162-home project proposed
Pulte Homes presents plan during Franconia supervisors work session
FRANCONIA » Pulte Homes wants to build 162 homes on two combined tracts totaling a little more than 57 acres at the intersection of Cowpath and Beck roads, company representatives said in a presentation to the Franconia Township Board of Supervisors during the board’s Aug. 21 work session meeting.
“What we’ve been working on and what we’re proposing is an MRD (mixed residential development) plan, basically taking our cues from the surrounding land uses and dwelling types,” said land planner John Kennedy.
The plan includes a combination of single family detached homes, twin homes and townhouses, which would be laid out to be adjacent to the same types of homes in neighboring developments, he said.
The township would first have to agree to add the tract to the MRD district.
The neighboring Banbury Crossing development and another neighboring development are also in the MRD district, Kennedy said.
The property is also in the growth area for regional Indian Valley planning, he said.
Under the MRD designation, he said, four homes per acre — a total of 216 — would be allowed, but the plan is for three homes per acre — 162.
The MRD plan would keep 30 percent of the land as open space, he said, which would provide buffer areas from neighboring properties, as well the possibility of connecting to already existing trails in the area.
Without the MRD, 40 homes would be allowed on the tract, including 12 fronting on Beck Road, each with an individual driveway, he said.
“You can’t have that many driveways on Beck Road,” board
member David Fazio said later in the discussion.
If the property was developed without the MRD, it would not have any open space, Kennedy said.
“This is really kind of the hole in the doughnut right now in the MRD,” said Rennie Settanni, Pulte’s land acquisition manager. “This is kind of a smart growth area.”
Joe Kuhls, Pulte’s attorney, said the presentation was not to get an immediate response, but asked that the township get back to Pulte in a few weeks letting the company know if the board is philosophically on board with putting the property into the MRD and just needs to have the details worked out or if it would prefer to not put it into MRD.
Board member Curtis Kratz asked about existing tree lines on the property. A large amount of those trees could remain under the MRD plan, but not under the other plan, Settanni said.
The number of proposed homes in the MRD plan is an issue for him, Kratz said.
“My concern is the density. I always come back to the density,” he said.
“That’s why we’re not using the four units per acre,” Kennedy said.
Board members Charles Amuso and David Fazio asked about improvements to be made to the intersection of Beck Road and Cowpath Road.
In order to make intersection improvements, Pulte would need to own the house on the corner, which the company currently does not own, although it could look into possibly purchasing it, Settanni said.
The location of driveways into the proposed MRD development was also raised.
If the plans move forward, one of the first steps would be to hire a traffic engineer to do a traffic impact study and make recommendations for the driveways and intersection, Kuhls said.
In another matter at the meeting, architect/planner Richard Kapusta outlined JBS-Mopac’s plans to add a pump house and storage tank for chillers at the meat packing plant. The pumping system is now inside the plant, but the change will be more efficient, he said.
The move, which includes a little less than 1,000 square feet of new construction, will not increase impervious surface at the site and will not increase the number of employees, he said.
A request for a waiver of land development procedures for the project was approved by the board.
A less detailed site plan, showing the new construction, will still have to be filed with the township, Douglas Rossino, Franconia’s engineer, said.
“Basically the waiver of land development just waives the process,” Rossino said, “but they still need the plans and things to go along with it.”
JBS will also have to pay an impact fee, Township Manager Jon Hammer said.
“Just because you’re waiving land development doesn’t mean you’re necessarily waiving the impact fee,” he said.
The impact fee is $2.51 for each square foot of the new construction, Rossino said.