Huntingdon Valley Shopping Center in Ward 3
 and the Comprehensive Plan

See the red text below for what it says in Chapter 7 Part 2 about HVSC

   THE NUTSHELL –
They want to allow residential on the parking lots of almost all commercial districts in the Township

They want to allow multi units (duplexes, triplexes and more ) a full 1/4 mile around commercial centers
They want to allow dense commercial and residential a full half mile around all but one train station and around bus stations, too -
And they plan more Transition Zones – where they turn residences into light commercial, as they did across from the HV Shopping Center

  THE WAY IT'S BEING DONE
---They are putting their wish list into the Comprehensive Plan “vision” . Don't worry, they tell you. It's just a vision. We're not rezoning. No proposals have been submitted.
---They  hope to pass it this “vision”  before you understand what they actually are doing and how it will be used to help pass those proposals.
----It is true there actually are no residential applications now, because it is not legal. Spot zoning laws generally prevent it.
----After the Comprehensive Plan passes - it will be quite the opposite, as it will then be the  "vision" of our legislative body, the commissioners.   
----They expect to have the Plan passed within the next few months- and are withholding every means they canof informing the citizens.
----Then : their newly created  “Comprehensive Plan Consistency Committee”  will review the   zoning/development requests
----They have promised that requests for zoning will be approved  to match ( or be "consistent" with )  the “vision” created in the Comprehensive Plan.
----You have missed 2 years of being able to have input, because most of you never knew about it or if you did, you didn’t know how it was to be used.
----It will, of course, be too late to change the Comprehensive Plan once it is passed… That Plan will be ours forever.  In 10 years they are unlikely to "reduce" any measures.
---- Generally you are allowed just 3 minutes for comment at meetings. Commissioners are either not answering your questions or often falsely answering.
----Some Chapters aren’t even available for review. They are being withheld to make it more difficult for you. 
--- Holding those Chapters til the end means you miss open comment sessions at other meetings where you could ask to change  or remove items.
--- You also miss the time to appeal to or ask questions of your Commissioners. They know this. 
----The Forecasted population figures are incorrect and further have been  used in a fraudulent manner.
---- We already have nearly the population forecasted for 2045 - and they all have homes.
---- Yet they are telling you that we have many more to accommodate, and so need to build more.
---  Meanwhile, in their plan they are allowing new units on parking lots, around trains, &  in our  neighborhoods .
---- This what will CREATE  a larger population - it is NOT to accommodate a larger population that appears from "out of the blue"
---- By pretending many people are coming, they say there is a NEED to build. But it is the building of the units themselves that is  creating the influx of new people.
---- I don't believe they can control the number of people this will allow - if they one to build a triplex, how can they deny the next request?
-----Ask them - how many triplexes would be allowed? How many apartments altogether? How many new units around train stations? Or bus stations?
---- Ask how many children  would be added to the schools? We already will be paying off $120 M over 30 years for the current renovations. New schools cost upwards of $40 M
--- It would be irresponsible to NOT discuss and show us how this population increase could be limited.
---- At Township  Hearings, your comments are commonly ignored – so please work to change what needs changing NOW
----You also don’t want to be drug through a merry-go-round of endless meetings where, if you aren’t there, it will pass
---- Only 8 people have to say yes to have this approved - even if 57,000 of the 58,000 residents hate it .
---- It is important that we change that dynamic - and that ALL 15  commissioners begin to represent what the electorate wants. Their first job is to learn what that is.
---- Most all of us want to see the changes -- and see them reflected NOW.... and for the Commissioners to begin to be honest about what they are doing and use the tools to inform us.

  THE LESSON HERE IS : NOW is the time to tell your Commissioner and the Comp Team this is not what you want! And that every single voice needs to speak up more than once .

