Planning commission recommends zoning changes to allow hospital, helistop and medical campus in Lower Pottsgrove’s GMU district

The Lower Pottsgrove Township Planning Commission on June 25 recommended approval of Ordinance 368, a zoning text amendment that would permit a hospital and related medical‑campus uses in the township's Gateway Mixed‑Use (GMU) district.

Township Manager Edward Wagner introduced the ordinance and the development team, which included representatives of Castle Sanatoga and consultants from H & K Group Inc. and Riley, Riper, Hollin & Colagreco. The amendment would add hospital as a permitted use in the GMU district, allow a helistop as an accessory use to a hospital, revise parking rules for medical office and hospital uses, and update architectural and signage requirements to reflect a medical campus rather than primarily residential design standards.

Developer Ted Drauschak described the site as a three‑phase project: 131 townhomes (built and sold), 310 Class A apartments (built and roughly 90 percent leased) and a proposed medical phase at the northern end of the site. He said the original plan called for a 120,000‑square‑foot medical office building but that interest from health‑care providers prompted consideration of a full hospital plus a 90,000‑square‑foot medical office building and a helipad to transport patients to higher‑level care when needed. Drauschak told the commission the team expects significant job creation during construction and operations and estimated an annual economic impact of about $6.3 million.

Counsel Alyson Zarro said the proposed parking approach would use empirically based standards (including Institute of Transportation Engineers guidance) and a straight square‑footage parking requirement for medical office buildings so on‑site parking needs are less variable over time. Wagner said the applicant’s parking proposal is more stringent than the current ordinance language. The ordinance also would amend setback and height provisions for hospital and medical office structures and provide separate standards for parking garage structures accessory to those uses.

Wagner told the commission the Sewer Authority currently has 89 equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) available. He said the Authority is pursuing an additional 433 EDUs from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to serve this project and other pending developments, and that DEP has been supportive of recent improvements to the Authority’s system.

The developers said electrical service would come from two independent supply feeds and include diesel backup generation so the campus could sustain operations if both feeds were interrupted. Bowman Engineers, retained by the applicant for traffic analysis, reported incremental traffic of about 403 additional weekday morning trips and 210 additional weekday afternoon trips compared with the previously approved plan; the applicant proposes improvements to Park Road and Wagner said PennDOT agreed to study the East High Street/Sanatoga Road intersection for a potential traffic signal.

The team also said it had retained an FAA consultant and received a letter indicating no objection to the proposed helipad location; the developers said they would provide the FAA letter to the Board of Commissioners and the Township.

After the presentation and discussion, Vice Chair Michael Sean Levering moved that the commission recommend approval of Ordinance 368; Scott Fulmer seconded and the motion passed unanimously, 4-0.

The commission’s recommendation will be transmitted to the Board of Commissioners for consideration on the municipal ordinance process.