of a seven-lot subdivision being built on Masters Drive in the Raven's Claw development, which has 193 homes already built.

The parcel was originally planned as a health club when the project was approved, but that was never built. The only other use the zoning allowed was a church, which no one seemed to want Sunday traffic-wise.

Mercury File Photo

Limerick had to go to court to get the Raven's Claw project finished.

Raven's Claw is a development merged with the Raven's Claw golf course and was begun around 2000, but the developer, Dewey Homes, never completely finished the neighborhood, leaving all of the neighborhood’s roads and some of the planned sidewalks unfinished.

Additionally, some whose driveways were scheduled to be paved by the developer were left high and dry.

The roads in the neighborhood were left with many potholes and cracks with manholes raising up out of the road in multiple areas.

In July, 2013, a court order was issued to Dewey to make the improvements in the neighborhood. In January this year, a judge denied the township’s motion for contempt filed against Dewey since they did not make progress on the work.

In April, 2014, the township successfully pushed for a contempt order and finished the paving and sidewalks that were left unfinished.

The site plan for the seven-lot sub-division in Raven's Claw.

The seven-lot subdivision project received a variance from the zoning hearing board to allow the homes to be built, and did so without any objection from the township supervisors.
But Supervisors Chairman Ken Sperring was irritated that the lack of objections from the supervisors was based on a promise to get support for the sub-division from a majority of the members of the Homeowners Association, or HOA.

Rob Lewis, a former resident and the attorney for the Homeowner's Association, said the HOA board endorsed the project, but getting agreement from 90 households was not something he was ever told was required.

He said the restrictions for the new homes would be posted on the HOA website and added to the annual HOA general meeting scheduled for March 20, which Sperring and the other board members decided was adequate enough.

The design for the new homes will be similar to those in Raven's Claw.

Approval of the plan, which  Sperring said "is clean. We just want to make sure the people already living there are OK with this," was tabled until the supervisor's first meetying in June, after the annual HOA meeting.

The supervisors voted unanimously to extend the deadline for preliminary/final site plan approval to July 22.

Lewis said the new homes would controlled by deed restriction with rules nearly identical to those imposed on the homes already built in Raven's Claw. However, the new homes cannot be added to the HOA because it would require 100 percent approval from every member and "getting 196 households to participate and agree is nearly impossible."

So after being vacant for 14 years, the parcel will be developed with seven more homes similar in style.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Within the Raven's Claw

Limerick Looking at Building More Bus Stop Shelters

Photos by Evan Brandt

This photo-shopped image shown at last night's Limerick Supervisors meeting appears to show members of the board in a bus shelter. But while the photo may be faked, votes taken last night would indicate the supervisors interest in building more bus shelters for residents is genuine.

Last night's Limerick Board of Supervisors meeting was fairly brief -- 45 minutes -- but there were several items worth noting.

One is the township's pursuit of more bus shelters for an increasing number of riders of the SEPTA bus system.

Specifically, the township is looking to build one on Ridge Pike, west of the intersection with Township Line Road near the Walgreen's Pharmacy.

Many people use that bus stop and SEPTA will not build one or take responsibility for one being built, Tim Haas, assistant to the township manager, told the supervisors.

This is the basic model the township supervisors preferred.

A local business has volunteer to donate $5,000 toward getting a new shelter built there, so the board took a look at its options.

The one they settled upon has a partial enclosure to protect riders from the elements while they wait, as well as space for a wheelchair and a bench.

Supervisor Patrick Maroney said he would like to see something other than flat roof, so the snow does not sit on the top of the shelter, and Supervisor Thomas Neafcy said he does not want to see any advertising on the shelters.

Neafcy also said there are four or five locations in the township where shelters are needed.

"The township is at the point where shelters are needed as many residents use public transportation," said Neafcy. "The time has come."

The supervisors, who were told by Township Manager Dan Kerr that the township will have both maintenance and liability responsibilities for the shelters, said they will consider building more depending on how the current project goes.

