A proposed retirement community on Amity Park Road in Amity Township could bring new, supporting commercial businesses to that area and ultimately benefit the entire township.
Amity Township Planning Commission members said March 11 they support development of the Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in the Planned Business, Office, and Industrial (PBOI) zoning district.
The 113-acre parcel’s location on Amity Park Road also puts it in the township’s 600-acre Amity Western Industrial Park (AWIP), which is primarily located at north Limekiln Road.
Township Engineer John Weber said a newly drafted ordinance would permit the CCRC — a blend of continuing care, age restrictive, and nursing home — to be developed in the PBOI district.
CCRCs are currently only permitted in the Highway Commercial (HC) district.
“The initial purpose of the CCRC ordinance was for buildings — not individual units such as singles and townhouses,” said Weber.
“This would add CCRC as a permitted use with two different setback requirements and dimensions for the overall tract.”
Township Manager Charles E. Lyon asked if the commission wants to “introduce a residential component into AWIP?”
The purpose of AWIP in PBOI is to establish “an appropriate location and development standards which are intended to provide for business, office, and light industrial development in a unified, attractive, campus-like environment … and which will provide an economic base and high quality jobs for Amity Township.”
Weber said the commission can change the ordinance’s current density of five units per acre “to a density they are comfortable with.”
Lyon said the ordinance’s architectural standards will prevent the CCRC from looking institutional.
“Someone said it might destroy the AWIP, but [the CCRC] would get infrastructure (sewer, public water) to that area to kick-start AWIP,” said Lyon, adding, “It could put businesses on Limekiln. The CCRC is not directly adjacent to any facilities; people must travel to Pottstown or Exeter.”
“To me, I think this is a catalyst to get AWIP started,” said Commission Chairman Paul R. Weller.
William Lampey, of McCarthy Engineering Associates, Inc., Wyomissing, and Atty. Mark Koch, Reading, representing American Land Development, presented the CCRC sketch plans at the board’s Nov. 19 meeting.
The sketch plan of 380 units includes 240 apartments, 42 townhouse units, 48 cottages, 50 assisted living units, a clubhouse with a pool and tennis facilities, and now 50 percent open space with walking trails.
Koch said the CCRC would employ at least 30 full time and 16 part time people.
The land tract was previously known as the Flatley Tract, with plans for a by-right, 182-unit Planned Residential Development (PRD).
A 202-unit PRD plan known as Golf Estate was proposed in 2008.
Both PRD plans would have added children to the school district’s student enrollment as well as additional rush-hour traffic.
“The Flatleys have investigated their options for the property and determined that a CCRC would be appropriate for this property in PBOI and AWIP, with a very symbiotic use — and would probably be the last piece there that would ever be developed [in AWIP],” said Koch.
“[This CCRC ordinance] would be a synthesis of …. three ordinances and uses,” said Koch, adding, “An economic analysis done by McCarthy indicates that for the plan to be feasible, it needs to have this combination of uses. As these age restricted developments have developed, it has become clear that this mix is important.”
