A developer is asking Limerick Township's zoning hearing board for permission to redevelop a W. Ridge Pike car dealership into a community of 113 townhomes, setting up a dispute with the township over whether open space can satisfy a requirement for commercial development.
At a July 22 hearing, Commerce Pursuit Capital, LP presented plans to demolish the existing automobile sales and repair business at 3323 W. Ridge Pike and build 113 townhomes and open space, including a dog park along the Ridge Pike frontage, on the roughly 22-acre property.
The site, owned by John Petko for more than 40 years, sits in the township's Main Street District, which was established in 2012 to create a consistent commercial corridor along Ridge Pike.
Attorney Rob Gundlach, representing the applicant, said the central disagreement concerns a zoning provision requiring 1,200 square feet of non-residential space for every residential unit. For 113 homes, that totals 135,600 square feet. The applicant proposes to meet that requirement with more than 150,000 square feet of open space rather than commercial buildings.
Gundlach argued that open space is specifically listed as a permitted use in the Main Street District, unlike most commercial zoning districts in the township.
"The applicant doesn't want to build more, they want to build less," he said, adding that the property's unique shape and limited frontage make commercial development impractical.
According to Gundlach, the applicant revised its plan from an earlier proposal of 51 single-family homes to 113 townhomes following a meeting with township staff and two supervisors, Connie Lawson and Kara Shuler. Gundlach said the applicant’s team understood from that meeting that officials wanted to see more affordable housing in the township.
“One of the comments that they received was that they wanted to see more affordable housing in the community so that the residents who live here could stay here and continue to reside and have options,” Gundlach said. “And as a result of the feedback, the applicant amended their plan to provide more affordable housing, more open space, more common-use area throughout the property.”
After reviewing the updated version of the plan earlier this month, the board of supervisors voted to send the township's solicitor to Wednesday's zoning hearing in opposition of the proposal.
Township Opposes the Interpretation
Greta Martin Washington, the township's director of planning as well as its zoning officer, testified that open space cannot be used to satisfy the requirement. She said gross floor area is a defined term in the ordinance that refers to a building, and that the ordinance requires non-residential floor area to be constructed.
Under questioning by Gundlach, Martin Washington acknowledged she had not issued a formal written determination on the zoning question despite the applicant paying a $500 fee on July 2 and sending multiple follow-up emails. She cited a workload she described as unprecedented, including numerous conditional use and land development applications with statutory deadlines, staff training, and staff absences.
During questioning by Township Solicitor Rebecca Geiser, Martin Washington said the property has operated as a car business since 1981 under a special exception and is one of a handful of properties along that stretch permitted to do so. Geiser emphasized the applicant had not marketed the site for commercial use or partnered with a commercial developer.
"He's asking to bypass the commercial and the purpose of the Main Street District entirely and still receive the benefit of residential in the Spring-Ford School District," Geiser said during her closing remarks.
Applicant Cites Housing Demand and Site Constraints
Gundlach called several witnesses during the hearing.
Engineer Karl Janetka of Van Cleef Engineering described the property as an irregular, flag-shaped lot with about 300 feet of frontage on W. Ridge Pike. Under questioning from zoning board member Rick Fidler, Janetka acknowledged he was not saying the property was unsuitable for commercial use and that a range of uses could be built at the rear.
“I can't deny that there's plenty of things that could be built in the back part of it,” Janetka said.
Land planner Erik Hetzel testified that open space is complementary to a residential community and appropriate along the frontage. He said a provision added in 2024 requiring a certificate of occupancy for the commercial space before homes could be occupied was "unreasonable and arbitrary."
“I believe there is a hardship in the dimensions and the shape and the configuration of the parcel that would make it difficult to put a viable commercial use in there that would be complementary to a residential use,” Hetzel said.
John Westrum, founder and chairman of Westrum Development Company, said his firm has built more than 8,000 residential units in the Philadelphia area, including the Links at Spring-Ford in Limerick in the 1990s. He said the proposed homes would range roughly from 1,700 to 2,500 square feet and start in the high $400,000s, addressing demand for housing that more residents can afford.
Westrum said requiring commercial buildings to be constructed and occupied before homes could be built would be "very difficult, almost unfinanceable, and very risky," given existing vacant retail space in the region. He noted the applicant would be receptive to dedicating the proposed dog park along Ridge Pike to the township for public use.
The zoning hearing board closed the record after providing an opportunity for public comment, during which no members of the public spoke. It has 45 days to issue a written decision.