If they do, they may have to deal with shopping carts piling up at the shelters, as currently happens at some of the shelters that already exist. Haas said the administration proposes a policy of calling the stores and telling them to pick up their carts, or they will be thrown away.

TP Trailers Follow-Up

In the wake of last month's approval of the preliminary approval of the controversial TP Trailers and Truck Equipment plan to build a manufacturing and service facility on 10 acres at 181 Limerick Center Road, there was some follow up.

The preliminary site plan for TP Trailers.

Kerr told the supervisors that the administration is working on some ordinance changes which would prevent the approval of the stacking of cargo containers three high, as is possible under the TP Trailers Plan and which, due to the ordinance language, the township was powerless to prevent.

Resident Amy Walker, an opponent of the plan, provided the township with a generic ordinance on the matter put together by a state-wide local government association.

The supervisors were also asked about possible discharge of pollutants into local streams and Supervisors Chairman Ken Sperring said both the federal Environmental protection Agency and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental protection conduct unannounced inspections.

"I'm very familiar with them because they are in my facility all the time," said Sperring, who is the owner of Limerick Collision Center.

Kedrr also said that the township is required to inspect "every outfall" of the stormwater system under new federal clean water rules. He promised to give a presentation on that process at a future board meeting.

The supervisors also informed Walker that signs barring truck traffic for nearby West Cherry Lane only await permission from PennDOT before they will be erected.

Loan Pay-Off

The supervisors also voted unanimously Monday night to pay off the $3.3 million remaining on the loan taken out by the Limerick Fire Company to build a new fire station near the intersection with Ridge and Swamp pikes.

The Limerick Firehouse.

Kerr said the firehouse is owned by the fire company but, under an agreement approved last night by the supervisors, should Limerick Fire Company ever cease to provide fire protection in the township, ownership of the building would revert to the township.

In 2018, the Limerick and Linfield fire companies completed a merger into a single entity that now calls itself the Limerick Fire Department.

The money for paying off the loan came from the proceeds of the August sale of the township's sewer system to Aqua PA for $75 million. As a result of the sale, the supervisors decided to make the township debt free.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting, what few there are.

Gimme Shelter

Limerick Supervisors Grapple With Thorny Developments, Pass No-Tax-Hike Budget for 2019

Photos by Evan Brandt

The meeting room was packed for the Limerick Township Supervisors' last meeting of 2018.

Roughly 75 people packed into the township meeting room Tuesday night to hear and for the most part oppose two proposed commercial developments that neighbors felt would be too close to their homes.

The first proposal involves 28 acres at the corner of Buckwalter Road and township Line Road, just off the Royersford interchange for Route 422.

Developers want to build a 62,800 square-foot Restaurant Depot on 15 acres there.

The second controversial project has been in the works for some time, involves a zoning change brought about by a township mistake.

Originally, residential units were proposed for the 10 acres of land at 181 Limerick Center Road, it was discovered that no legal township record showed that the zoning on the map, as residential with a small commercial portion, existed.

Now, a truck servicing and cargo container manufacturing facility proposed for the site has the neighbors up in arms.

And when they weren't fielding comments from residents, the supervisors manager managed to adopt a $28.5 million budget for 2019 that does not raise taxes.

The preliminary site plan for Restaurant Depot that was
approved by the Limerick Supervisors Tuesday night.

Restaurant Depot

With few exceptions, the primary objections residents raised to this project have to do with traffic volume and safety.

The volume of traffic on Township Line Road is very heavy, particularly so close to the Route 422 interchange and the shopping center there.

And those who already live there know the perils of navigating the intersection with Buckwalter Road.

Resident Dave Edwards addresses the Limerick Supervisors
at Tuesday night's meeting.

"My kids call it 'the intersection of death" said resident Dave Edwards.

More trucks supplying and being supplied by the Restaurant Depot being interjected into the intersection "will create chaos" Edwards told the supervisors.

The developer has already agreed to add a left-turn lane on Buckwalter Road to make it easier for trucks to get back to Route 422 via Township Line Road.

