Tag Archive | "Sanatoga interchange"

20111219-SanatogaPA-SanatogaMarketplaceTornetta (2Edit)

Talk Speculative On Prospect Of ‘Sanatoga Marketplace’

Orange-tagged stakes mark where soil tests were conducted in December on vacant land at 3049 E. High St., Sanatoga, just west of the Turkey Hill convenience store

SANATOGA PA – During the economic downturn of recent years, the Planning Commission in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township has had only a few major projects – the construction of an office building or two – into which its members could sink their collective teeth. That may change later this month.

Tornetta Realty Corp., which owns and is marketing the vacant and once heavily wooded 14-acre property at 3049 E. High St., Pottstown PA, apparently is considering development there, township Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott recently confirmed. The land is located just west of the Turkey Hill convenience store on the north side of the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422.

The Tornetta firm, of Norristown, has preliminarily indicated its intentions to the township, she said. It might be ready to make a presentation to planning commissioners, on what is tentatively named “Sanatoga Marketplace,” when they meet Feb. 27 (2012; Monday).

It’s been about 18 months since the property was last in the news. At the time, Tornetta was completing work on leveling ground, installing drainage, and negotiating potential right-of-way use with owners of an underground gas pipeline that crosses the land. Since then, the huge Costco retail warehouse has opened on the south side of the interchange, in Limerck Township, and developers of property there have been actively seeking new tenants for future construction.

With the economy slowly gaining momentum, with loan interest rates still at historic lows, with increased shopping traffic in the area, and with its ground ready, there’s plenty of public speculation about what Sanatoga Marketplace might contain. Tornetta hasn’t tipped its hand; as of late last month, no drawings or renderings had been submitted to the township, Elliott said.

Tornetta has been active nonetheless. In late December (2011), its representatives conducted water infiltration tests at 10 separate sites on the property, according to Keith Place, Lower Pottsgrove zoning officer and director of codes. Small plastic orange streamers tied to stakes that dot the ground mark where testing was done to gain information for what could be required in a land development plan.

In some ways, the seemingly leisurely pace at which Sanatoga Marketplace is unfolding has been a benefit to the Planning Commission. The usually five-member board has lacked one commissioner since the resignation in July (2011) of Nicholas Hiriak; his successor, Brian Brentzel, was appointed only last month by the Board of Commissioners.

The board did not meet as scheduled on Jan. 23, Elliott acknowledged, because it lacked a quorum. Besides Hiriak’s vacancy, the board also had one member out of town on business, and another was ill. In addition, the board still has not named a vice chairman to fill in as its leader if Chairman Frank Cebular is absent.

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Limerick Map May Have Impact On Lower Pottsgrove

Limerick Map May Have Impact On Lower Pottsgrove

The Sanatoga interchange at U.S. Route 422.

LIMERICK PA – Adoption of an official road map for neighboring Limerick (PA) Township, being considered next week by the Limerick Board of Supervisors, may have an impact on future real estate development in Lower Pottsgrove.

The Limerick board, in an advertisement published Tuesday (Jan. 11, 2011) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, said it would conduct a public hearing and then consider a resolution to accept an official township road map during its Jan. 18 meeting at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 646 W. Ridge Pike, Limerick PA. The meeting is open to the public.

The map, created by Limerick’s engineering firm, Pennoni Associates Inc., designates and reserves “areas for future streets, and other municipal facilities,” according to the published legal notice, and indicates “future street locations (and) intersection improvements within the Township.” It’s intended to give developers and land owners guidance by showing where and how Limerick looks to place roads and public utilities in coming years.

Likely to be included in the map are features affecting the development of properties on the Limerick side of the Sanatoga interchange at U.S. Route 422. Parts of the interchange are divided by the border line that separates Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove.

The two townships have collaborated since last year on creating a mutually acceptable, coordinated plan for real estate development at and around the interchange. Back in June (2010), both hired Norristown PA-based landscape architects Simone Collins to create detailed maps that show how road and other improvements on each side of the townships’ line would match up to enhance traffic flow and land use.

Consequently, the guidance offered by Limerick’s official map – if adopted as expected – for its western edge are known to and probably will be embraced by Lower Pottsgrove leaders. For future developers in Limerick, it locks much of that guidance into local law, as allowed under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code. Even so, the proposed road map ordinance gives supervisors the flexibility to change the design when a need arises.

Copies of the map and accompanying ordinance are available for public review, according to the legal notice, at Limerick’s municipal building, as well as at the offices of The Mercury, Hanover and King Streets, Pottstown PA; and at the Montgomery County Law Library, located in the lower level of the county courthouse in Norristown.

