Oh The Places You’ll Go! En Route To The 2017 Methacton Post Prom

A whirlwind trip around the globe awaited Methacton High School students planning to attend the 2017 post-prom event, themed ‘Oh The Places You’ll Go! (after the Dr. Seuss story by the same name) but when they arrived, they needed no passports or luggage,  only a desire to have fun and stay out of harm’s way.

The same goes for the more than 1000 family, friends and curious attendees from other school districts who lined up well in advance of the 6:30 community walk-through start time to learn about this amazing endeavor and to get a sneak preview of the decorations, activities and features of this year’s domestic and internationally-themed event, many of whom will have kids gracing the newly-converted high school hallways in a few short hours when the prom is over.

2017 marks the 18^th year of the premier post-prom event in Montgomery County, attracting close to 100% participation by students attending the prom (93% of prom attendees as of last year, and between 800-900 students in total, some of whom do not attend the prom) and the aforementioned 1000+ visitors who take the walk-through preview tour. Created to give students a safe place to spend the overnight hours after prom, it’s blossomed over the years to be something students AND parents look forward to experiencing.

Post-prom came about largely because studies show that two of the most dangerous nights for high school students are the evenings following the prom and graduation. As soon as the prom ends, students spend the entire night inside the high school in a safe, drug and alcohol free environment. Free to all junior and senior high school students and their dates, attendees are expected to sign in and stay all night – if they want to leave, parents are called and the students are not released until they arrive.  Students are free to go after 5:30 am but must stay til the end to be eligible to win awesome door prizes.

The high school interior becomes virtually unrecognizable, having been transformed into an entirely new environment. Activities available throughout the night include a casino, sporting events such as dodgeball and volleyball tournaments, a coffee house with entertainment, inflatables, a bull riding machine, an arcade, laser tag, a comedy/improve group, hypnotist, yoga, trike races, and roving performers. There’s even a dash of reality TV in the form of Cash Cab. Food is available throughout the evening for students and volunteers.

There’s no cost to the students to attend – all expenses incurred in making the props and decorations, providing food and entertainment, and the prizes that are offered to those who stay all night are paid for by generous donations of hundreds of hours of time, and cash, goods and services from community sponsors, businesses, organizations and families – this year’s operating budget topped $46,000. Several fundraisers are also held during the year to raise funds, such as the annual summer golf outing at Shannondell, and the adult dinner dance held in the wintertime.

Enjoy this compilation set to music (via You-Tube) of the gorgeous decorations created for “Oh The Places You’ll Go”, and these fun facts provided by the post-prom committee:

https://youtu.be/RFRJJc_BvSo

·       - It takes more than 450 volunteers to work the night of post-prom, for setup, manning the functions and security at post-prom, and clean up the next morning.

·       - 61 local businesses and over 100 families provided cash donations for this year’s post-prom

·      -  Post-prom is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit volunteer organization and is not affiliated with Home & School or Methacton High School.

·       - Each year a student logo design contest is held, with the winner receiving two free tickets to the prom.

·        -Over 65 volunteers work behind the scenes starting in October each year lending their various talents to design, build and create the decorations and displays for post-prom.

·        -Post-prom are loaned out to seven other Methacton School District schools, five surrounding local school districts, and many local community groups.

·        -The post-prom Education Committee sends notes to all of the local florists and tuxedo shops to tuck into students’ corsages, boutonnieres and jacket pockets reminding students to make good choices on prom night and thanks those shops who’ve agreed to help us keep our students safe.

It’s never too late to donate to support this very worthy cause. If you’d like to contribute, mail your tax-deductible check payable to Methacton Post Prom to: PO Box 39, Eagleville, PA, 19408-0039.

The Long and Winding Road

It’s rare that the closure of a road in our community is cause for celebration, but for the LP Board of Supervisors last evening, deciding what to do about a public road promised long ago yet still unbuilt was an opportunity to make a significant positive traffic impact for LP.



former proposed throughpoint from Egypt to Park Ave

At issue was whether to allow local developer Audubon Land Development (ALD)  and its principal, John Neilson, out of an obligation incurred 16 years ago to complete Shannondell Boulevard through to Park Avenue, part of the plan when ALD pursued approval for the development of the Shannondell retirement community, in exchange for road improvements elsewhere in the Township, or whether to hold them to the letter of the 1998 conditional use decision.

ALD’s commitment to open a public road (an extension of the existing Shannondell Boulevard) stretching from Egypt Road to Park Avenue was secured by a former Board of Supervisors and sought at a time in our history when we had significant congestion issues in Audubon, particularly along Egypt Road. At the time, the intersection at Egypt/Park Avenue/Pawlings Road was rated by PennDOT as an “F” – their worst rating. This was partly because the point where US Route 422 meets Trooper Road had never been designed as a full cloverleaf, so traffic seeking to head westbound from our area was forced to thread through Audubon on Egypt Road to reach 422 there. The Shannondell road extension was required and approved as a means to help alleviate this traffic.



paper street back to the Meadows @ Shannondell from Park

Also back in 1998 new businesses and homes were still being built at a steady clip, dumping more and more traffic on local roads less and less able to keep up. In addition, we are a gateway community through which pass-through traffic generated by other communities along the 422 corridor, also experiencing growth in population and business, fed into LP. The 1998 agreement was structured so that when Shannondell reached 1000 new units (and presumably added a definably increased level of traffic onto Egypt) it would trigger the completion and dedication of the road to divert cars to Park Avenue.

