Township Agrees to $330,000 Open Space Purchase

has agreed to purchase a five-acre residential property at 1237 Stump Road for $330,000 and convert it to open space.

The parcel will be kept as open space and will serve as an access easement to the adjacent , according to solicitor Frank Bartle.

According to Montgomery County records, it is owned by Richard Lewine

“The property was being brokered by a gentleman from Weichert Real Estate, the township saw the property was for sale and we agreed on the sum of $330,000 for the purchase of the property,” Bartle said. “The township will buy it after we do an environmental test on the property and get an appropriate title report back.”

A two-story Colnial-style house with a closed deck on the R-1 Residential-zoned parcel will be demolished.

“When we got on board, one of our stated purposes was to acquire open space,” said supervisors Chairman Robert Birch. “This is the first open space acquisition since I’ve been on the board. We’re pretty excited.”

Birch said the purchase “will pale in comparison” to the Zehr Tract.

“We are still in court over that, but we are ultimately confident we will be successful,” he said.

On Oct. 24, Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Bernard Moore denied the Zehr Family preliminary objection to Montgomery Township’s Declaration of Taking for the Zehr tract.

“First of all, it’s over 50 acres of property,” Birch said. “If we don’t do something, it’s going to be gone forever.”

The township condemned the property through eminent domain.

By doing so, it halted a 200 townhome development plan by Wayne Rosen.

“Wayne was originally planning to put 80 single-family homes on the land. He came back with a proposal to put 200 townhomes on the land,” Birch said. “We didn’t want any development there, and certainly not townhomes. If you look at the proximity of it, it’s directly across from Montgomery Elementary. That, in our view, would have been disastrous.”

Birch said the township did not know the plan between Rosen and the Zehr family.

“We don’t know what (the Zehr family) wants,” he said. “If it’s a matter of money, it’s a matter of money. The courts will decide it, if we can’t breach an agreement.”

He said the township isn’t sure exactly what the Zehr family wants in the lawsuit.

The township has already conducted a Phase One environmental study. The study determined soil contamination on the property. The township is now in Phase Two of an environmental study.

“They did accept the eminent domain, and then they didn’t,” Birch said. “They brought the townhome plan to us and the township stopped it.”