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Posted in Business, Limerick, Lower Pottsgrove, Real Estate, Sanatoga, TransportationComments (1)

20100617-SanatogaPA-PeterSimoneLPTwp (2Edit)

Lower Pottsgrove Authorizes Interchange Map

SANATOGA PA – In its latest cooperative effort with Limerick (PA) Township to frame the future of development surrounding the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners authorized a consultant Thursday night (June 17, 2010) to create an official map that graphically shows builders and property owners how it expects the area’s traffic to flow.

Consultant Peter Simone talked to commissioners about traffic flow on properties surrounding the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422.

The map, already in draft form and displayed to commissioners during their second meeting of the month in the municipal building on Buchert Road, indicates much of the development on vacant land within Lower Pottsgrove’s boundaries both north and south of the interchange would be along five-lane boulevards interspersed by two-lane feeder roads and an occasional traffic circle.

The map does not commit commissioners to any particular feature, according to consultant Peter Simone of Simone Collins, a Berwyn PA-based landscape architecture firm upon which the township has relied for several years. “It doesn’t force you to act in any way,” Simone reassured the board. “But it helps them (developers) know what you want, and it gives you options to act,” he said of the map.

Limerick Township supervisors authorized their portion of the map earlier this month. The Lower Pottsgrove board followed suit, unanimously, at a cost estimated to be about $1,500 or less. The maps are being coordinated by Traffic Planning and Design Inc., the Sanatoga company that serves as transportation engineer for both municipalities. TPD will ensure “the roads line up with what Limerick is also doing,” Simone noted.

Once Lower Pottsgrove’s map is completed, the board could hold appropriate hearings and ultimately adopt it as part of its planning code.

Simone and township officials have met on several occasions with several property owners and developers known to have an interest in attracting business to the interchange. There have been “few if any discussions about the roads as they’ve been laid out,” according to Simone. “The real discussions are about what’s going to happen with the zoning.”

Proposed zoning and property usage requirements yet to be adopted by commissioners will dictate what can be built within the area, where, for what purposes, and how. Those changes, initially created in draft form two years ago, were put on hold as Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove agreed to cooperate on interchange planning.

“We would like to build in as much flexibility in the zoning as possible, so developers have options too,” Simone said. “They’re all over the place with ideas about what they want to do with their properties, because the (real estate) market’s been so crazy.”

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20100131-LimerickPa-UpperProvGatewaySign (2Edit)

Talks Continue On Sanatoga Interchange Planning

SANATOGA PA – Talks are continuing between Lower Pottsgrove and Limerick (PA) townships on how best to coordinate their needs, desires, and dreams for the future of commercial development at the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422.

The neighboring municipalities agreed last May (2009) to collaborate on a master plan for land use surrounding the interchange, which is divided by the townships’ common boundary. Their staffs and selected elected officials have met several times since, most recently in mid-January (2010), according to Lower Pottsgrove Commissioner Michael McGroarty.

Apparently, not everyone's pleased by the pace of development in Limerick Township. A new entrance marker on its border with Upper Providence sported a hand-made sign Sunday (Jan. 31, 2010) that proclaimed Limerick as the "home of suburban sprawl and overdevelopment."

“We’re both working toward the same goal,” McGroarty observed during the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Jan. 21 meeting at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA. “I’m impressed that we’re doing the right kinds of things cooperatively.”

“It’s not an agreement that’s fallen by the wayside,” Commissioner James Phillips said of the master plan, but with a first-of-the-year change in politicians in both townships he noted it is taking more time to bring those new to the joint committee up to speed. “The first step is really getting our arms around the problems we’re facing there.”

A huge amount of commercial and residential growth is expected at the interchange in coming years. To accommodate it, the municipalities anticipate costs in the tens of millions of dollars to re-work the highway’s exit ramps, widen existing roads, create a feeder or frontage road system, and install traffic control systems there. Creation of the master plan is seen in part as a way to attract federal funding for those projects.

Phillips characterized the master plan as “one of the biggest initiatives Lower Pottsgrove’s ever going to undertake.”

Limerick in December (2009) gave its approval to development on the interchange’s southeast side of the first phase of what is now called “The Gateway At Sanatoga,” formerly known as “Sanatoga Springs.” A Costco warehouse store, three restaurants, and a bank are expected to be constructed there, possibly beginning this spring.

Related (to Sanatoga interchange development):

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Jan. 21 meeting):

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Man yawns at 70-percent off sign.

