CONSHOHOCKEN — Borough Council held a conditional use hearing Wednesday night on a proposal to build 619 apartments at 401 Washington Street proposed by the O’Neill Properties Group of Upper Merion.
The four buildings will have four stories of apartments built over a single level of parking. Part of the 10.7-acre parcel is located in the floodway of the Schuylkill River.
The conditional use was recommended by the Conshohocken Planning Commission with several land development requirements, said Christine Stetler, the borough Director of Community Development. Part of the parcel is located in Whitemarsh.
Attorney Edmund Campbell Jr., representing the developer, O’Neill Properties Group, said the conditional use would allow the walking trail, two storm water outfalls and several rain gardens to be built within 100 feet of the Schuylkill River bank.
Attorney Edmund Campbell Jr., representing O'Neill Properties Group, talks about the proposed, 619-unit apartment project at 401 Washington St. in Conshohocken at a conditional use hearing on Wednesday night.
Engineer Mike Engel said that a small, triangular-shaped piece of the property, located in Conshohocken in front of the proposed Building 200, would be subject to the requirements for a conditional use.
The rain gardens would have plantings to help absorb storm water runoff, Engel said.
The conditional use hearing was continued on Wednesday so the applicant can submit additional legal documents to the borough.
Council has until Oct. 16 to render a decision on the conditional use.
In other business, council approved a conditional use for a proposed, two-building, 352-unit apartment complex at 400 West Elm St., in a 6-to-1 vote. Council President Paul McConnell voted against the conditional use. Council held a conditional use hearing for the project on May 15 for developer John Forde and Corson Street Acquisition Limited Partnership.
The conditional use was approved with several conditions attached.
The developer was required to pay a parks and recreation fee of $352,000, submit a Phase I environmental study and any remediation plans, provide a conservation easement over the 1.9-acre Plymouth parcel and explore the feasibility of creating a wetland there, explore the feasibility of capturing and managing two-thirds of the storm water on site by rain gardens or other means rather than traditional detention basins, incorporate publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations in the parking areas, maintain a reserve period of two years after the last occupancy permit to determine the need for any parking to be held in reserve and prepare and submit a full land development plan to the borough for review and approval.
The developer must submit site plans and get final site plan approval from council before construction can begin.
Multi-family homes can be built in the Specially Planned 3 (SP-3) district and in the flood way of the Schuylkill River only with a conditional use approval from council. The Conshohocken Planning Commission unanimously recommended the conditional use for the two eight-story buildings at a March 26 meeting.
At the May 15 conditional use hearing, engineer William Rearden said the two, eight-story buildings would each have 177 apartments built over a parking garage with an above-ground and an underground level. Corson Street will remain open from West Elm Street and provide driveway access into the complex. It will have three handicapped parking spaces near the river and 17 regular parking spaces. A one-level parking structure will be built on the eastern side of the parcel for the reserve parking, he said, and 557 parking spaces would be provided, including the 57 reserve parking spaces. The underground parking will have 303 parking spaces, he said.
Rearden, representing the developer, said the area being developed in Conshohocken was 8.3 acres, with an additional 1.88-acre section in Plymouth.
“We have offered the 1.88-acre portion of the site in Plymouth for the park space,” said attorney Marc Kaplan, representing the developer. “We could improve it through the development process. What we have are the trails and the open space. Or we can pay a fee in lieu of and you use it to make other park space. It (the land in Plymouth) can be dedicated to Conshohocken.”
Source: TimesHerald.com
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