Upper Providence supervisors reject Parkhouse zoning change

UPPER PROVIDENCE — The township board of supervisors has unanimously rejected a proposal for a zoning change that held the possibility of reducing the number of housing units to be built alongside the Parkhouse nursing home.

When Montgomery County sold the property for $41 million in 2014, it permanently preserved 70 acres of land, Potter’s Field Park, across Black Rock Road, and placed a five-year building moratorium on the remaining acres, which expired in 2019.

In 2016, the Parkhouse facility property was subdivided from the remaining open space, which is 176.4 acres and is one of the largest undeveloped parcels in the township and the county. It is bounded by Old State Road, Second Avenue, Black Rock Road and Yeager Road.

Under the existing zoning, the property owner, a corporate entity known Royersford Holdings LLC, can “by right” build a continuing care facility with 1,203 units that would presumably be a companion for the Parkhouse Nursing and Rehabilitation Center facility already there.

During the Jan. 16 supervisors’ meeting, Township Solicitor Joseph Bresnan outlined a second option the township was exploring in an effort to reduce the number of units. The new overlay zoning would have reduced the number of units to 679 and preserved 50% of the property as open space. As a trade, this would allow the developer to build conventional townhouses, which are more valuable, rather than nursing home housing units.

This option was pursued, Bresnan said, because for a year township officials had been hearing requests from residents asking them to try to stop the continuing care facility from being built. “This ordinance was drafted after hearing from people who said ‘we need better.’ To us, better meant fewer units and removing the medical care facility,” Bresnan said during his Jan. 16 presentation.

That medical facility, he said, while not having a big impact on the population of the Spring-Ford Area School District, is likely to increase the number of ambulance calls significantly.

“We believe it’s a good result to still have 50% of the open space, have the number of units cut in half, and have no medical facility.”

An affirmative vote by the supervisors would have sent the proposed zoning change to the planning commission for review and comment before coming back to the supervisors for a yea or nay vote.

“There’s really no reason not to send it to the planning commission and not fully vet it so at least you know what you’re saying no to,” Bresnan said.

However, speaker after speaker at the Jan. 16 meeting spoke out against pursuing this option, saying instead the developer should be forced to work within the existing zoning, which will mean the project must come before the township supervisors for a “conditional-use hearing.”

“I’m not here to stop development, I’m here to stop over-development,” said Ray Rocchio, a member of the recently-formed Save Parkhouse Farm organization who sponsored an online petition taking issue with parts of the first plan and which now has more than 2,400 signatures.

Opponents of the developer “want to fight this. We want to drag it out. We want to make this painful” for the developer, he said. “We don’t think the plan, as designed, can get approved.”

However, Bresnan said, and produced a concurring legal opinion from the late Robert Brant, that the developer is likely able to meet the conditions laid out in the existing zoning which will leave the supervisors little choice but to approve the project should the developer get that far in the process.

“Let’s take this to conditional use and have the developer show us what he can do with that property,” said Tory Bright.

“I strongly oppose any changes to the zoning ordinance,” said Brad Berkowitz.

“Let’s force them to go for 1,200 units,” said James Hoffman. “Financially, it’s almost impossible.”

A few speakers thought the re-zoning deserved consideration.

Amanda Turner said she does not think Bresnan is dishonest and his proposal is worth considering, but added that she does not trust the developer to do what he says he will do.

“Upper Providence got screwed by Montgomery County Commissioners Josh Shapiro, Bruce Castor and Leslie Richards,” said Joe Haney. “I wish there was no developer, but here we are. I say let the ordinance change go to the planning commission where it can be vetted out to the best possible scenario. Only then will we have clarity on what we’re saying no to,” he said. “Why cut our options short now?”

Bresnan agreed with Haney about where the blame for the development situation lies: the three former commissioners — Shapiro, now governor, Richards and Castor.

“2013 is when we all got screwed,” Bresnan said.

It began with a failed effort to establish a movie studio in Norristown at the intersection of Johnson and Markley streets, an effort which had the county lending $25 million.

But the project failed “and left a hole in the county budget, and that’s why the county sold Parkhouse. Truth is stranger than fiction,” Bresnan said. “Now we’re in damage-control mode and left to make the best we can of it.”