  FIND THE MAPS ON THE RESIDENTIAL EXPLOSION PAGE : They  show the incredible number of neighborhoods ( is yours one?), commercial districts, and transit areas affected.
 https://abingtoncitizens.com/page/ResidentialExplosion.html   
Those  grey circles multi-unit circles are no longer ½ mile wide   -  They have been reduced from ½ mi to ¼ mi. because of voices your neighbors shared. Please come meetings & email your Commissioners to help the ones who have been holding down the fort.    
The new ¼ mile residential multi-unit areas are seen in the dark blue solid line circles in  the other more orangey map at the top of the page. Those circles were drawn by Comr Thompson who still refuses to have the staff we provide for him put this  on a GIS map so you can just type in your address & see if it’s in a circle. 

  YOU ARE NEEDED A small group of dedicated voices helped get the reduction to 1/4 mile … and also get height of the buildings reduced.  But most of us don’t want it reduced – we simply don’t want it at all! We don't want someone changing the neighborhood where we invested our hard earned cash and chose to settle down. Your voice will matter. See below how to use it.

  FIND THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DRAFT CHAPTERS at hte link in this paragraph- except that they have withheld several important chapters that by May of 2022 are STILL NOT THERE .  I believe they will try to pass quickly all at once after posting these last minute . There is no reason they should not be posted now even if there are changes to be made to them - after all, they are ALL drafts.    Find the drafts here:

https://www.abingtonpa.gov/government/board-of-commissioners/board-of-commissioners-intiatives/vision-2035-abington-s-comprehensive-plan-update

or here Vision2035, Abington's Comprehensive Plan Update | Abington Township, PA (abingtonpa.gov)
 
The leader of the group:  Commissioner Mike Thompson mthompson@abingtonpa.gov    A great deal of the plan is coming from himself and our Montgomery County / Abington Planner, Michael Narcowicz  MNarcowi@montcopa.org.  Mike Thompson is an Architect - and since he joined the Board his firm has received a huge  alottment of work - including renovations to the Township Building

  THE HUNTINGDON VALLEY SHOPPING CENTER (HVSC)   is 9R  on the yellow map at the link just above this. In the Comprehensive Plan the direct recommendation about building on the HVSC parking lot is in Chapter 5 p6-8
Drew Rothman drothman@abingtonpa.gov is the Commissioner for Ward 3 which encompasses the Huntington Valley Shopping Center.
If anyone is telling you there are no plans to build apartments on  the HVSC lot – please point them to :
Chapter 7 part 2 “Housing” on page 8 ( read 5,6,7 & 8) . It is found here  https://www.abingtonpa.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/17119/637794238158770000    and it says  :  

7.5.2 Recommendations 1. Mixed Use Developments. Allow residential uses at Willow Grove Park Mall, Huntingdon Valley Shopping Center and “the triangle” portion of the BC-Business Center-Noble District (adjacent to the train station), directing new development to areas of existing infrastructure and transit networks, where such development can accelerate revitalization. 2. Allowable Density. Reconsider appropriate density limits in BC Business Center Districts and in MS-VC Main Street-Village Center Districts in order to maximize the chances of successful transit-oriented development and neighborhood revitalization. 3. Housing Choice (see ). Review the range of housing unit types allowed by zoning district and expand the types of allowed units to expand housing choice in appropriate locations (the map on the next page illustrates the few areas in the township which are used for twins, duplexes, triplexes, and possibly townhouses). Doing this would have numerous benefits. It would help address the relative shortfall of 1-unit attached and 2-unit dwellings, as compared with the county as a whole (see Existing Conditions, above). It would also……….:

  THE HVSC IS EXPANDING IT’S COMMERCIAL USES
Here is a link showing the added commercial that is in the works. https://retailproperties.cbre.us/property/output/document/view/id:63323  Several leased or leasable spots can be seen in the documents . The pad near the Citizens Bank is believed to have been leased to a Chipotle and review of that is underway now. Ask Drew Rothman  why that has not been in his newsletter and why we can't get any proper information on it even though they are already using our Township personnel and resources. The minute your tax dollars are employed we should have access to the information.  We want to know whether it is a current “use by right”,  and if so does  it  need variances or waivers (and if so do  they have a hardship for those)? Or is it being proposed as a text amendment where only 8 Commissioners have to vote “yes” for it to happen?  We need to be able to know where it is next expected to appear so we can “save the date” and have time to inform others. 

