Neighboring Douglass Township could see additional 5,500 vehicle trips

        The impact of a proposed town center in a neighboring municipality has caught the interest of the Douglass Township's board of supervisors.

        The elected officials will closely monitor a plan by a Hatfield developer to implement 760 residential units and commercial property on 200 acres in New Hanover Township. On June 15, the supervisors voted unanimously to hire Collegeville attorney Bob Brant to follow the legislative process of the proposal submitted by Select Properties.

        At its completion, the development, located on the site of the former airport along Swamp Pike, would significantly add to Douglass Township's current traffic congestion, according to supervisors' Vice Chairman Anthony Kuklinski.

        A recently completed traffic study, which predicted that the development would add 5,500 vehicle trips to the township, caught the attention of municipal officials, according to Kuklinski.

        "The best way to get our voices heard is to be there at the inception (of this project)," he said. "We're going to be included in the planning."

        Douglass Township officials are claiming the right to influence the development because it directly abuts the municipality, according to Solicitor Paul Bauer.

        Kuklinski told the audience he recently attended a planning agency meeting in New Hanover Township, at the invitation of manager Kevin Tobias, and asked several pointed questions related to the development's impact.

        The supervisor said his questions, which included concerns over access of emergency service providers, and how it would degrade the quality of life for Douglass Township residents, were not answered appropriately.

        "I got no definite answers as to how to deal with this," Kuklinski said.

        Last year, Select Properties, which owns the entire parcel between Route 663, Swamp Pike, Township Line Road and the Minister Creek, resuscitated the town center plan initially proposed by TH Properties several years ago.

        Twelve months ago, Ben Goldthorp, who works for the developer, said the business decided to utilize the original plan because the entire project has already received preliminary plan approval from the township's board of supervisors.

        According to Goldthorp, Select Properties acquired the plan and an initial parcel of land from two banks in 2012. He said that it secured the remaining property in 2014.

        THP, the Harleysville developer that created the town center plan, filed for bankruptcy protection in April of 2009.

        A sketch plan submitted in April to New Hanover, by Select Properties, calls for 760 residential units to be constructed in phases with a variety of single family detached homes, townhouses, atrium and multiplex housing.

        The developer will be required to make significant improvements to the intersection of Swamp Pike and North Charlotte Street to accommodate an increase in traffic.

        The newly submitted plan differs slightly from the plan initially introduced by the previous developer, according to Bauer, who serves as the solicitor in both townships.

        In June of 2014, Michael McGann, New Hanover's former manager, cited necessary sanitary sewer system improvements as a key hurdle to final plan approval.

        According to Tobias, the developer will have to upgrade approximately 10,000 feet of sanitary sewer pipe in order to increase the capacity to accommodate the development.

        Goldthorp said last summer that the project's initial phase calls for the construction of 200 residential units, of varying types, near Township Line Road.