Spot Zoning

A Montgomery County Court panel has upheld a ruling that rejected a developer's plans to build apartments and offices on the Valley Forge Golf Course. A two-judge panel on Friday upheld the township Zoning Hearing Board's decision in August 1999 denying a zoning challenge by Realen Valley Forge Green Associates of Ambler. It sought to have the site's status changed from agricultural to allow a proposed 380,000-square-foot residential and commercial complex. The plans called for building 192 townhomes, 480 apartment units, three commercial pad sites, two hotels and a retail center on what is the last large piece of open space in the township.

Township commissioners will allow the Hatfield Borough mayor to move ahead with development plans if he promises to stick with a proposal to build a retirement community and stores, the commissioners president said yesterday. Despite some community opposition, Commissioners President Jim Thomas said he expected a unanimous vote tonight to approve several zoning changes to land owned by Mayor Howard Heckler between Cowpath and Orvilla Roads. Sitting on 15 of the 60 acres in question is a shopping center called Snyder Square, which has a Clemens supermarket, a hardware store, and a bank.

The issue of what can be built on the township's largest undeveloped parcel is now before the courts. In an appeal filed Thursday, Realen Homes of Ambler asks Montgomery County Court to overturn an August decision by the Zoning Hearing Board to keep the 135-acre Valley Forge Golf Course zoned agricultural. The agricultural zoning prevents Realen from pursuing its plan to build two hotels, a shopping center, and apartments and townhouses, or office space, on the golf course southwest of the King of Prussia mall.

A developer has lost its bid to rezone the largest piece of undeveloped property in this congested area - the 136-acre Valley Forge Golf Course, just southwest of the King of Prussia mall. In a 3-0 vote yesterday, the Upper Merion Township Zoning Hearing Board denied the request of Realen Homes Inc., of Ambler, which has hopes of building two hotels, a retail shopping center, and apartments and townhouses or office space there. The decision capped 18 months of debate, including 14 hearings, over whether the course should remain zoned agricultural despite being surrounded on all sides by commercial development.

Joan C. Ferreira, a Torresdale homemaker who became an expert on local zoning laws and helped found the East Torresdale Civic Association, died Friday. She was 68 and lived in Northeast Philadelphia. Fed up with getting the runaround when she found her neighborhood being changed by "spot zoning," Ferreira fought back in 1964. She and other residents got together and formed the civic association. Zoning from time to time and from city to city can occur in different ways: A truly deserving company can be granted a variance, a company with political clout downtown can get zoned for business or a company can pass the threshhold by passing out pictures of dead presidents.

Central Park. Fairmount Park. Valley Forge Golf Course. According to Upper Merion Township Solicitor Alan Boroff, these three have more in common than one might think. In round two of the knock-down, drag-out zoning fight over Valley Forge Golf Course - the last large piece of privately owned undeveloped land in crowded Upper Merion - Boroff and planner John Rahenkamp argued Tuesday night that if the Zoning Hearing Board followed developer Realen's argument, neither Central Park nor Fairmount Park would exist.

After nearly three hours of legal haggling, objections, and cross and re-cross examinations Wednesday night, the second zoning board hearing on the Valley Forge Golf Course was finally winding down when Dennis Glackin took the stand and dropped his bomb. Only 15 minutes of allotted time remained when Glackin began reading a letter sent to the Upper Merion Planning Commission by a supervisor in 1953. It stated that the township had zoned the controversial 135-acre golf course for agricultural use in an attempt to "hold [the property]

Michael Graves, the eminent architect famous for his Italian tea kettle design, may bring a bit of his post-modernist style to the township. If township officials will allow it. Manhattan developer William Ehrlich wants to turn 17 acres in the eastern part of the township into an enclosed 30-unit community, designed by Graves. The development would preserve a 19th-century stone farmhouse that stands on the lot and convert it to three luxury units. In addition, 27 homes would be built.

City Hall is bouncing a check-casher - and he's mad. Jerry Leonard owns Ace Check Cashing, a string of storefront and mobile-van units that operate throughout the city and in Bucks County. He's been in the business since 1970. Now, one of his mobile units is about to be legislated off its spot on State Road, outside the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Center in Northeast Philadelphia. The beneficiary: A rival check-casher who recently took over a storefront operation nearby. Leonard is fuming.

For a few days last week, it seemed a Media company that wants to construct a 90-unit, assisted-living facility for seniors next to Temple Sinai on Limekiln Pike might have cleared at least one hurdle in its 21-month-long legal battle. A Montgomery County Court judge had dismissed, on a technicality, a zoning appeal filed by neighbors of the seven-acre site, who claim the township did not provide adequate notice of public hearings on the matter. Four days later, the neighbors' attorney, Frank Jenkins, filed a motion asking that the appeal be reconsidered.