Residences, Offices, Retail Could Come to Industrial Area

In the near future, homes, offices, retail and the like could replace out-of-date, or no longer used heavy industrial sites in Hatboro.

That is if borough officials move forward on a proposal from its municipal planner, E. Van Rieker, to rezone a portion of Springdale Avenue and create overlay zoning that would permit additional uses along portions of Jacksonville Road and Bonair, Lincoln, Springdale, Summit and Tanner avenues.

During a presentation at Monday night's council meeting, Van Rieker told the governing body that the best approach would be to amend the borough's zoning map to reflect additional permitted uses and add four overlay districts. 

Should the council opt to do that–no action was taken on Monday–Van Rieker said existing property owners would be grandfathered in under the current heavy industrial designation and could continue those operations.

"Their business can continue to function and operate as if there was no map change," Van Rieker said. "It’s not taking any rights away from the existing (heavy industrial), but adding this opportunity."

On Hatboro's existing zoning map, the area in question is shaded in light blue. Van Rieker said it would remain so, but might have a striped overlay on top to designate the additional uses. 

"We see it as expanding the opportunity for these uses in this part of town," Van Rieker said. "It sort of is to build on the momentum of Hatboro Lofts." 

The apartment building, which evolved from the former Stove Works manufacturing facility, is what prompted the governing body to hire Van Rieker in July as officials looked at developing zoning appropriate for dwindling industrial operations. 

As proposed, Council President John Zygmont said the overlays would "allow transitions between entire blocks," rather than what borough attorney Christen Pionzio described as a "hodge podge" of varying development requests considered by the Hatboro Zoning Hearing Board on a case-by-case basis.

"Planning made better sense," Pionzio said. "Some of the uses out there are so incompatible with the residential neighbors."

As outlined by Van Rieker, the four proposed zoning overlays are as follows:

• HI-J1: Properties between the center line of Jacksonville Road and the center line of Lincoln Avenue, toward East Monument Avenue would be designated as mixed use developments and would have a minimum two-acre requirement. Retail and residential would be permitted and buildings could be a maximum of three stories. 
• HI-J2: The area would also have a mixed use component, but buildings would be limited to two stories and retail would not be permitted. For conditional use consideration property owners would need to have a minimum acreage of 20,000 square feet and a maximum density of 22 dwelling units per acre. 
• O-J3: Three properties situated along the easterly side of Springdale Avenue are being considered for rezoning from heavy industrial to office district. A mixed use overlay would require the three parcels to be combined and submitted as a "single, unified plan," as a conditino of conditional use approval, according to Van Rieker's draft ordinance. 
• HI-J4: Properties between Jacksonville Road to Oakdale Avenue would be provided with a mixed use overlay, which, as proposed, would require a one-acre minimum acreage.