Planning commission recommends High Top’s 1201 S. College Hill final plan to supervisors after buffering, permits clarified

Allison Zara, an attorney representing High Top, presented the final land-development plan for 1201 South College Hill to the Upper Providence Township Planning Commission on April 1 and asked the commission to recommend final approval to the Board of Supervisors.

"Allison Zara on behalf of High Top. I'm here tonight to talk about the final plan for 1201 South College Hill," Zara told the commission, then walked members through updated renderings and the revised site layout. She said reconfiguration requested by the Board of Supervisors reduced the residential component from 122 units to 120 stacked condominium units and adjusted internal road geometry.

The commission focused its review on site details and neighborhood impacts. Chair raised an adjacent skate-park noise concern and asked whether the developer planned a buffer between the park and the nearby residential units. Zara said the developer will plant buffers on the township side of the property line as well as on the development side. The commission’s engineering representative described planting minimums: 2.5–3-inch caliper for shade trees and 6–8-foot evergreens in those areas.

Commission members also queried site layout, refuse locations and building frontages around Retail Building 5; Zara and the project team confirmed entries on both sides of the building and a sidewalk adjacent to the parking area. Zara said the commercial component will include five buildings with an anchor grocer and other retail/restaurants; a freestanding corner building will house an animal urgent-care facility after the team obtained a variance because the ordinance allowed urgent care for people but not animals.

On approvals, Zara said the project has secured outside-agency permits including a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit and PennDOT highway-occupancy/signal approvals, and she cited a planning-module exemption noted in the file. The commission’s traffic reviewer said access permits are in place but recommended ongoing monitoring to ensure uses remain within the traffic-study assumptions; the stormwater reviewer said the site meets stormwater-management requirements with only minor plan corrections expected.

Members discussed the existing historic building on the site frontage and whether it might be reused for a public-facing function. Township staff and the commission noted that if the building is converted to a public-facing use it would be subject to the fire marshal’s requirement for sprinklers; staff said utilities will be stubbed during construction so future occupancy conversions would have infrastructure in place but emphasized the township cannot compel commercial occupancy.

Zara said the residential units will be sold as condominium units (not rentals) and that a condominium association will have enforcement rights over maintenance and appearance of the common areas. She asked the commission for a recommendation to put the final plan on the supervisors’ agenda.

After brief technical discussion, a commission member moved and another seconded to forward a recommendation of approval to the Board of Supervisors for its April 27 meeting. The commission voted by voice to recommend the plan; staff requested a clean final letter by April 23 to make the supervisors' packet deadline.

The commission also accepted other plan filings and discussed upcoming agenda items, including Lovers Lane/Hasson Road, a 140 Whitaker application and a six-lot cul-de-sac subdivision near Township Line Road. The meeting adjourned after closing remarks.

The Board of Supervisors will consider the commission’s recommendation at its April 27 meeting; staff will supply the final clean letter to the supervisors’ office by April 23.