But the residents say it's not enough.

Ironically, the developer, the residents and township officials all agree that what's needed it s left-turn signal at the traffic light that's already there.

Unfortunately, PennDOT does not.

Ron Lewis, speaking for property owner Larry Cohen, said he and township officials had met with PennDOT to ask for the signal. But PennDOT turned them down, saying it did not want to cause more traffic back-ups on Township Line Road by extending the time cars are stopped at the light, Lewis said.

Property owner Larry Cohen answers questions Tuesday night.

This is despite the fact that, much to the amazement of several speakers, no one had been required to, or bothered to, gather the statistics on the number of accidents that have occurred at that intersection over the years.

"In this case, PennDOT is the villain," said Supervisor Patrick Morroney.

Supervisors Chairwoman Elaine DeWan told the crowd that the plan complies with township ordinances and the supervisors have to treat property owners equally under the law.

The supervisors voted unanimously to instruct solicitor Joseph McGrory Jr. to prepare a resolution for preliminary site plan approval on which they will vote at their next meeting in January.

The proposed facility, shown by the red marker, is opposed
by residents of Bella Rosa Court, Parnell Lane, Perry Court
and West Cherry Lane

TP Trailers & Truck Equipment

The supervisors ultimately took the same vote on the other controversial development on the table Tuesday night, to instruct McGrory to prepare a resolution on preliminary site plan approval on which they will vote at the next meeting.

But that vote did not come without more than an hour of discussion and objections from residents of the housing subdivisions which surround the parcel.

The preliminary site plan for the TP Trailers project.

"It's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole to put manufacturing in a residential area," said Doug Clouding.

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, Supervisor Ken Sperring Jr. said in July when residents objected as well.

In the wake of that wave of opposition, Perkins' attorney, Mark Kaplin, said the developers decided to submit a plan that requires no variances or waivers and meets the code in every way.

Township Engineer Khaled Hassan.

Concerns were raised about stormwater run-off, and any pollutants a manufacturing and truck repair facility might carry off site.

Township Engineer Khaled Hassan said there are many state and federal rules governing clean water issues and that the township would be inspecting the facility and testing the water there regularly.

But probably the biggest issue raised by the residents were safety and visual concerns posed by the fact that the facility will construct metal shipping containers and may stack them as many as three high, which would not violate the township zoning code that limits the height of structures to 35 feet.

"I just don't want to see the containers, it's an eyesore," said resident Gianfranco Cierri.

Mark Kaplin

Kaplin attempted to get first the neighbors and ultimately the township to agree to support Perkins' desire to get a variance from the township zoning board to allow sales to occur at the proposed site, as they do now on his business at 703 W. Ridge Pike.

If granted, it would "free up space" at the existing facility and thus make it no longer necessary to store the containers at the Limerick Center Road site.

Resident Dan Walker, who, with his wife Amy, had spearheaded much of the opposition to the plan, characterized that offer as "a threat."

He and several other residents called upon the supervisors to impose a condition on the site plan approval prohibiting the stacking of containers, something Kaplin said the township could not legally do and which would result in a court appeal and a loss for the township.

Hassan talks with McGrory and supervisors Kara Shuler,
 Tom Neafcy

 and Patrick Morroney during the break in
 the meeting Tuesday.

After more than an hour of discussion, DeWan called a "bathroom break" and, as McGrory revealed subsequently, he met with the supervisors "in groups of two," so as to avoid violating the state's open meetings law, and attempted to get them to agree to a compromise.

However, he was unable to get the supervisors to agree, he said.

McGrory then attempted to get Perkins and Kaplin to agree to limit the stacking of containers to two containers and, while he met with them to do that, the supervisors got on with the rest of the meeting, adopting the 2019 budget in

Limerick township solicitor Joeseph McGrory Jr., right, speaks

 during Tuesday night's meeting.
 At left is Supervisor Thomas Neafcy.

the interim.

