UPPER POTTSGROVE — You can add another potential 30 housing units to the 219 that are already on the drawing board near the Route 100 State Street interchange.
The Mercury reported last month about the 219 apartment units, and the traffic they could bring, being proposed in Upper Pottsgrove and West Pottsgrove near the busy intersection.
Last month, the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Commission reviewed a project by Master Ventures, LLC, which would add 28 more townhouses and two single-family homes.
The project is located on 10 acres with access at 1244 Farmington Ave. The townhomes would be stacked alongside each other, mostly on both sides of the road, which would climb the hill to where the two single-family homes would be built, adjacent to Pottsgrove Middle School.
“It’s a stuff job, they’re trying to stuff as many in as they can,” said Tom Troutman, the regional planning representative from Lower Pottsgrove. “It’s too much.”
Andrew Duncan, the representative from Douglass (Mont.) Township said he wants the road in nearby Coddington View townhomes, Sageview Drive, connected to the new development to improve access for emergency vehicles. Duncan is also the emergency coordinator for his township.
Kurt Zebrowski, a New Hanover Township Supervisor and the chairman of the regional planners, noted that several of the stormwater basins to control flooding are spread across several private properties, making them less likely to be properly maintained in the years to come.
“I’d be reluctant to put storm water basins on people’s property, especially multiple people,” Zebrwoski said.
He also questioned the small amount of open space, about 9 percent of the project, that would be available. “That’s terrible,” he said/
“I know that in New Hanover, that would not be popular with our planning commission. We’ve found if you don’t push back and stand up for the safety of the community, you get walked all over,” Zebrowski said.
Although the plan is still in the preliminary stages, the regional planners voted to send a letter outlining their concerns about the project to give Upper Pottsgrove’s fledgling planning commission more to consider.