Since Shannondell never reached that threshold (although they are close), they were never required to complete and open the public road. And, in the intervening years, conditions changed sufficiently so that the cut-through from Egypt to Park Avenue was arguably no longer needed. In 2006 improvements to the Egypt Road/Park Avenue/Pawlings Road intersection approved in 2005 (by the BOS I was a member of) were installed, improving that intersection from an “F” rating to a “D”. Today, long-planned work is underway to complete the 422/Trooper Road cloverleaf, which will make it easier for employees of the corporate center to access 422 without traversing Egypt Road, and the Arcola Road bridge – while having a temporary impact on the Audubon area – will be rebuilt and reopened within the next couple of years.


Thus, having made their case that circumstances have substantially changed (and arguably improved and will continue to do so) since the 1998 conditional use decision they received, ALD secured the Board of Supervisors’ approval last night to amend it (with conditions) to exchange that project for improvements at the dangerous intersection of Crawford Road, Eagleville Road and Park Avenue (see articles, here (TAP) and here and here (Times Herald).

The unaligned Crawford Road intersection is currently rated ‘E”, although arguably it’s worse, according to the Township’s traffic engineer, Casey Moore of McMahon Associates. Improving and aligning Crawford Road is a safety priority and in the public’s best interests. Traffic stacks there significantly in all directions and is especially dangerous at rush hours. It has an extensive accident history, and I personally know of friends and family whose cars have been clobbered there over the years.

The stub road at Shannondell will still be finished up to Park Avenue, but will not have public access. Only emergency vehicles and public works will be able to access it.



S. Park heading north, 7-14-14 @ 5:25 pm

I believe it’s very forward thinking on the part of our BOS to think in terms of getting something we really want and need in exchange for a project that is no longer necessary, and I applaud their creativity, flexibility and courage in taking on what could have been a politically hot issue.



paper street from Park to Egypt

When I ran for BOS in 2011, because I was the only candidate to go on record as opposing opening the road to the public,  I received overwhelming support from the residents of Shannondell who were vehemently opposed to what they termed ‘an expressway’ being opened in their community, citing safety concerns. Some Audubon residents, and former supervisor Rick Brown, were, at the time, more interested in holding a developer accountable for an agreement they entered into years ago than in what was in the overall best interest of the Township as a whole. I’m glad that this has turned out to be a win/win for all stakeholders and is no longer a political football.

Now, if we could only get the intersection of Pinetown/Sunnyside/Eagleville Road improved….

  

photo credit: Times Herald

Fields Of Gold

FOR THE MOST RECENT INFORMATION ABOUT THE SALE OF PARKHOUSE AND 200 ACRES OF OPEN SPACE,PLEASE SEE WWW.SAVEPARKHOUSE.BLOGSPOT.COM

Imagine a scenario in which gorgeous, undisturbed open space located in your community, but owned by Montgomery County, is quietly, inexplicably and suddenly targeted for sale and rushed to closing.  

Think it couldn’t happen? We have county-owned open space at the Audubon Recreation Association fields, at Mill Grove, at the Shannondell Golf Course, even surrounding the prison in Eagleville. Most of that is under long term lease, but leases, like any other contract, can be terminated early for a variety of reasons unless otherwise protected by legal instruments.

As if that is not bad enough, imagine that all the details surrounding the proposals and contract award of the sale of land in your community – which you might even live close to - is done with next to no transparency. You have no idea what could be happening there in a few short months. Still think this couldn’t happen?

Folks, all of this IS happening just one township over from us. If you have any relatives or friends who are residents or employees of Parkhouse, Montgomery County’s geriatric and rehabilitation complex in Upper Providence Township, you especially want to be paying attention. Parkhouse consists of a 467-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility, a senior daycare and fifteen rental apartments for seniors.

 

Back in June, Montgomery County put Parkhouse up for sale and advertised for proposals for a private entity to purchase and operate it. Part of the assets included in the RFP were 220 acres of open, mostly agricultural, land surrounding Parkhouse. Over the summer, the County set up several meetings with UPT officials, theoretically to discuss their intentions regarding the proposed sale, get UPT’s concerns, and update UPT as to the status.

