Officials discuss construction plans coming to Peters Township

Harry Funk
Observer Reporter

Another year brings another variety of construction projects in Peters Township.

Ed Zuk, township planning director, provided an overview of what is being built for the edification of Peters Township School Board members during their annual joint meeting with township council, held Monday night.

The school district has a project on the list, and the one with the largest impact: a new $90 million high school on the former Rolling Hills Country Club property. The project’s timeline calls for bids to be advertised in April and ground to start moving in June toward the school opening for the start of the 2020-21 academic year.

Another public project, by Peters Township Sanitary Authority, is the expansion of its Donaldson’s Crossroads Water Pollution Control Plant, off West McMurray Road. The facility was built in 1962, and the most recent major capacity expansion was in 1982.

Zuk addressed new housing developments, noting that many are drawing from new zoning designations that the township created in 2016. Those include conservation residential and mixed residential, which allow for flexible lot sizes to create more open space within developments.

“During the comprehensive plan process, the community identified a need for more diverse housing choice,” he said about public comment leading up to the plan’s adoption in 2013. “We’re finding that the conservation residential, as well as the mixed residential, is bringing in different types of housing and different market levels.”

For example, he cited Hamlet of Springdale, in the southern part of the township, where homes in the first five phases of development are in the $1 million range. Zuk said starting prices in the next two phases look to be half of that.

Another major development in the works is Juniper Woods, encompassing more than 30 acres off Thompsonville Road. Plans call for 60 single-family homes, ranging from $350,000 to $500,000, and construction of a street to connect with the Beacon Manor neighborhood to the north.

“One theme we’ve been trying to accomplish in the new zoning districts is neighborhood interconnectivity,” Zuk explained. “You’ll see that most of the new developments that we have being proposed will have interconnecting roads.”

That is the case with Brookwood Village and Brookwood Place, which will be next to one another along Brookwood Road. Twenty patio homes are proposed for the former, and 38 townhomes for the latter, “marketed toward a combination of empty nesters and young professionals,” Zuk said.

Other residential developments in progress:

  • Justabout Farms, 48 patio homes on 26-plus acres between Bower Hill and Justabout roads.
  • Anthony Farms, off East McMurray Road, in its third and final phase off East McMurray Road.
  • Fieldstone and Ironwood Estates, off Bebout Road, both featuring Peters Township’s traditional half-acre-minimum lots.
  • Venetia Pointe, townhome development off Venetia Road.
  • Sherwood Pond, the final phase of the Crossings, with 54 patio homes.
  • Orchard Hill, third and fourth phases with 28 homes off Sugar Camp Road.

Commercial projects that are in the works:

  • Bower’s School House Preschool and Learning Center, improvement and expansion of the old Bower Hill School on Bower Hill Road.
  • The Pooch Pitt, new 9,999-square-foot facility on Route 19 at the previous site of CoGo’s, replacing its Valley Brook Road site.
  • Trigon Holding Inc., 20,000-square-foot expansion at Hidden Valley Road location of the company, which manufactures components for aerospace and medical applications.
  • Primrose School of Peters Township, under construction at Waterdam and Galley roads with a targeted opening in the fall.
  • Caimano Development LLC of North Franklin Township, working on a vacant structure at 619 East McMurray Road, including a 26-by-26-foot addition, to open it as a retail store for home décor and furniture.
  • Waters Senior Living, 124 units at Valley Brook Road and Friar Lane.
  • Jordan Tax Service, Valley Brook Road, 5,000-square-foot addition for more warehouse space.