A proposal by a Willow Grove developer to build a townhouse development along Jackson Road received preliminary plan approval from the Douglass Township Board of Supervisors on Monday.

                The three-person board voted unanimously to allow the project to move forward.

                The Danny Jake Corporation wants to construct 240 units on a 28.5 acre parcel, known as the Zern Tract, between Second and Third avenues on the western side of Jackson Road.  The developer must complete months and months worth of work to finalize the plan, according to township Manager Pete Hiryak.

                A Route 100 Corridor Master Plan Overlay, approved in 2010 by the township's board of supervisors, allows construction of the townhouse community with certain conditions, Hiryak said.

                According to Solicitor Bob Brant, the municipality will receive more than $345,000 from the developer in traffic impact fees. He also said Danny Jake has agreed to contribute $170,400 towards the proposed realignment of Market Street, which currently intersects with E. Philadelphia Avenue and dead ends between Weis Markets and Merkel's Shoes.

                After the meeting, Supervisor Chairman Anthony Kuklinski said the developer's agreement to help fund the work on Market Street – which under the long-rage, best case scenario would connect Grosser Road and Philadelphia Avenue – was crucial to the board's affirmative vote.

                Eleanor F. Steiner and G. Dolores Levengood own the property in the 100 block of Jackson Road, according to Montgomery County property records.  Steiner and Levengood purchased the property from Clarence Zern for $1 on April 3, 2006, according to information posted on the county website.

                One of the supporting votes came from John Stasik Jr., the township's newest supervisor. Last month, the former supervisor accepted an appointment from Kuklinski and Vice Chair Dr. Alan Keiser to replace Fred Ziegler, who resigned from the board as part of plea agreement related to his guilty plea in the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

                The supervisors chose Stasik, who lost his seat in a 2015 race against Keiser, over Constable Joshua Stouch, Roger Updegrove and James Brophy.

                In December, Ziegler pleaded guilty to one count of unsworn falsification to authorities, a second-degree misdemeanor during a non-jury trial.  He had been facing charges of theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, intimidation and retaliation against witnesses, forgery, unsworn falsification to authorities, tampering with public records, obstruction of administrative law and conflict of interest.