A Bethlehem Pike sketch plan in Whitemarsh shows 162 units under a proposed overlay that allows 32 units an acre

A developer's sketch plan for 431-461 Bethlehem Pike in Whitemarsh Township, near Fort Washington Station, shows 162 dwelling units in two buildings and 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The plan depends on a zoning text amendment the developer, the Hankin Group, submitted with it. The amendment would create a Transit-Friendly Design Overlay 3, or TDO-3, that allows up to 32 units per gross acre in the township's VC-1 Village Commercial District.

Both items were on the agenda of the Whitemarsh Planning Commission's October 13, 2026 meeting, and the meeting packet holds the draft ordinance, the plan's design manual, a review by the Montgomery County Planning Commission dated September 24 and a review by the township engineer dated October 5.

ATwo buildings would hold 162 units, with 212 parking spaces

The county review describes the program. A 56-foot mixed-use building along Bethlehem Pike would hold 62 units over the retail space. A 65-foot multifamily building inside the site would hold 100 units and 43 internal parking spaces, and surface lots would add 169 more. Several existing buildings would be demolished. The design manual says Wissahickon Hall, an office building from around 1890, and a two-story stone house stay.

BThe 162 units would top 2005, the township's high since 1980, at 158

Whitemarsh authorized 74 new housing units in 2024, all single-family, according to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission's tables of Census building permit data. The township's highest year in the series, which starts in 1980, was 2005, with 158 units.

Permits for units in buildings of five or more came to 72 across 2015 through 2024, and none were issued from 2021 through 2024. The 162 units in the sketch would exceed any single year since 1980, though a project this size could draw its permits over more than one year.

CThe draft overlay allows 32 units an acre, where the Village Commercial districts allow 8

The draft ordinance makes the overlay available by conditional use, an approval the township grants case by case against standards the ordinance lists. A property needs at least 3 acres, public water and sewer, and some land within 1,000 feet of a SEPTA train station or bus stop. The project has to restore an environmentally distressed area at the applicant's cost, at least 0.5 acre or 10% of the lot, whichever is larger, and every building has to be designed to LEED Silver, a level in the U.S. Green Building Council's rating system for green buildings, with an application for certification.

Buildings could rise to five stories and 65 feet, or four stories and 56 feet within 100 feet of the ultimate right-of-way, the line set aside for future road widening. Parking starts at one space per unit and three per 1,000 square feet of nonresidential floor area, and a lot may hold no more than 110% of that minimum without a parking demand analysis. For comparison, residential density in the Village Commercial districts is 8 units per acre, according to the minutes of the commission's September 8 meeting, where members backed a separate change that would allow 10 for properties that share driveway access.

DThe county backs the amendment, and the township engineer lists 122 comments

The county planning commission's letter finds the amendment and sketch generally consistent with the township's comprehensive plan and with the county's, which maps the site as a village center inside a rail station walkshed, the area within half a mile of a station. The commission says it generally supports the proposed amendments and lists concerns for the township and the applicant to weigh before adoption.

They include definitions of environmental restoration that it calls vague, and the LEED clause, which, the commission says, does not appear to require that a building end up certified, only that it be designed to Silver and that the applicant apply. It suggests precertification or early documentation from the Green Building Council.

On the sketch, it asks how the trail along the property line would reach the station, which may need coordination with SEPTA, and recommends a trail at least 10 feet wide, curb ramps that meet federal right-of-way accessibility guidelines, and moving parking spaces that sit at the site entrances.

The township engineer's letter runs to 122 numbered comments, many of them preliminary plan requirements given as guidance. It points out that the draft overlay sets no open space minimum of its own, so the plan must show it meets the VC-1 standard. It also lists the permits and fees that follow the plan.

The traffic impact fee depends on a count the plan does not yet contain, since the traffic study comes with the preliminary plan. The table below shows how the fee scales, with trip counts chosen only as an example.

FThe sketch is at its first stage of review, and the ordinance still needs a vote

The project is at its first stage of review. A sketch plan is not binding, the ordinance needs a vote of the Board of Supervisors, and the conditional use and the preliminary and final land development plans come after that.

1. NowSketch planPlanning Commission agenda, October 13, 2026. Not binding.
2. NextOrdinance voteThe Board of Supervisors decides on the overlay.
3. ThenConditional useApproval against the ordinance's standards.
4. ThenPreliminary planThe traffic study comes with it.
5. LastFinal planFinal land development plan.

Agendas and packets for the Planning Commission and the supervisors are posted in the township's Agenda Center. The tentative agenda for the commission's November 10 meeting lists a sketch plan for 50 homes, 40 singles and 10 twins, at Karamoor Farm on East Skippack Pike. For how the county's permit figures are compiled, see the guide to local construction market data.