Outlets Packed Thanks To Sunny Sunday

LIMERICK PA – What a difference a day makes.

The Philadelphia Premium Outlets mall at the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422 in Limerick was booming with customers yesterday (Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009), as they enjoyed shopping for post-Christmas bargains in bright sunshine and temperatures that reached into the low-50s, despite breezy conditions.

Shoppers pass by store window advertising discounts.

Some outlet merchants offered discounts of up to 70 percent on goods.

The mall’s parking lots were packed by 2:30 p.m., and outlet-hired traffic police had their hands full at some entrances from Evergreen Road. That compared to a sparse Saturday, outlet store managers said, which was filled with rain and clouds but far fewer buyers.

Discounts at a couple of stores in the Limerick center ranged as high as 75 percent on selected merchandise. A few more offered 70-percent off, but the majority touted price cuts of 50- to 60-percent.

Merchants nationwide were hoping for a bigger shopper turnout than what they seem to have gotten, The Associated Press observed. A retail analyst told it “nothing was amazingly stellar” in the holiday season so far. “This is not going to go down as a Christmas for most people to really remember,” the NPD Group‘s Marshal Cohen said.

Man yawns at 70-percent off sign.

Not all buyers, apparently including this yawner, were impressed.

Across the country, as they did in Limerick, stores pushed to attract buyers by slashing prices and advertising big sales. For retailers who didn’t fare as well as they wished in the run-up to Christmas, this is a big week. Sales during the same period last year accounted for nearly 15 percent of all holiday retail business, according to The AP. The outlets’ sales promotion continues through next Sunday (Jan. 3, 2010).

Shoppers, who were accustomed last year to getting everything they wanted at occasionally larger discounts were disappointed too. Merchants more closely managed their inventories, The AP noted, because they guessed shoppers would “likely spend less this year because of high unemployment and economic uncertainty.”

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20050504-CapitalBuilding-EdBrown

Funding Program, Which Could Help Rt. 422, Extended

LIMERICK PA – A federal highway funding program, on which Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove (PA) townships are depending to help pay for improvements at the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, got a new lease on life this week (Sept. 30, 2009) only hours before it was set to expire.

Congressional aproval of the SAFETEA-LU highway funding bill wil be short-lived if no action is taken beyonf Oct. 31

Congressional aproval of the SAFETEA-LU highway funding bill wil be short-lived if no action is taken beyond Oct. 31

Congress approved, and President Obama signed into law Wednesday, a continuing resolution that extends the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)” funding through Oct. 31 (2009), according to a legislative alert issued Thursday (Oct. 1, 2009) by the American Public Transportation Association.

The act pays for a wide variety of road and public transportation programs. Its interim funding is a stop-gap measure, because the House and Senate haven’t yet agreed on how much money can be spent, or on what, for a full-year of SAFETEA-LU allocations during fiscal 2010.

The transportation association’s alert further reported that action on a longer-term extension of the act was “possible in the coming days.”

Lower Pottsgrove congressman Charlie Dent, and Limerick congressman Jim Gerlach, both sit on the House committee that controls how SAFETEA-LU money is distributed.

SAFETEA-LU has been repeatedly mentioned by the Delta Development Group Inc., a Mechanicsburg PA legislative lobbying firm employed by Limerick, as one of the prime vehicles from which both townships could obtain money to cover what is estimated to be up to $25 million in costs for completion of future highway construction envisioned at the Sanatoga interchange.

Limerick is paying Delta Development $240,000 over two years for its lobbying expertise. Lower Pottsgrove earlier this year rejected similarly hiring Delta, deeming the firm too expensive.

SAFETEA-LU has already paid, in part, for improvements at 422′s Collegeville-Phoenixville (Route 29) interchange, where the new Providence Town Center shopping complex will open within two weeks. The first phase of that development features a Wegman’s supermarket, a Best Buy electronics store, L.A. Fitness, and many other retailers and restaurants.

Because the townships expect comparable commercial growth at the Sanatoga interchange, they signed an agreement in May (2009) to cooperate on a master plan for zoning, land use and development across their mutual border.

Delta representatives, during past meetings of the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners, have candidly said that – because local congressmen are involved – whatever money won for the work by one township likely would also be given to the other.

The joint agreement did not commit Lower Pottsgrove to any financial expenditures or decisions, township solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway pointedly noted.

It did not prohibit them, either. One commissioner has privately speculated that – should Delta succeed in winning SAFETEA-LU funds for both Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove to help solve their interchange traffic problems – Lower Pottsgrove might consider paying a portion of Limerick’s lobbying expenses.

