Upper Dublin Township (Credit: Montgomery County Planning Commission).
The Upper Dublin Planning Commission gave the green light to move forward a proposed mixed-use development on the Prudential tract by a 4-3 vote Dec. 17.
The vote constitutes a recommendation to the board of commissioners to adopt an amendment to the ordinance affecting mixed-use in Office Center zoning proposed by BET Investments in conjunction with a concept plan for Promenade East, a residential, retail and commercial development at 2101 Welsh Road.
The amendment now goes before the township board of commissioners, which scheduled a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. January 14.
Promenade East would comprise 600 apartments, 160 stacked townhouses, 100,000 square feet of medical or corporate office space, a 150-unit senior and assisted living facility, potential hotel and potential Upper Dublin police substation. The 90-acre site was purchased by BET for $30.25 million in 2022.
Founded by Michael Markman and Bruce Toll, BET developed the adjacent Promenade at Upper Dublin with 400 apartments, retail and restaurants connected to the Enclave — 114 single-family 55-plus homes — at Dreshertown and Welsh roads.
BET President Michael Markman summarized changes to the ordinance in the amendment as: a definition of stacked townhouses; the addition of hotel, stacked townhouses, senior assisted living, and municipal use to permitted uses; increasing the number of drive-thrus from two to three; increasing the height for buildings with commercial on the first floor and residential above from 65 to 75 feet, provided building is at least 500 feet from the boundary of a residential district; and removing the ground level limitation for outdoor seating.
It would also amend road frontage requirements; require a mix of three or more uses; require stacked townhouses to provide 200 square feet of outdoor courtyard space per townhouse; and modify parking.
Of two parking spaces per stacked townhouse, one would be the garage with 0.5 space per townhouse for overflow parking and one space per bedroom for an apartment building. A stacked townhouse is defined as two single-family attached dwellings arranged vertically in two stories for each unit, each having independent outside access, owned or rented, but not held in community ownership.
Peter Clelland, BET vice president of development, said the townhomes would be a variety of five, six, seven and a maximum of eight in a row, with green areas between the buildings.
Noting a Montgomery County Planning Commission comment that a lot of the streets are really an aisle leading to a parking lot, UDPC planner Roger Wilcox said “roadway circulation needs to be looked at” within the community.
How traffic in the Promenade will interact with the Prudential tract and concerns voiced by the public previously “will be a strong area of focus, as well as the curb cut on Dryden,” said Jack Smyth, UD township traffic and transportation engineer. “Traffic will be a big issue going through land development.”
Asked by planner Priscilla McDonald how many more people would be added to the area, Markman estimated 1,500 in the residential uses.
Noting if the site were all office, it would have 4,000 to 5,000 people, Markman said, “This is not as intense. Mixed-use is busy at different times.”
“Moving all those people around the highway … the problem will be monumental,” planner Dr. Paul Halpern said. “I don’t like raising the height and it adds more people."
“There are real issues with traffic,” planner Dr. Mark Osias said. “I’m not sure it should go forward till more definitive answers are established.”
In addition to the comments by McDonald, Halpern and Osias, who cast the no votes, residents of the Enclave also voiced opposition to the proposed changes to the ordinance, citing traffic, safety and the impact on residential property values.
Noting he owns one of the homes closest to the Prudential property, Enclave resident Craig Mills, who has since passed away, said he was opposed “to all of the zoning changes.”
“Many are the antithesis of the comprehensive plan,” he said, and referencing another resident’s comments, he added, “It would create an illegal spot zone favoring only BET.”
Market Street, which runs through the Promenade, “is unsuitable as a main thoroughfare,” and is frequently disrupted by delivery trucks, which block the street and parking spaces, speed and enter Market from Dreshertown despite no trucks allowed, Mills said. “Citizens have expressed safety issues at Dreshertown Road and Market and at Market and Concourse there are frequent close calls. All will be exacerbated if the proposed changes are approved.”
“Markman has referred to the project as Bruce Toll’s legacy project,” he added. “We already learned from the Promenade what that legacy would be: increased crime, congestion, overcrowding and decreased public safety.”
The intersections at Dreshertown and Welsh, Welsh and Dryden and Market and Dreshertown are all dangerous for both cars and pedestrians, who blend into the background in dark clothing, said Enclave resident John Minges. “I’m asking you to factor in it’s already a dangerous situation and traffic will increase.”
“I have concerns with traffic and patterns … it’s a really congested area, and issues with theft [at the Promenade],” Enclave resident Yvonne Kushner said. “It will absolutely adversely affect property values in that development.”
“Why do we have to share a lot of these roads and problems with your new project,” Enclave resident Miriam Goodfriend said. “Instead of coming through the Promenade, create your own roads. … Don’t go through Market Street and down Dreshertown.”
“This is the very first stage of development,” UDPC Chairman Mike Cover said prior to the vote. “Traffic is regional. Whatever can be done will be done. I understand the concern about traffic and safety.”