  TO MAKE YOUR VOICE EFFECTIVE – email  your Commissioner  https://abingtoncitizens.com/TwpGovt/Commissioners.htm  
 or email all of them (because they ALL vote on this ).  Do not call once or email once. Please continue until your questions are answered. And please share your answers back so we can share the wisdom. Here are some of the things you can ask:

---  Please post a question answer page that we can see each others questions and your prompt answers
---  Please  videotape the Comprehensive Plan meetings – air them on the channel and post them online
---  Please produce an interactive GIS map with those circles so I can type in my house and see if it is in a circle
---  Please show the residents  your desire to:
                 add residential on parking lots
                 allow multi-units in our neighborhoods
                 increase density in transit areas
                 and creeate "transition zones" makeing light commercial out of residences near commercial
       Please put all this onto the scrolling on our channel so people can understand what your “vision“ is . 
--- Please see that Commissioners newsletters show a summary of details
--- Their newsletters and the  Township's should feature the maps and explain what the circles are all about

---  Please hold open mic zoom info sessions on this - multiple ones are needed        
---  Please send me a  definition of TOD development around trains and buses – what might we expect.
---- Please send me a  definition of  a transition zone and tell me what might be in one
---  Please send me a  definition of  the Mixed Residential  overlay putting  multi unit buildings in neighborhoods
---  Please send me a  full “affordable housing“  explanation. Will luxury units be built and then subsidized by us? ---  Please show me a full financial analysis that shows me how this vision is a benefit for me
---  Please include the cost of  students at $22,000 per  child  in your financial analysis
---- Please include the cost of widening roads, traffic signaling, infrastructure in your financial analysis
---- Please include the cost  expanding services like fire and police and our pools, parks and libraries etc.
---- Please include the cost of increasing  our carbon footprint,  the loss of greenspace
---  Please include  the cost of increased “corporate housing,  where homeowner voices are diminished
---  Per your own plan, homeownership provides better maintainance and stability – so  why do this?
---- Please include any benefits at all  that would cause you to over-develop in this manner
---- Please tell  how this might increase or decrease  my “quality  of life” as one who chose suburban, not urban
---- Please tell me the increased population goal of all this planned (envisioned) dense development
-----Please say whether you recognize one can already chose high density just a few miles away
 ---- 
--- Please also ask your Commissioners  why a resident is having to inform you about this,  when we pay millions for 275 employees to help each Commissioner manage the job of informing us. Yes,  we even recently added a Communications Director – but we seemed to get even less information after that. We often cannot get the phone answered. Something that never happened in Abington in half a century of some of us being here. 
The huge staff seems to be service others, while even basic residents services and notification are ignored.   Many of you had only a vague clue or none at all that “something”  was even in the works at he HVSC - and across Abington.

  THANK YOU ALL FOR SPEAKING UP …. please do so continually…..  until they hear us,  and represent us the way we want them  to represent us. Please get answers to the above questions and others that you have and share them back with me (  lel@abingtoncitizens.com  ) so I can share the concepts back with everyone else.   Please don’t anyone think that “someone else”  is doing it ....... Without you, they will fail.

 
  If you have time to  lend a hand with some of the outreach, - or with research or other volunteer work - if you can find an extra minute – just email me  (  lel@abingtoncitizens.com   ) We all will benefit.

  Also – I am ordering the next round of signs that cost me $4 apiece – any contributions are welcome.  

Thanks,
Lora

Lora Lehmann   1431 Bryant La. Meadowbrook, PA 19046   215-885-0504    lel@abingtoncitizens.com