The County cancelled meeting after meeting, finally finding time to sit down with UPT in July, but not to discuss UPT’s concerns with the sale, but to discuss the COUNTY’S  concerns with UPT’s pending rezoning of the parcel, which was in process prior to the county issuing the RFP. The rezoning involved changing the subject property from R1 Residential with an institutional overlay to OSC (open space with institutional overlay).  They met with UPT staff only once again, in September, again, to discuss THEIR concerns, specifically the granting of a proposed “natural subdivision" sectioning off some of the open space down Route 113.

Since early September, I have submitted a couple of Right to Know requests to try to figure out something about this, and bottom line, the County has been stalling me left and right with what I believe are contrived excuses that are not legitimate under the Open Records Law. This isn't my first trip to the rodeo; I know how this works, so I appealed. I filed the second such request after I became aware that an October 8 meeting was scheduled for the purpose of having the ‘Working Group’ (an all-county-employee board tasked with reviewing proposals) present their findings to the county Commissioners. They did not make the winning bidder’s proposal public, nor did they reveal the names of the other bidders, including the second of the two purported finalists. This Working Group recommended that bidder Mid-Atlantic Health Care from Maryland be awarded the bid, and a few days later, the Commissioners accepted their recommendation and voted to sell the whole shebang to Mid-Atlantic for $39 million.

Some initial research I did revealed some potentially disturbing information about the winning bidder. They’ve accumulated half of their current holdings only since 2011, and took on enormous debt ($106M) to do so, so one wonders how they propose to add to their portfolio another $39M in debt AND an operation that according to the County is losing $2-7M a year and turn it around. I work in pharma; I know how unlikely it is that they will become profitable merely by joining a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) as suggested by Dr. Rifkin, and if that argument had any merit, why didn't the County try that first?

I also found information which suggests that Dr. Scott Rifkin, Mid-Atlantic’s owner, over the past twenty years has led at least one prior business down the road to bankruptcy (several he's been involved are no longer in business today and one them was a creditor to the bankrupt business), also after aggressively and rapidly expanding. Did anyone at County vet Mid-Atlantic’s finances or viability?  Do they really care about the continuity of services and operational excellence at Parkhouse going forward? The employees? The patients and residents???

Also I discovered that Rifkin, despite his claims that he’s ‘not a political guy’, ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Maryland state senate in 2006 (here) and his brother is a Washington lobbyist.  I wonder to what degree those facts had anything to do with their introduction to, and selection by, a Democrat-majority Board of Commissioners as the winning bidder. If Rifkin would misrepresent his political background, what else would he misrepresent?

While all this has transpired, citing their desire to close the deal by the end of this year (in an arbitrarily set deadline less than 8 weeks from now) the County on November 4 pushed UPT to grant them a ‘natural subdivision’ without going through Planning Commission review…without knowing what the winning bidder has planned…without knowing, really, anything.

All that is known about this plan is what we have been told by the County. Nobody in the public has, to my knowledge, ever seen the actual proposal. After the bid was awarded in October, after my second Right To Know request received the same response as the first and the County still hadn’t turned over the proposal nor the names of the other bidders, I appealed. Once I filed the appeal with the state, THEN the County turned over the list of bidders, but are still refusing to turn over the actual proposal, even though the bid has been awarded. What are they waiting for? What can't we know until the sale is already a done deal and it can't be undone?

The County’s ‘Working Group” who recommended the sale represented to the Commissioners that they had kept Upper Providence officials informed during the entire process and that UPT was on board with their plans. UPT supervisors deny this is the case, and it’s my understanding the County is very unhappy that UPT isn’t moving this along on the timeline the County desires. 

UPT is concerned that the IN overlay allows the buyer to develop something with an institutional use and their worry is that the new owner could come in, develop a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC – a local example of a CCRC is Shannondell), something Rifkin actually suggested could happen, and then potentially – judging by Rifkin’s apparent track record - go bankrupt soon after, leaving either partially or fully completed structures behind that would then need to be converted into apartments or something else to be viable. That’s in addition to any negative impact on the existing Parkhouse facility.

So the $39 million dollar question is, what does Mid-Atlantic propose to do with the 200 acres surrounding the Parkhouse facility for which the County is aggressively pursuing subdivision? And why can’t anyone know what that is for? For all we know, they want to put a home for sex offenders on the property, or a rehab facility for drug addicts. It could all be paved over and made into parking. We just don’t know.  Despite all the chest-thumping Commissioner Josh Shapiro has been doing about how transparent his administration is, from my viewpoint, they are anything but.

There are other aspects to this debacle. As has been well documented in the press, Montgomery County has been in financial distress, with a gaping hole in their budget, partly caused by ‘economic development projects’. The County has thrown away approximately $62M in recent years in the name of Norristown revitalization investments which have been abject failures, with no one asking what happened to the money invested…certainly not the local press.

Also, what will happen with the employees? I’m aware that the nurses’ union, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professional Union, is receiving calls from distressed employees at Parkhouse upset about cuts to their benefits and increases in their medical care premiums already, despite Mid-Atlantic’s promises that nothing would change.

