Dan Sokil
The Reporter
(TNS)
Jan. 16—UPPER GWYNEDD — A plan that could help shape the future of the Upper Gwynedd Fire Department could be unveiled soon.
Township Manager Sandra Brookley Zadell announced last week that a study evaluating sites for a potential new fire station is nearly complete.
“I spoke with the consultant a couple weeks ago, and he was finishing it up, and giving it to DCED, who does the study, and they should be issuing it to us in the next couple of weeks,” she said.
In March 2022 fire company leadership asked the commissioners to authorize a study examining options for a new station, and said they were encountering aging infrastructure, a need for more space, and stricter standards for equipment, training, and maintenance at their current station, located on Garfield Avenue and parts of which date as far back as 1942.
Later that month the board authorized a letter of intent to contact the state Governor’s Center for Local Government Services to perform a study of the current station and make recommendations, with vetting via the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development.
During the March presentation, fire company leadership said they were looking at several options for the location of a new station, including near the current one on Garfield Avenue or elsewhere in the township, and gave no firm estimate for the cost. In August, the manager gave an update and said the study personnel had recently conducted a site visit, and on Monday night she gave another, saying the finished report could be made public soon.
Land development update
The board also heard several updates during their Jan. 9 meeting about land development projects in various stages of approval.
In December the township’s zoning hearing board approved a request for a special exception at 1010 Church Road to allow a daycare facility, and to allow a reduced parking setback and two façade signs otherwise not allowed by township codes, according to planning and zoning officer Van Rieker.
“It’s that single building that sort of sits by itself at Pennbrook Parkway — that was approved,” he said.
Also approved on Dec. 21 was a request by the owners of 1180 Church Road to allow a gymnastics facility moving from another location in the township, Rieker told the board. Two items were slated to be heard by the township’s planning commission on Jan. 11: one, approval of a land development plan for construction of ten twin dwelling units at Moyer Road and West Point Pike, with a newly added overflow parking area; the other, a subdivision plan to change the sizes of two adjacent lots on the 600 block of Sumneytown Pike.
In response to a resident question, Rieker also gave an update about a property maintenance issue on a home on South Broad Street near Garfield Avenue, which he said staff have “been watching for about ten years, since it was a greenhouse.” A new owner has recently taken over that property, Rieker told the board, and staff have been in contact with the new owner about trash and a lack of maintenance on the property.
“It’s a slow process, we’re not happy with it, but he says he’s going to clean up all of the brush, and the trees, and the debris,” he said.
Staff have also been in talks with the owner about the occupancy of that property, and staff “believe that is not currently being occupied as an acceptable single-family dwelling,” occupied by only one family or family equivalent, Rieker said, and have explained the relevant local and federal rules to the new owner.
“We’re allowing so