Photo by Ed Brown via Wikimedia Commons

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20090521-422RoyersfordExitTraffic-Zlomek

422 Repairs, Delays Start Tuesday

ROYERSFORD PA – A 4-1/2-mile stretch of U.S. Route 422, roughly between its Royersford and Collegeville (Route 29) interchanges, will undergo $12.2 million of reconstruction and improvement work beginning next week, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced Thursday (May 21, 2009).

Traffic moves west Thursday along U.S. Route 422 at its Royersford-Trappe exit.

Traffic moves west Thursday (May 21, 2009) along U.S. Route 422 at its Royersford-Trappe exit, which PennDOT will re-pave.

“We are ready to upgrade this rough stretch of pavement and provide motorists with a smooth, structurally-sound roadway for many years to come,” PennDOT District Executive Lester C. Toaso said. The work, which starts Tuesday (May 26, 2009) is being financed by federal econnomic stimulus money. The project is scheduled to end in July 2010.

Work crews will remove areas of broken concrete pavement and pour new concrete patches on eastbound Route 422. They also will resurface the concrete pavement with asphalt; repair 12 bridges; repair ramps at the Route 29 and Royersford interchanges; install safety rumble strips on roadway shoulders; clean existing pipe culverts; and install new guide rail, reflective pavement markers, and Intelligent Transportation System conduit.

A Posts' Report For ProPublica

A Posts' Report For ProPublica

For 422 drivers, the work will cause some added delays.

They’ll face lane closures weekdays, weeknights and some weekends during the next 12 months, Toaso said. PennDOT’s contractor, Road-Con Inc. of West Chester PA, instends to stage the work so all lanes will be open on eastbound Route 422 during the peak morning commuting hours, and all westbound lanes will be open during the peak late-afternoon travel hours.

In addition, weekend ramp closures will occur at the Route 29 and Royersford interchanges for repairs and resurfacing.

Starting Tuesday and lasting about three months, eastbound Route 422 will be reduced from two lanes to one on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 a.m. the next morning for the removal and replacement of deteriorated concrete pavement. The contractor plans to start at the Royersford Interchange and proceed east.

When the concrete replacement work shifts to Route 422’s westbound lanes in August or September, westbound motorists will encounter a signal-lane pattern weekdays from 7 p.m. to 2 p.m. the next afternoon.

Route 422 carries 62,000 vehicles a day between its Collegeville and Royersford exits. This portion of highway to be repaired was built in the early 1970s, PennDOT said.

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Township Interviews For 'Bigger Picture'

Township Interviews For 'Bigger Picture'

The Sanatoga interchange at U.S. Route 422, as seen from overhead in a Google Maps satellite image.

The Sanatoga interchange at U.S. Route 422.

SANATOGA PA – Lower Pottsgrove wants help in looking at the bigger picture that is the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, township Manager Rodney Hawthorne said Wednesday (May 13, 2009). That’s why the township Board of Commissioners is looking for an outside consultant to potentially assist with legal and planning issues surrounding interchange development.

Board members gathered Tuesday afternoon (May 12, 2009) in the township municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., to hear presentations from two Philadelphia area firms that could provide those kinds of services. No decisions were made on hiring either, and few costs were discussed, Hawthorne reported. “It was more to find out what they might do for us,” he said.

Township resident Patrick “P.J.” McGill of Rivendell Lane, in an e-mail received Wednesday by The Post, said he, reporter Michael Hays of WhatsThe422.com, and candidates running for election to the board were the few audience members present. “What would one expect at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday?,” wrote McGill, who earlier had been critical of when the meeting had been scheduled.

Lower Pottsgrove and neighboring Limerick (PA) Township, both of which have interests in and control portions of land surrounding the interchange, are attempting to cooperate on handling traffic, development, sewage and waste water, and zoning on both sides of their mutual border.

Already announced plans for retail and residential projects on Limerick’s side of the interchange, and projects known to be coming to Lower Pottsgrove’s side, likely will require an investment of tens of millions of dollars in highway and infrastructure improvements at the 422 exit. Neither township alone can afford those costs, and both in the past have expressed their concern about the area’s future if they fail to regulate its growth.

Hawthorne estimated Lower Pottsgrove could have an agreement on working with the Limerick Township Board of Supervisors ready by its commissioners’ May 21 (2009; Thursday) meeting. A similar resolution would be considered by Limerick supervisors at a future meeting, he added.