However, the worst aspect of all, besides the County trying to bully a convenient solution to their financial problems by ramming it down a local muncipality’s throat , is trying to fix their well-documented budget problems at the expense of our County’s most vulnerable and lowest-income residents that reside at Parkhouse and who rely on the facility for treatment and care.

There is a public meeting of UPT’s Planning Commission scheduled this coming Wednesday evening, November 13 at 7 pm at the UPT building on Black Rock Road. County officials will be making their case for the subdivision request at that time, and if you have any questions or concerns about their plans for this facility and the surrounding open space, you would be well served to attend. It might be your only opportunity to push for answers before Montgomery County finishes their mad sprint to get this done with as few eyeballs on it as possible before the end of the year.

What's happening early next year that's driving this insane deadline to get that $540K budget surplus by the end of the year? If County is dealing in good faith, why won't they turn over a copy of the proposal so we can all see what Dr. Rifkin has proposed?

Art used with permission of Jack Minster

A link with some more detail on this issue than I have room for here can be found here, along with some pertinent questions that should really be asked at next Wednesday's meeting, if you so desire.  And, UPT supervisor Lisa Mossie weighs in with this letter to the editor, here.

However this turns out, if this is how the County feels it's appropriate to deal with local municipalities, how long will it be before the County wants something here in LP that they don't want to deal with us in good faith about?

PS To add insult to injury  At the very meeting where they approved the sale of Parkhouse and 220 acres of open space, the Commissioners received the thanks of the Montgomery County Lands Trust for their financial contribution to…wait for it….preserve a mere 33 acres of greenways in Upper Dublin and Springfield Townships. I guess only open space EAST of Route 422 is worthy of preservation.

Planning On The Y

 
 

Looking to get a feel for what Lower Providence Township officials might be thinking, Freedom Valley YMCA officials got a real workout when they presented optional sketch plans to LP’s Planning Commission, an advisory board to the Board of Supervisors, at an informal meeting September 26. At issue: does the Planning Commission think this project is a good use of the land at this location?

Sketch plan review is an optional step for applicants and is not subject to an approval process at this juncture.

In addition to the Planning Commission (PC) members, Lower Providence Supervisors Colleen Eckman and Jill Zimmerman were in attendance, as was Supervisors’ liaison to the Planning Commission, Jason Sorgini. Architect George Marks from Kramer Marks and engineer Tim Woodrow of Woodrow & Associates presented on behalf of the YMCA.

I've written about this subject before; the link is here.

Before anything can move forward in Lower Providence, the YMCA is concurrently trying to get a determination from the Montgomery County Commissioners as to whether they will lift a deed restriction on the property stemming from money provided to the Township for the initial purchase of the land in 1994, and what they will accept in exchange in order to be made whole for the funds they provided. They may want other open space in lieu of that which would be built on at the Club at Shannondell location, a full or partial cash repayment, or a combination. If they want alternate open space, Lower Providence needs to determine what and where those potential properties are. No meeting with County officials has yet been scheduled.

The YMCA indicated that they believe the County is taking the request seriously, but if the County isn’t interested in lifting the deed restriction, or suitable compensation cannot be worked out, the YMCA cannot move forward at this location.

As the applicant explained the project, they again noted that the initial phase calls for an 85,000 square foot building, with a 6,000 to 7,000 square foot lobby, and a large gym. In a Phase II, the total square footage could go up to 120,000, and include the addition of 3 indoor pools and slide, program space, indoor track of 1/10 or 1/12 mile, 3 outdoor pools, and a 12,000 to 14,000 square foot wellness center. If the County, Township and PennDOT approvals go as hoped, which would take about six months, the facility could potentially open sometime in mid-2014.

The pool currently on the property next to Chadwick’s restaurant would remain as they serve different customers than those served by the YMCA.

The operating agreement for the current Club at Shannondell facility would need to be modified to reflect the changes should the plan obtain all approvals.  While the YMCA would operate their facility under one operating agreement, Audubon Land Development (ALD) would continue to manage the Club at Shannondell’s remaining 9 holes of golf, the Chadwick’s restaurant, and swimming pool under a second operating agreement. Undetermined at this time is which entity (ALD, the YMCA, or a third party) would manage the operation of the driving range, miniature golf course and batting cages proposed for a third, separate operating lease.

PC Member Kristina O’Donnell asked what benefit there is to ALD to allow the change to their operating lease. The YMCA responded that you would have to ask them, but that the YMCA would not be presenting to the Township without their cooperation. ALD representatives were not present at this meeting, but the YMCA indicated that ALD was taking a back seat in this matter as the YMCA had come to them with the project and the idea of modifying the lease, so ALD, understanding that they have to go through a process to modify the lease if the project meets with Township approval, was letting YMCA officials take the lead for now.They are letting the YMCA drive the process until such point as a clear picture on the project’s viability and the Township’s position can be ascertained.

