PHILADELPHIA PA – Based on facts cited, statistics compiled, and evidence mounted, the authors of a “U.S. 422 Corridor Master Plan Summary Report” conclude the current pace of development along the four-lane limited-access highway between King of Prussia PA and Reading PA is unsustainable at best, and dangerous at worst.
Whether they’re right or wrong is yet to be determined by the public and their elected and appointed officials. Today is the last day for public comment on a draft version of the report.
No matter what ultimately happens with the document and any decisions arising from it, its immediate value may lie in the graphic look it gives residents of their local world, and how its economic, business, and transportation environments affect their lives.
The Post has cropped or edited four of the report’s illustrations to focus its broader study of the corridor into isolated snapshots-in-time of life in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township. The 66-page draft report features 20 such illustrations.
Existing Land Use in Lower Pottsgrove, 2005.
Land Use. Four years ago, the above map excerpt from the report shows, the bulk of land within the township had already been used by or set aside for detached single-family homes (areas in bright yellow). With the exception of recreational areas (in light green) like township parks, most of the wooded (dark green) and agricultural (light tan) areas of Lower Pottsgrove were limited to its northern end (at top). Some of those formerly untouched spots now are the subject of future residential development plans.
Population growth in Lower Pottsgrove and neighboring municipalities.
Population growth. Limerick (PA) Township, on Lower Pottsgrove’s eastern border, experienced explosive growth in a 10-year period. Its population more than doubled, the above map excerpt from the report shows. Although its growth was nowhere near as substantial, with a 27.3-percent increase during the decade, Lower Pottsgrove’s population growth was significantly higher than any other municipality within the 19464 and 19465 “Pottstown” zip codes. In effect, according to the data, more people who wanted a Pottstown address between 1990 and 2000 chose to live in Lower Pottsgrove.
Much of the land in Lower Pottsgrove is well suited for development.
Suitability for development. Why are contractors so interested in building in Lower Pottsgrove? About two-thirds of the land encompassed within township borders (shown in the report map excerpt above) is considered suitable for development, with the best areas (darkest green) in the northeast and east.
As elsewhere on Route 422, traffic grinds through Lower Pottsgrove.
Average daily traffic. Anyone who travels by car from Lower Pottsgrove to somewhere else on any given weekday, and increasingly on some weekends, knows how vehicular traffic can grind to a crawl during peak hours. The report map excerpt above, which relies on Pennsylvania Department of Transportation data, shows that in 2008 more than 51,000 cars traveled U.S. Route 422 (orange line) on an average day. Armand Hammer Boulevard, from Pottstown Memorial Medical Center (PMMC) south to the on-ramp for 422, saw more than 15,000 cars per day, as did Ridge Pike from PMMC east into Limerick and beyond (dark green lines). And almost 10,000 cars per day were cruising Industrial Highway (light green line).
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