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Planning commission approves Westchester Kia expansion with reduced external EV-station requirement
Summary
The commission approved a preliminary/final land development application to consolidate three parcels for Westchester Kia and allow an expanded service area; commissioners accepted a reduction in required external EV stations after the applicant said most chargers would be interior Level 2 stations used while customers' vehicles are serviced.
The West Goshen Planning Commission on July 14 approved a preliminary/final land development application for Westchester Kia, allowing consolidation of three parcels for expanded sales and service operations and approving related site modifications with requested relief.
An applicant representative told the commission the proposal would consolidate the existing dealership at 328 West Town Road with two adjacent parcels, retain the existing sales building, demolish a small veterinary/garage building at the rear, and construct a similarly sized service building. The plan reserves most of the site for vehicle inventory and uses porous pavement in parts of the site to limit impervious cover.
The commission focused on EV-charging compliance. The township engineer's review used total parking to calculate the ordinance's EV requirement (which would have yielded dozens of exterior chargers for the site's 225 spaces). Applicant representatives said most parking is for inventory and that customers' electric vehicles would be charged by Level 2 chargers inside the service building while vehicles are being worked on.
"We provided an explanation and basically say that at the end of the development there will be the capacity to provide 12 charging opportunities, 8 of which are inside of the building and 4 which are currently there outside of the building for any visitors to the site," an applicant representative said.
Commissioners asked whether interior chargers are intended for public use or only for customer vehicles being serviced; the applicant said they are for customers while their vehicles are worked on and not general public accommodation. After discussion the commission approved the application and the requested waiver of the external EV-station requirement; the motion passed with no recorded opposition in the planning meeting.
The applicant committed to satisfy outstanding technical review comments before final sign-off and to work with township staff on conditional-use and engineering conditions.