The revised plan now shows access to the property via an extended Crawford Road which will cut through the property and provide public access between Rittenhouse Road and Egypt Road, a solution which is expected to alleviate current cut-through traffic on Thrush and Lantern Lanes. ALD is doing a comprehensive traffic study which will encompass Crawford & Rittenhouse Roads, Rittenhouse & Egypt, Shannondell Drive to Park & Egypt, and Trooper Road to Park Avenue. YMCA engineer Tim Woodrow indicated during PC questioning whether the road would be public or private that the YMCA’s initial thought is to make it a public street, but if the Township thinks otherwise they are open to keeping it private.

Many of the Planning Commission members’ comments and questions, as well as those of residents, were reported in other publications (see links below), so I’m not going to repeat them all here. 

When asked what operating hours were envisioned for the driving range, mini golf and batting cages, YMCA responded that their primary hours when they are most in demand are in the evening, so they’d need to be lit, but the plans show these amenities located in the middle of the site so there is minimal impact on residents. Any lighting must comply with Township lighting standards. The busiest hours for the YMCA facility would be from 5-9 am and 5-9 am.
 

There was some discussion around parking. The current parking count of 674 spaces anticipates a total buildout of 120,000 square which is consistent with what other Y's in the region's needs have been. It’s approximately.400 or 500 feet from Egypt Road to where the parking area begins.

Sean Metrick, Montgmery County Planning Commission’s representative to LP was present and went over their review letter on the project. Mr. Metrick reiterated that in 1994 county helped LP buy the land to preserve as open space and the need to have the deed restriction released. The site has been used for active recreation since 1965. Now it's 'commercial' recreation. LP needs to decide if the added intensity is appropriate for the site.

Casey Moore of Traffic Planning & Design (TP&D) the Township’s traffic engineers, noted he's also a Township resident besides being the Township traffic consultant and is sensitive to the need to make all roads safe for residents. He will have TP&D’s letter with recommendations regarding the sketch plan to the Supervisors by next week.

 Public Comment

From the perspective of the approximately 30 residents in attendance, the comments and questions directed to the applicant and the Planning Commission reflected the same themes as those that arose at the initial July presentation: traffic, road improvements, intensity of use, stormwater runoff, and other aspects of the project that would be addressed later if the project makes it to the point of submitting formal plans for land development review.

About a dozen or so residents got up to speak about the project. Most loved the idea, but not in that location.  One, Kathie Eskie of Trooper, a current alternate member of LP’s Zoning Hearing Board (the second ZHB member to comment on the proposal thus far) and whose daughter Kristina O’Donnell fired many of the evening’s sharpest questions from the Planning Commission to the applicant, said that ‘It’s a wonderful project, but it’s in the wrong place…you lose the only big piece of property available to all residents…it’s not good financially, other small parcels that may be swapped will cost us to maintain and retrofit. Are there even any such parcels left?"

She added “We’re giving it to a commercial venture. The YMCA is a nonprofit but still a 'business". We were told the Township would get revenue of $40,000 and maybe more, but we'd use that up for services to support the facility and in upgrading the other sites. '

Ms. Eskie is close friends with supervisors Rick Brown and Don Thomas, who were not in attendance at this meeting.

Resident Joanna Nutley asked the applicant if there is a playground planned or racquetball. The YMCA responded that a playground is very likely, and would most likely be in the babysitting area; racquetball courts are not planned for this site. She also wanted to know if the formal designs would incorporate the Township’s new solar ordinance and the YMCA indicated that they will have to, but that they are not yet at that step. .

 Joe Niccolo of Crawford Road stated that he was the owner of one of two open space parcels that were scheduled to be purchased by LP last year with county matching funds, which the County withdrew for budget and political reasons. His parcel is located off of Crawford Road near the proposed YMCA facility. The deal never went through, so Mr. Nicolo mentioned that if LP ‘still needs to find some open space to trade, to consider his, as “it’s a good piece of property -  if there has to be a swap, it’s still available”. He said that he ‘felt disenfranchised’  when he and the Township had gone to the trouble of trying to have his 9 acre parcel left open and preserved as open space only to have it go nowhere.

Resident Steve Smeyne complained that ALD had “promised to extend Shannondell Boulevard to Park Avenue but that it never came to pass." While this is part of the overall plan for the retirement facility, a trigger to mandate the completion of the road involving a milestone number of units sold has not yet been reached. In the past, representatives of ALD have told me directly that while their intention is to honor the commitment if and when the milestone is reached, they remain flexible and open to other alternatives if they make more sense to the overall evolving Audubon area

Smeyne also said that the 9 holes to remain ‘will fail’ as they are a swamp when it rains. Residents Patrick Duffy and John Shumaker also gave this opinion...as did resident Mark Million of Audubon. He said that his corporate golf league plays at Shannondell, as do other corporate leagues, and that the Club at Shannondell will lose that business if the current facility loses 9 holes. He noted they'd probably also lose other business such as the Methacton Post Prom fundraiser golf outing and possibly weekend golfers who don't want to keep playing the same 9 holes over and over. Million also noted that he felt that the 9 holes remaining would probably have to be redesigned or realigned. I would think that when the project undergoes stormwater review, the problem of 'wet' holes would likely be addressed then.

