Michael McGroarty, and the new speed limit

SANATOGA PA – Slow down, Leadfoot, when you’re driving on East High Street through Sanatoga village. The speed limit has just changed, from 40 mph to 35.

Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Commissioner Michael McGroarty couldn’t be happier.

During the Board of Commissioners‘ meeting last Thursday (Feb. 17, 2011), Manager Rodney Hawthorne announced the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) had approved the township’s official request – one McGroarty suggested five months ago – to reduce the speed limit for safety reasons. New signs are already installed, Hawthorne said, and the restrictions are being enforced by township police.

McGroarty lives on Foxtail Drive, Pottstown PA, a mile north of the village business district and a good distance away from the thousands of cars that cruise East High as part of a daily commute. However, he’s been pushing for a lower speed limit on Sanatoga’s primary highway since his earlier days as a member of Lower Pottsgrove’s Planning Commission.

In the years McGroarty served as a planner, before he won election as a commissioner in November 2009, an increasing number of retail businesses and professional offices opened in the district that lines East High from Sunnybrook Road east to North Pleasant View Road. Although the economic downturn thinned their ranks since 2008, entrepreneurs are still interested in village sites.

Among them are developer Cilluffo Property Holdings LLC, which is slowly but surely pursuing its proposal to open a new restaurant, Bella Italia, on property at 2209 E. High St., just west of the now vacant Rite-Aid Pharmacy. Commissioners approved Cilluffo’s plans last October, and construction could start later this year.

Drivers passing Bella Italia, as well as the other firms along East High, must slow down anyway for traffic entering and exiting the travel lanes. An additional 5 mph margin gives them extra braking time and stopping room, McGroarty figured, and could reduce accidents. PennDOT, which studied the matter before granting the township request, agreed.

Although drivers need to keep their eyes on the road, the slower speed allows their passengers to spend a few more seconds looking for and locating village merchants. That exposure can’t hurt as McGroarty’s colleague, commission Vice President Bruce Foltz, tries to attract new owners or lessees to existing East High storefront vacancies.

Foltz, an electrician by trade, is almost a one-man economic development department. When Rite-Aid closed in June 2010, he began advocating for the township to help attract new businesses. At his insistence it is compiling a list of available retail and office locations, with an eye toward marketing Sanatoga as a desirable, busy place with consumer demographics comparably better than adjoining areas.

And, now, a lower speed limit too.

Related:

• Watch Your Speedometer! Sanatoga Street Slows 5 Mph
• Commissioners OK Italian Restaurant’s Plans, Without Alley
• It Could Be Awhile Before Sanatoga Pizza Oven Fires Up
• Alley To Sunnyside Ave. ‘Elephant’ In Restaurant Plans
• Restaurant, Doctors’ Office Return To Planning Board
• Owners Ask For Restaurant Variance Extensions
• Planners Hear More About Proposed Pizza Restaurant
• Pizzeria Owner Has History Of Restaurant Development
• Restaurant, Ringing Projects Win Conditional Uses
• Ringing Rocks, Restaurant Hearing Topics Tonight
• Pizzeria Planned Next To Sanatoga Rite-Aid

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Feb. 17 meeting):

• Watch Your Speedometer! Sanatoga Street Slows 5 Mph
• Township OKs Restaurant Liquor License For Chummy’s
• Township’s Reduced Bond Sale Rates High S&P Praise
• Lower Pottsgrove A Likely Co-Signer For Sewer Loans