Conshohocken Borough Council approves preliminary site plan for 310-unit apartment building

By Carl Rotenberg crotenberg@21st-centurymedia.com

The Conshohocken Planning Commission reviewed the plans March 11 and recommended approval with several conditions.

Council members Edward Phipps, Robert Stokley, James Griffin and Anita Barton voted for the preliminary plan. Council member Karen Tutino and council President Paul McConnell voted against the plan. Councilman Matt Ryan was absent.

The 6.5-story building proposed by ONeill Properties Group of Upper Merion will be located 65 feet from the Fayette Street Bridge on the upstream side. The building will have five stories of apartments over two stories of parking garage on a 3.25-acre parcel. With the lowest level of parking dug into the ground, the building will be 6.5 stories high.

The meeting lasted less than 15 minutes. Before council approved the preliminary site plan, council unanimously rejected a March 28 compromise proposal by J. Brian ONeill, the chairman of OPG, to grant full construction approvals for both the 51 Washington St. plan and a proposal for 615 apartments at 401 Washington St. in four, four-story buildings over a single level of parking.

ONeill said, We have before council two of right plans and we would like to discuss the compromise we gave you on Friday.

The compromise said OPG would pay a general impact fee of $1,165 per residential dwelling unit, a total of $361,150, for 51 Washington St. and $1,000 for each unit, a total of $615,000, for 401 Washington St.

Riverfront land on the bank of the Schuylkill River would be dedicated to the borough for public access to the riverfront areas on both projects. An observation area or platform would be built by OPG on the riverfront if borough officials agreed to exclude additional impervious coverage from zoning calculations and waived any requirement to obtain conditional use as these will be borough amenities.

OPG agreed to pay for the boroughs global traffic study, capped at $35,000, as long as the payment satisfied the requirement for any traffic study and all off-site traffic improvements needed for future development at 401 Washington St., 51 Washington St. and the balance of development at Millenium Block A.

The compromise proposal required council to grant all zoning, conditional use and final land development approvals for both 51 Washington St. and 401 Washington St. The Conshohocken Zoning Hearing Board is an independent body and cannot take direction from council. Continued...

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Conshohocken Borough Council approves preliminary site plan for 310-unit apartment building