 

Other residents’ comments have been captured elsewhere, here (Patch) and  here  (Times Herald).

 

In a repeat of comments made at the initial July presentation of the project, several residents reiterated their belief that the project should be located within the former Valley Forge Corporate Center (between Rittenhouse and Trooper Roads) now known as Park Point at Lower Providence. However, there are several problems with that.

 

One, as Randi Elton, LP’s Community Development Director, explained, the Township has done a good job of marketing that site, which now only has 15% vacancy so, as she said ‘there isn’t much room down there’.  There are only 3 open parcels; 2 are empty buildings that just went to sheriff’s sale and one is the former Commodore Semiconductor (and Superfund site) located at 950 Rittenhouse Road. A representative of the site was on hand, Jake Hect, indicated he’d been working with the Township to develop and market this 14-acre site, which he said would require EPA approval before it could be sold and reused. The Y has previously indicated its feasibility studies indicated a need for parcels between 15-20 acres. A 1992 EPA report about the site can be found here. (http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/rods/fulltext/r0392155.pdf ).
 

However, even if there is a large enough, viable parcel available within Park Point, when I spoke with architect George Marks after the presentation, I confirmed that the YMCA simply doesn’t have funds to both purchase AND construct the facilities. They have funds set aside for construction, but they are looking to lease precisely because to purchase land in any location would cost money they just don’t have.  So, this is a dead issue unless someone is ponying up the money for them to purchase land someplace.

 

Next week at their October 4 meeting, the Board of Supervisors is expected to take a vote on whether to formally request the County consider revisiting the open space agreement with LP and lifting the deed restriction.

 

Overall, the YMCA has a lot to bring to the community, but they clearly have at least one significant hurdle to overcome before they can proceed. It should be interesting to see where the supervisors line up with respect to this project at next week's BOS meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Go To The Y-M-C-A!

The 80’s group Village People’s enthusiasm for the YMCA as expressed in their famous song isn’t exactly shared by some Lower Providence residents, as evidenced by comments from several residents at a recent public meeting and in an online petition regarding the proposed heath club/swimming facility in our Township.

As one of  West Norriton's Markley Farms’ longtime patrons, I was naturally disappointed when it closed its doors and ceased operation.  From the time I was about 12, we’d either get dropped off by my parents or ride our bikes over to swim on sweltering summer days. We’d stay as late as possible, usually til closing. Often it would be practically dark by the time my parents could drag us out of the pool, wrap us in towels, purple lips chattering, and take us home. I have many fond memories of the friends we made, the occasions we celebrated, the games of ‘Marco Polo’ we played, and the cute lifeguards we tried to impress.  Not only that, each summer was a family reunion of sorts as you’d see and interact with the same local families from the surrounding townships year after year.  It was truly a vibrant hub of the community, and is very much missed.

Markley's post close, 2012

Markley's, August 2012

I was even more disappointed when what I felt was the Freedom Valley YMCA’s solid plan for the Markley property, land already functioning as a recreational facility, was turned down by the West Norriton Township Supervisors, largely due to a few nearby residents’ objections – much of it NIMBY in nature. Unfortunately, that rendered it very unlikely that the Markley property will be used for anything other than residential development, which has its own traffic impacts, as well as additional impacts upon the community. I ran into co-owner Scott Markley in May, and he indicated that unless he can find someone who is interested in running the facility ‘as is’ for them, it will probably sit empty unless they can sell to a residential developer…and in this economy, nobody is building. That’s a shame, not only for the community that has lost the use of their wonderful pools and swim teams, but for West Norriton Township which is now generating less revenue from it as it sits empty, not selling memberships or snack bar food.

People in our and surrounding communities often bemoan the fact that there is so little for our kids to do (especially teens) other than hanging out at the mall, so I felt at the time that it would be fantastic if Lower Providence could figure out a way to bring the project here and make it viable for people of all ages to enjoy. Thus, I attended the presentation by George Marks of architects Kramer Marks outlining the YMCA’s proposal to place the project at the former General Washington Golf Club (now the Club at Shannondell) with great interest. 

Ironically, the YMCA originally took a look at Lower Providence in approximately 2010 in an effort to potentially build a full-scale facility here,and Township officials toured the Spring Ford facility at the time to get an idea of a typical operation. Ultimately, YMCA officials opted to try to locate at the Markely Farms facility when it became available. After being shot down by West Norriton earlier this year, they are again looking to LP for a solution.

The plan details appear on the Township’s website and have been well documented in the press already, so I won’t spell it out again here. In summary, the plan proposes to co-locate the new YMCA facility next to the existing Chadwick’s restaurant and pool facility already in existence and to keep 9 of the 18 holes of golf. The new facility would go on land which currently contains the other 9 holes of the golf course. It would include three outdoor and three indoor pools, two indoor basketball courts, a second-floor running track, a driving range, mini golf course, and room for additional indoor facilities and amenities. Between 500 and 600 parking spaces would accommodate those using the facilities.

