If the Palmers and their developers are allowed to build their 55-acre property at Valley Forge Road and Skippack Pike as 100% Commercial, Worcester’s rural character will be changed forever.
By comparison, below are the sizes of mall properties in our area. Is all Commercial what we want to see in our beautiful community? We need to STOP THEM NOW & WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Montgomery Mall – 58.3 acres
Plymouth Meeting Mall – 76.29 acres
King of Prussia Mall – 123 acres
This is what we may be facing
How would you feel if a supermarket, hotel, research facility, indoor recreation center, large clinic and department stores were built in the heart of Worcester?
Would you mourn the loss of our rural ambience? Suffer with even greater traffic congestion? Do you want to compete for fire and police services in dire circumstances?
The intersection of Valley Forge Road and Skippack Pike is the center most point of Montgomery County and the heart of our township. Now, there is a threat of huge commercial development on what is currently the Palmer property, 55 acres of open space.
Currently, 48 acres of the property is zoned residential and 7 of the acres are zoned for commercial development. For perspective, the shopping strip across the street is only 4 acres.
The owners of the property, working with developers, have filed a substantive validity challenge to the Zoning Hearing Board which states that the Worcester Township‘s Zoning Ordinance doesn’t allow for certain uses in the zoning and therefore they should be allowed to develop the entire parcel of land, all 55 acres as commercial, a parcel large enough to accommodate much larger stores and businesses.
The Palmers have secured lawyers to support their efforts in seeking this zoning change that would allow more expansive development than is currently allowed on their property by Worcester ordinances.
We Are Taking Action
A group of concerned residents have secured legal representation which is necessary to stop this Zoning Challenge. The fees for the lawyer are over $200,000 as of this writing.
Having a lawyer representing Residents at the Zoning meetings is a simple, powerful way to thwart the landowner’s efforts to over-develop this property. The future character of Center Point is at stake. This may be an ongoing legal fight, and will require a significant amount of financial resources.
