During the February 2nd meeting of Plymouth Township’s Planning Agency, there was an informal presentation on a proposal to bring a Royal Farms (convenience store and gas pumps) to a portion of the property at 906 Ridge Pike in Conshohocken (Plymouth Township). After looking up the property in county records, the actual legal address is 1520 Alan Wood Road.

The property is owned by Conicelli and Conicelli would utilize the back portion of the property for its own use (an industrial building and a car wash were mentioned). The entire property is currently vacant.

While the convenience store is an allowable use with the township’s commercial zoning district, the gas pumps trigger the need to seek a special exception from the township’s zoning hearing board. The attorney speaking on behalf of the applicant also mentioned that a variance is going to be requested involving signage.

Since the presentation was informal, a recommendation was not sought from the planning agency at this time. However, members of the planning agency raised concerns about runoff (from any car wash due to the limestone and potential for sinkholes) and the traffic flow on and off the property (with the future improvements that are planned for Ridge Pike).

Transparency Alert

Wondering why you didn’t hear about the potential for a Royal Farms there? Would you have been interested in attending the meeting and offering public comment?

As you may remember, in late January MoreThanTheCurve.com reported on how the agenda for this meeting was released by the township without any detail. As we have pointed out, just next door in Whitemarsh Township, similar agendas are released with dozens to hundreds of pages that include the background on what is to be discussed and/or reviewed. It is a choice by Plymouth Township to not provide more detail when publishing agendas.

You can hear the presentation below (it is the first item on the agenda).