A TH Properties proposal for Haines and Kibblehouse land south of U.S. Route 422 in Lower Pottsgrove Township could include up to 450 residential units
SANATOGA PA – An “informal proposal” to build a “mix of stacked three-story flats and two-story townhomes” across 57 acres of property owned by quarry operator Haines and Kibblehouse on the south side of U.S. Route 422 was unanimously rejected Thursday night (Aug. 23, 2012) by the Lower Pottsgrove Township Board of Commissioners.
Some of the three-story “footprint” buildings might look like these, according to the THP proposal
Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott, who reviewed plans for what was labeled as the “Sanatoga Station Development,” told commissioners in a memo the project – if and when fully built, in an area roughly between South Pleasant View and South Sanatoga roads – could include up to 450 residences. It would increase the number of townhomes within Lower Pottsgrove by 40 percent, she wrote.
“This is a nightmare waiting to happen for Lower Pottsgrove and the Pottsgrove School District,” Commissioner Stephen Klotz said of the proposal’s potential impact on township and educational services.
“We’re recommending you give a thumbs-down on this particular type of development,” Manager Rodney Hawthorne told the board. Commissioners – with the exception of Michael McGroarty, who was absent – agreed, with little other comment.
The proposal was submitted on behalf of Haines and Kibblehouse by residential contractor TH Properties. Before it encountered financial problems in 2009, THP was a popular home builder in western Montgomery County. It created the Kingston Hill development in Gilbertsville, a half-mile north of the township line off North Charlotte Street; the Coddington View community off Farmington Avenue in Upper Pottsgrove Township; and Crosswinds in Limerick Township.
As presented, the proposal is unlikely to go further. The property is designated for limited industrial use, and would require zoning and other changes to proceed. Hawthorne said the township initially envisioned the area, which has high visibility from 422, as well suited to an office park or similar business or company use. “We still think that’s the right thing,” he added. “The property doesn’t support what they want to do.”
Commissioners are accustomed to receiving proposals informally. They’ve heard several in recent years past, and offer their comments or opinions as a “sounding board” that is generally appreciated by developers before they invest heavily in the planning process. It appeared that THP, Haines and Kibblehouse, and township staffers held several talks about the project over a period of months, but until Thursday it had not been publicly discussed.
Although THP’s plans call for a “footprint” of 250 units built in three “pods”, Elliott estimated that the number of dwellings they contained could be almost double that number. By comparison, she cited an earlier and also informal proposal by Haines and Kibblehouse to build only 188 carriage houses for the same area in what would have been an age-restricted residential community.
The acreage at issue is on the north side of Linfield Road, across from the Haines and Kibblehouse-owned Sanatoga Quarry and Asphalt division of Pottstown Trap Rock Quarries. It stretches uphill, north and east, toward 422 and a significant amount of frontage along the four-lane, limited access highway.
It is bordered on the west by South Pleasant View Road, from which all three pods would have access; and on the east by Sanatoga Creek, Sanatoga Lake, and the township’s Sanatoga Park complex.
Other factors also are at work in determining the property’s future, Elliott wrote.
The first is the still-in-progress “Pottstown Region Market Analysis and Fiscal Impact Study,” which in part focuses on the township. It predicts Lower Pottsgrove faces future operating deficits if its population continues to climb, and recommends minimizing development to ensure fiscal control. The study is available for public review at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., until Oct. 5.
The second, similarly still-in-progress, is the township’s long-awaited plans to re-zone land surrounding the Sanatoga interchange of 422. It’s working with county officials, and in partnership with neighboring Limerick, to decide the right combination of uses for properties there. A presentation of those recommendations probably won’t be available until December, Elliott said.
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Aug. 23 meeting):
- Commissioners Reject Townhomes Project South Of 422
- Township Schedules Fall Meetings For Its 2013 Budgets
Drawings from Lower Pottsgrove Township via TH Properties
You have got to be kidding me! Why would Alyson keep stunning the growth of our Township!? This is money waiting to be made! History just keeps repeating its self with her and others holding positions in the Township. This is absurd! Stun the growth of our Township, while at it just bankrupt it! Growth means business and a health tax base! Alyson has to go!!!!
Lori, first, let me thank you for your comment. I’m willing to bet that lots of other people probably feel the same way. Having said that, let me explain why I think you, and they, are wrong.
The Sanatoga Station development, as proposed, offers the township only a short-term gain. There might be some construction and real estate sales jobs in it. There may be a boost in real estate sales taxes. There may be other, minor revenues. I doubt those gains, and they’re paltry, will last two or three years.
But any municipal official can tell you – and I’ve covered local municipal news for 40 years, so I can also tell you – that bringing housing to a township is a losing proposition. More people living here means the need for more roads, and road repairs, and during the winter, road plowing. It means the need for more sewer capacity, and more pumping to the Pottstown treatment plant, and higher fees going out to some other municipality. It means more and higher costs for everything you take for granted: street lighting, trash collection, water, electricity, cable TV; all those fees go up, because more must be served. And the biggest expense will be the schools, because the Census shows roughly 23 percent of those 450 residences will have one or more children to be educated, and that means the need for more teachers, and more classrooms in bigger school buildings. Remember, too, you a pay far, far higher price as a homeowner in school district taxes than you pay in town, county and fire company taxes combined.
Here’s the dirty little secret developers won’t publicly acknowledge: what a homeowner pays in taxes barely covers a municipality’s costs to keep them. The bigger payoff – in long-term good-paying jobs, in greater tax collections, in municipal sustainability (if such a thing exists) is in attracting businesses, not homeowners.
The land in question is zoned for business. Business should be developed there. Don’t for a second believe that Lower Pottsgrove should opt for the fast buck of Sanatoga Station just because nothing’s happened with the land yet, or for years. This too shall pass. Haines and Kibblehouse has owned it for decades, which demonstrates it thinks patience pays. It will for us as well.
Nothing’s absurd about the high cost of residential growth. In a cost-benefit analysis, new homes pay off only for the builder. The return on investment is in commercial growth. You want lower taxes, Lori? You want to pay less to live here? Go activist on the commissioners, and start harping on them to bring in the businesses that fills the limited industrial zone. H&K makes its profit either way, and you end up better off. We all do.
As for Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott, all you’re attempting to do is shoot the messenger. It didn’t work in Cleopatra’s time, and it doesn’t work now.
Again, thanks for your comment, and for enduring with my reply. Regards,
Joe Zlomek, Managing Editor
The Post Publications
STUNNING??? THE GROWTH
We don’t correct spelling on readers’ comments, Colette; or punctuation, or grammar, or anything else. If we deem the comment to be acceptable, it runs as is. Otherwise we risk being accused of changing the commenter’s original meaning or intent.
What is absolutely ridiculous is any consideration of development without a major change to the roadways in that area. Looking at the outlet and the planned O Neill development, both Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove supervisors are risking property and lives by not insisting on more roads. One way in and out of Sanatoga? What happened in Conshohocken? The whole place nearly burned down because there was no access.
Stefan, you raise absolutely valid points!
Remember, though, that what you see in the graphics accompanying our story are only the developer’s proposals. They have already been rejected by the commissioners. If developers came back to the commissioners with a proposal they might consider acceptable, it would still have to pass muster of the township Planning Board, the township Zoning Hearing Board, and (again, finally) the Board of Commissioners. All three entities, in earlier discussions about this and other large vacant tracts still available in Lower Pottsgrove, are sensitive to and have already mentioned concerns similar to yours.