Club at Shannondell, front 9

Club at Shannondell, front 9

The Township’s 2005 Open Space Master Plan for Zone E, within which this parcel falls, indicated a need for more recreational park space in this segment of the Township which has limited options for the placement of such a use. This plan would go a long way toward fulfilling that need as this section of the Township does not have a large community-type Township park.

Aggressive Timeline

During the presentation, George Marks indicated the Y's hope for an aggressive approval and construction timeline; they’d ideally want to begin construction in fall (approximately November) of this year, start to sell memberships beginning in January 2013, and open in fall of 2013. For this to happen, an unlikely ‘alignment of the planets’ would need to occur, in some cases concurrently, where possible, and occur quickly:

·        All land development approvals would have to be essentially fast-tracked, and since those approvals and any waiver requests they encompass would also need to include time-consuming traffic studies and stormwater runoff plan reviews – processes that can take months themselves – this alone could take months.

·        The Township would need to draft, hold a public hearing on, and vote to approve some sort of zoning district overlay on the property to permit the use in the first place (or, pass a text amendment creating a new zoning district to be applied to the property, which may give rise to claims of spot zoning or an ordinance validity challenge),  AND

·         A township open space/purchase agreement with Montgomery County in the mid 1990's to purchase the golf course provided $1.1 million from the County as an open space contribution toward the total $3M purchase price. To move forward with the YMCA, the Township would have to either return the county's open space money, or find or create another suitably sized and/or valued Lower Providence open space parcel to swap in place of that open space.

In 2005, LP asked the county for  permission to remove 3.78 acres of the property from the county open space deed restriction (part of the 97 acres) to permit construction of the new pool and restaurant. This was approved but conditioned upon LP's acquisition of and deed restricting as open space, a 19-acre property along the Perkiomen Creek near Collegeville.

The 19-acre purchase and open space designation was executed before the Commissioners’ approval which allowed a change in the 3.78-acre open space deed restriction. LP then entered into a leasehold agreement with Audubon Land Development (ALD) to build the facilities there today plus, as Phase II, an additional 50,000 square foot banquet facility which has yet to be constructed. The value of all those buildings was in the $21 million range and those buildings are owned by the Township.  One option would be for the Township to possibly let ALD off the hook for Phase II and instead allow them to repay a portion of the money owed on the municipal bond.

Club at Shannondell, abutting Egypt Rd

Opposition?

While other local media reported that there were 30-40 people in the audience to hear this presentation, that’s not entirely accurate.  The YMCA pitch was shoehorned in on the night of the month normally reserved for Zoning Hearing Board meetings, and that evening’s ZHB meeting was pushed back an hour to make room for the Y to come in. There were four hearings scheduled to be heard by the Zoning Hearing Board. Of the 30-40 people in the audience, most of the people were either applicants with ZHB hearings on the agenda or their attorneys. I counted 10-12 people – including myself - who were there specifically to hear the Y’s proposal.

While only a dozen or so township residents came to the informational meeting specifically to hear the plan (and the rest of the approximately 26,000 residents did not), a petition opposed to the project has sprung up online. As of today, 3 weeks after the presentation, only 41 “residents” (some appeared to be from Norristown, Limerick and Upper Providence) have digitally signed it, and judging by comments on the petition and to other online articles, objections center around the location, expected traffic impact,  and concerns about the loss of open space. Again, LP currently has approximately 26,000 residents….you do the math as to what percentage actually oppose the plan.

One topic expressed by those objecting is that they love the project in concept but not the location. Sites in the corporate center bordered by Trooper, Audubon & Rittenhouse Roads (Park Pointe at Lower Providence) have been suggested as alternative locations, and at the meeting a couple individuals suggested the long-empty former Commodore Semiconductor site (which is being remediated for hazardous wastes and TCE, hardly a site I’d want children playing on…). In any event any development on that site must be cleared by DEP, another government agency not exactly famous for moving quickly, if the site is even anywhere near to being repurposed). 

While I agree that there are numerous empty lots or vacant buildings there, there is not enough space in common ownership to make such a purchase easily feasible (to the extent it even IS feasible). Not to mention, the money the Y has set aside is for project engineering and construction, and doesn’t include having to make a costly land purchase on top of those costs. 

No outcry from LP Concerned Citizens/Friends of Lower Providence

The chain of events revealed at the July 26 public meeting was that YMCA officials came to Audubon Land Development with their proposal, and together they reached agreement in principle enough to approach the Township about the possibility of their support in making this happen. So, at this point, no one has any idea what our supervisors individually or collectively think or whether any of them support it.  And, so far, neither of the above community groups – both of whom have officers who are largely BOS Chairman Rick Brown cronies – have officially weighed in. FLP has been largely dormant since CVS was built 6 or 7 years ago and LPCC, originally founded back in the 80’s by Rick Brown  – after many years of dormancy, was recently revived to fight the American Revolution Center and other issues.