Coincidentally, during a Limerick Township primary election candidates’ forum Wednesday – from which WhatsThe422.com reported live via Twitter – Limerick’s efforts to obtain federal economic stimulus funding for interchange highway work was among the topics of discussion.

Satellite map from Google Maps

Related (to Sanatoga interchange development):

Editor’s note: Information in a portion of this story resulted from tweets received at The Sanatoga Post’s Twitter account. Feel free to follow us on Twitter @jzlomek.

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20090324-norightredrupert-zlomek

Rupert Now No-Right-On-Red

No longer a right-on-red turn.

No longer a right-on-red turn.

SANATOGA PA – Motorists beware. It’s now against the law to turn right (west) on a red light from the southbound lane of Rupert Road at its intersection with Ridge Pike (East High Street), near the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422. A new traffic control – specifically, a sign denying the turn – was installed there earlier this month.

Patrick McGill of Rivendell Lane, who last December suggested Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township look into limiting right turns at the corner, due to the potential for accidents, was among the first to notice. He thanked the township Board of Commissioners and Manager Rodney Hawthorne for their action on the matter during the board’s meeting last Thursday (March 19, 2009).

The ability of southbound, right-turning Rupert Road drivers to see fast-moving westbound Ridge Pike traffic approach the intersection is hindered by an automotive repair garage and parked vehicles on the northeast corner. Commissioners authorized a traffic study four months ago to determine if the right-on-red turns should be eliminated.

The busy intersection receives heavy traffic with the Turkey Hill convenience store at its northwest corner (3051 E. High St.), and also serves as an entrance to 422 at the interchange.

Related:

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ March 19, 2009, meeting):

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20080919-route422westsanatoga-7edit

Got A Route 422 Idea? Time To Air It

traffic on Route 422 East snakes its way toward the Trooper PA exit.

A scene that's all too familiar: a line of traffic on Route 422 East snakes its way toward Trooper during a morning commute.

POTTSTOWN PA – For some drivers, the weekday morning crawl known as commuting on U.S. Route 422 east between Sanatoga and Trooper is never a problem. They read the newspaper, folded into quarters for easy handling, atop their steering wheel. They drink coffee. They chat on the phone or text to friends. Those who are grooming-challenged even shave with an electric razor or fix their make-up.

The rest of us just sit and steam, but maybe that can change beginning Wednesday (Feb. 18, 2009).

The 25-mile corridor.

The 25-mile corridor.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), which thinks about how we’ll be living here 20 years from now, is asking for a drivers’ point of view on the future of Route 422. It will hold the second of two local input meetings Wednesday from 6:30-9 p.m. in the community room of the West campus of Montgomery County Community College, 101 College Dr. The public’s invited to see what DVRPC thinks could happen along the highway, and to offer its own solutions.

  • The commission will hold a similar meeting tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009) at the same times in the Oaks Elementary School cafeteria, 325 Oaks School Dr., Oaks PA.

The commission characterizes 422 as “possibly the single most important and fastest growing suburban expressway in the Philadelphia region, and an integral part of the inter-regional highway network.” It’s created a master plan for the future needs of the 25-mile-long corridor that includes roadway (lane) capacity, interchange design, connecting roadway improvements, transit alternatives and connections, and future land use plans.

Some of the plan’s ideas are familiar to Lower Pottsgrove residents. They’ve heard for several years about the need to re-design the highway’s interchange at Sanatoga. They’ve been encouraged by, and then disappointed by, see-saw speculation of whether commuter train service west from Norristown PA will ever return as a transit alternative.

Land use planning also is part of the DVRPC mandate.

Land use planning also is part of the DVRPC mandate. This parcel is on the north side of Route 422 at Limerick.

For people who aren’t familiar with those and other proposals, however, the DVRPC meeting will provide an introduction. Think of it as a sort of transportation fair. Booths in MCCC’s community room – the commission refers to them as “stations” – will display maps and renderings of land use and transportation conditions along the 422 corridor. Commission staff members will be available to answer questions.

DVRPC is the official metropolitan planning organization for the Greater Philadelphia region, consisting of nine counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; and Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Mercer in New Jersey.

The input meetings are co-sponsored by an organization known as the U.S. 422 Corridor Coalition, which consists of the DVRPC and other planning organizations, a handful of municipalities (Limerick township is a member; Lower Pottsgrove is not), elected state legislators (including Lower Pottsgrove Rep. Tom Quigley), and corporate members (including Exelon Nuclear, the Philadelphia Premium Oulets, the college, Traffic Planning and Design of Sanatoga, and the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce).

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