When McGrory returned, he announced he could not get Kaplin and Perkins to agree to his terms, however Kaplin offered an alternative -- that the supervisors pass a resolution requiring that Perkins seek a variance from the zoning hearing board to allow sales at the Limerick Center Road site and, if successful, to not store any containers there at all.

But the supervisors rejected that idea, at least initially, because, as Shuler put it, "we have no control over what the zoning hearing board will do."

Shuler, who noted that it was already 10:30 p.m., then moved that the supervisors do what they had always intended to do, vote to instruct McGrory to draft a resolution regarding preliminary site plan approval for the project to be voted on at the next meeting.

After the meeting adjourned, McGrory said had may draft more than one resolution for the consideration by the supervisors.

And with that patient reader, I leave you with the Tweets from the meeting. It's 1:30 a.m and this local reporter is putting the head to bed.

Residential Versus Commercial

30-Acre Development Inches Forward in Limerick

Photos by Evan Brandt

This map shows much of the proposed Limerick Town Center project, proposed for 30.5 acres at the intersection of Swamp Pike and Ridge Pike.  It calls for 308 units in a senior living facility, as well as 160 townhouses, each of which will have at least three bedrooms, and 32,000 square feet of retail space long Ridge Pike.

Last night's Limerick Supervisors meeting had everything you expect from a local government meeting.

We began by honoring emergency medical personnel; then honored a graduating Spring-Ford High School senior who earned his Eagle rank as a Scout and will be joining the Marines; followed by a major discussion about a giant development project in the middle of town, and wrapped it up with news about the purchase of a historic toll house at a Schuylkill River crossing that will give the township access to 18 acres of parkland.

Limerick Supervisors Chairwoman Elaine DeWan, left,

congratulates Jackson Dukes on earning the rank of Eagle.

You won't read about any of that stuff in the Philadelphia Inquirer or PATCH (at least until we report it).

So the scout's name is Jackson Dukes and he is part of Crew 623 that meets at the Crossland Church. In addition to leading the meeting in the Pledge of Allegiance, Dukes was also recognized by an official township resolution.

Also on the brighter side of last night's meeting was the news that in the wake of the township's $225,000 purchase last month of the historic 169-year-old toll house at 1310 Main St. in Linfield, township crews have begun clearing out the property and making it safe for its vehicles.

Limerick Township crews have since cleared

some of the closer vegetation from the house.

In addition to its historic value, the house, provide access to 18 acres of parkland the township already owns along the Schuylkill. Soon the public will have access to that land, said Township Manager Dan Kerr.

There are no specific plans for the structure, but Kerr said he would first like to discuss the matter with the Limerick Historical Society to see if they have any interest.

All of this is well and good, but perhaps the matter discussed that has the greatest potential to have impact on the larger township occupied center stage for much of the evening.

Ridge Swamp Associates L.L.P has proposed a major project at one of the busiest intersections of the township -- Ridge Pike and Swamp Pike.

Located on just over 30 acres, the plan calls for a senior housing building housing 308 units, comprised of a mixture of independent living, assisted living and "memory care" units.

Additionally, although 186 townhouse units of three-or-more bedrooms had initially been planned, engineering requirements reduced that number to 160, the minimum number the developers say are needed to make the project financially feasible.

This map shows the full scope of the project.

The project also calls for at least three commercial, retail buildings along Ridge Pike totaling 52,296 square feet, according to local attorney Robert Brant, who is representing the developers.

The project has already received conditional use and zoning approval, but has yet to receive a recommendation for preliminary site plan approval from the planning commission.

The business of last night's meeting was a number of changes being sought by the developers. They primarily had to do with landscape buffers, with width of roads and other details.

Their greatest concern was that some of the landscape buffers required by the township ordinances would force the reduction of the number of townhouses which would make the project unsustainable financially.

They before the supervisors seeking "guidance," Brant said.

What they finally got from the supervisors was unofficial support for four or five of the six changes they were seeking, but not without some grousing and at the end of the discussion, Brant quipped "I know when it's time to leave."

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Scouts, Developments and Toll Houses