I was particularly interested to see that some of the very same people – several of whom have recently been appointed to township boards by the current Board of Supervisors and thus may want to sit out public comment - who were so opposed to CVS/Commerce Bank back in 2005, and the American Revolution Center circa 2008, in no small part due to perceived traffic issues and the potential impact on Audubon roads and intersections, completely mute when it came time to voice opinions on this project. Some of them were in the audience that evening, or conspicuous by their absence. Hopefully these minions aren’t merely waiting for their puppetmaster to determine which way the public wind is blowing before taking a position, but if they ultimately come out supporting it, I wonder how they will justify doing a 180 degree flip in order to support the very same things they’ve fought relative to past projects in virtually the same area.

One who did speak out against the project as proposed was Tom Borai, current vice chair of the Zoning Hearing Board. It is not inconceivable that if the Township elects to move forward and places an overlay district on the property, it may be challenged in a validity hearing at some point by residents who object to the project, a hearing which would take place in front of the Zoning Hearing Board. Given Mr. Borai’s past outspoken viewpoint – mostly directed at me relative to the American Revolution Center – that sitting board members shouldn’t express any viewpoint on issues that have not yet, but may, in the future, come in front of them via a hearing for which an impartial decision would have to be rendered – I was surprised to see him publicly come out against it at this meeting (part of his comments can be found here). Perhaps with Tom it’s “do as I say, not as I do”.

Budget Woes May Drive Need for Increased Revenues From This Property / History of the Property 

Late last year I attended the 2012 budget review & planning meetings wherein it was revealed that even though this property brings in $100,000 a year to the Township in the form of lease payments, the Board wanted to explore ways to potentially obtain more funds from it somehow. 

At a recent Lower Providence Republican Committee meeting I attended, Colleen Eckman (a Republican committeewoman as well as a current supervisor)  mentioned, essentially, that this property costs the township $250,000 a year but only brings in $100,000 - that the debt service on the bond exeeds the money that the Township receives from the Club at Shannondell, so there’s a $150,000 deficit.  She was basing this on an assertion that the municipal bond used for the project was bundled with other things such as road repairs.  However, that's not entirely true. I'm not blaming Ms. Eckman; I suspect she's not getting the whole nine yards from those who know it.

And local news sources reported that the property currently pays in $50,000 a year to the Township, which is incorrect. Per the Township's own 2012 budget, the annual lease payment is $100,000.

In actuality, there were two bond issues pertaining to this property. The first, in 1994, when the property was originally acquired by the Township (supervisors at the time were Brown, Ralston, McFarland, Fornal and Gaugler, along with solicitor Dick Sheehan), also included funds for the library and road improvements. The millage (for tax collection) was never adjusted to cover the entire bond issue and the property, with its golf course in poor condition and original, aging buildings needing constant repair (including an ice rink that leaked coolant so much it was frequently closed to the public), consistently lost money for the Township.  

Later, in approximately 2004, the Township (under a completely different set of Township supervisors) issued a second bond regarding the property, for capital improvements to the golf course facility. Those improvements included construction of the golf course, club house, pro shop etc. and entered into an operating lease with Lower Providence Recreational Partners ("LPRP") to manage the facililty and pay the Township $100,000 in annual rent.

Originally, this second financing was done as a municipal bond issue,. At the time of this financing, current LP BOS solicitor (and solicitor of the Municipal Authority at the time) Mike Sheridan, as Municipal Authority Solicitor, advised the BOS at the time that because of the bond class used, applicable laws dictated how much money the Township could legally derive in revenue (ie accept in rent payments) in order to maintain tax-exempt status of the bond, so the LP could not accept more than $100,000 in rent payments or else they would be in default of the bond terms and the bond investors could file claims against the Township.

In the 2009-2010 time frame the Township refinanced this second bond into a loan with the Delaware Valley Investment Trust, thus removing the limitations on how much rent could be accepted.

  

Bottom line, the bond/loan for capital improvements at the Club at Shannondell was not bundled with anything else and the lease payments made by Lower Providence Recreation Partners was never intended to finance the 1994 bond issue. 

Now, in 2012,this difference in what the property brings into the Township financially versus the total cost of the 2 bonds (one of which has since been repackaged as a loan) has effectively become a 'can kicked down the road' in time. This first bond could and should have been paid off long ago, but is instead now coming out of the General Fund and is a significant reason why we are talking about potentially laying employees off, not replacing departing employees, and making the across-the-board budget cuts discussed and approved at the June 25, 2012 special budget meeting [details here].


Understandably, the Township's  desire to explore ways to increase the amount of money earned from the property is likely the only reason the Township is even entertaining discussions with the YMCA - in an effort to raise money for the Township without having to resort to raising taxes on residents in the worst recession since the Great Depression.