Gray’s Woods Park Plan Gets Conditional Approval, Supervisors Discuss Plans for Former Mobile Home Site

Patton Township’s Board of Supervisors on Wednesday gave conditional approval to the land development plan for phase one of construction for Gray’s Woods Park.

The park is located on 43 acres of what is known as the Gray’s Woods Wetlands Park across from the Brynwood section of the Gray’s Woods Planned Community, near the Patton Township-Halfmoon Township line. The total developed portion of the park will consist of 2.8 acres, with phase one consisting of 1.3 acres.

Chuck Strodoski of landscape architecture firm YSM, which developed the master plan for the park in 2014, reviewed plans for phase one on Wednesday.

The park will include an age-segregated playground, with one area for children 2 to 5 and another for ages 5 to 12. Plans also include a green-roof picnic pavilion, interpretive signs about the natural area, porous concrete walkways, a stone retaining wall and steps, walking trails and eight parking spaces. 

Entrance will be provided by an access easement over the existing gravel portion of Gray’s Woods Boulevard.

The approval is conditional based on completion of comments provided by township staff.

Improvements to the parkland fall into three general categories, according to the township: ‘improvements that promote and enhance environmental education… provide opportunities for passive, low-impact recreation… and enhance the sites natural resources and promotes green sustainable development.’

Rezoning of Former Mobile Home Park

Planning Commission member Richard Schmidt and supervisors briefly discussed the rezoning request for the former Penn State Mobile Home Park at 1752 N. Atherton St. and two adjacent parcels. Developer Ara Kervandjian’s group is looking to build a large, mixed-use development called Patton Crossing on the vacant property. 

The 30-acre development, across the street from the North Atherton Street Walmart, would be a town-style center with residential and commercial uses, according to the Planning Commission’s June agenda. The concept includes a grocery store, hotel, commercial office buildings and residential buildings.

Schmidt said the commission discussed with the developers what the possible height of the buildings would be, and were told buildings immediately off the road would by lower than those set further back. He added that they discussed how much of the residential properties would be affordable and how much impervious coverage would be added to the site, but that they have not yet reached consensus on those issues.

Township Manager Doug Erickson said the first 200 feet of the property is zoned for commercial and the rest is mostly zoned R-3 medium-density residential. Existing zoning doesn’t allow for what the developers want to achieve, so the property would need to be rezoned with a new mixed-use overlay district to be developed.

‘The new overlay district would be intended to promote a mix of land uses, encourage redevelopment of underutilized commercial properties, provide opportunities for small scale or locally-owned businesses, promote aesthetically pleasing developments with consistent architectural themes, provide bicycle and pedestrian-connectivity, promote use of public transit, encourage shared parking to reduce excessive impervious cover, support workforce housing opportunities, and provide public gathering places for community events,’ according to the Planning Commission agenda.

The zoning needs for the site ‘are not un-complex,’ Erickson said.

‘We don’t currently have anything would support what they showed us on the concept plan, which was a large site with lots of mixed use, lots of retail and lots of housing,’ he said.

A traffic impact study is under way, which must be reviewed before rezoning can proceed.

As staff and the planning commission continue to consider redevelopment and rezoning of the site, they will continue to discuss road and transit issues, affordable housing provisions, small, non-chain retail space, and on-site park and open space requirements.

The development will be discussed at the Planning Commission’s July 10 meeting, with a more formal update brought to the supervisors on July 19.

The Penn State Mobile Home Park officially closed in 2014.