At the Township
A 301-unit development wants 196 fewer parking spaces than the township requires
Alpha Residential wants to build 301 homes off Marketplace Boulevard with 508 parking spaces. The ordinance requires 704.
- Alpha Residential wants to build 301 homes off Marketplace Boulevard with 508 parking spaces. The township ordinance requires 704.
- The township's own planning director wrote that the applicant "has not provided justification to waive the parking requirement," and that its numbers do not match its own consultant's analysis.
- Setbacks, a required clubhouse, rear garages and street trees are also unmet. No minutes have been published since July 7, so it is not publicly known whether either board has voted.
A developer asking to build 301 homes off Marketplace Boulevard has proposed 508 parking spaces. Moon Township's ordinance requires 704. The township's own planning staff say the applicant has not explained why it should be allowed.
The project is called Apex at Diamond Ridge. Alpha Residential is seeking conditional use approval for a revised master plan covering 52 townhouses and 249 apartments on 24.7 acres in the Marketplace Boulevard TND District. It has been in front of township bodies since at least June.
The parking gap is the sharpest of eleven staff comments attached to the application. In a memo dated August 17, Assistant Manager and Planning Director Scott Brilhart wrote that the plans show 704 spaces required and 508 proposed, that the figure "does not match with the Parking Demand Analysis" the applicant's own consultant submitted five days earlier, and that "the applicant has not provided justification to waive the parking requirement."
That is not a new concern. At the Board of Supervisors workshop on June 24 — the most recent township meeting for which minutes have been published — Brilhart told supervisors the developer was "going with a different design" and, according to the minutes, "stated that parking is a big issue and it is very important." Supervisor Paula Carnahan asked whether the units would be ADA compliant and navigable. Township Manager Dawn Lane noted the township has a zoning ordinance that regulates parking.
Two months later the number is still short by 196 spaces.
The staff memo lists other unmet requirements. The townhouses are not set back the 15 feet the ordinance requires from the street. Any development over 250 units must include a clubhouse of at least 3,000 square feet. At least 40 percent of townhouses must have driveways and garages at the rear. Garage doors facing a street must sit back 25 feet from the sidewalk, and street trees must be planted every 35 feet along both sides of every street.
Beyond the staff list, the application carries conditions requiring the developer to resolve outstanding issues raised by the township's consulting engineer, Lennon, Smith, Souleret, and by the township's geotechnical engineer. The developer has agreed to contribute $181,043.48 toward preliminary engineering and final design of the Moon Transportation Authority's Market District Improvements Project, and would not be asked for further traffic mitigation.
Where it stands is harder to say than it should be. The application was listed on the Planning Commission's August 19 agenda as a call for a motion to recommend approval, denial, or tabling, and it appeared again in the Board of Supervisors' August 26 workshop packet. The township has not published minutes for any meeting since July 7, so the public record does not yet show what either body decided — or whether either voted at all. The Planning Commission only recommends; the Board of Supervisors decides.
If the conditional use is granted, the developer would have one year from the board's written decision to satisfy the conditions.