Comprehensive Plans

Two intersections where traffic and development issues

Beginning in 2014 Upper Dublin has issued a comprehensive plan every five years, engaging professionals in planning to assist preparation with ample opportunity for public participation.

The three plans issued to date have common threads-encouraging development of unused privately owned property for multi-unit residential and mixed-use development, preserving public lands for public use and encouraging connectiveness between neighborhoods. Experts' analyses of Upper Dublin's prospects align with the optimistic independent reviews by planners, developers and realtors. E.g., Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Connections 2040: Plan for Greater Philadelphia (2014).

However, neither fully addressed the traffic dilemma existed at Upper Dublin’s notable non-diagonal intersections: Norristown Road and Limekiln Pike-that was resolved in 2024 with approval of the development of then named Goodman Tract through intersection improvements intended to address traffic backups on those highways and Butler Pike. That tract, to be known as Maple Glen Pointe, has since been sold to Pulte, a well-known suburban housing developer. Ken Knickerbocker, Pulte Homes Buys 18-Acre Upper Dublin Site, Plans 72 Townhomes, MONTCOToday, June 2025.

The second area, known as the Dresher Triangle, has similar configurations, with the intersection of Susquehanna, Dreshertown Road and Limekiln Pike (with the nearby entrance to the westbound Pennsylvania Turnpike). The following list of articles and studies represents the efforts to deal with development, redevelopment and historical preservation there:

1999-Montgomery County Planning Commission, Dresher Triangle Area Study (referring to the area as “Nelson Farm”)

AUTHOR, Further debate over proposed Dresher Triangle district overlay ordinance, thereporteronline.com, March 16, 2000 (referring to challenge by FW Triangle LP [BET] to the Zoning Hearing Board decision on the Dresher Triangle Overlay ordinance, including preservation of the Clime House built in 1797). That decision was unsuccessfully challenged by the developer in the Court of Common Pleas and thereafter the Commonwealth Court. FW Triangle LP v. Zoning Hearing Bd. of Upper Dublin Twp., No. 567 C.D. 2002 (Pa. Cmwlth Ct. 2003).

xxxxxx, Changes to Dresher Overlay get lukewarm reaction, Ambler Gazette, Sept. 24, 2021

April 22, 2008-Philadelphia District Council of Urban Land Institute, Letter to Jules Mermelstein, President, Upper Dublin Board of Commissioners, Dresher Triangle

AUTHOR, Hotel, commercial development proposed for Dresher Triangle, reporteronline.com, August 23, 2011

Kyle Bagenstose, Planning Commission, Residents Frown on Dresher Triangle Hotel Proposal, reporteronline.com., Sept. 21, 2011, updated Sept. 22, 2021

Kyle Bagenstose, Dresher Triangle to Receive Traffic-Reducing Technology, PATCH, Jan. 12, 2012 (State provides $200,000 grant for traffic light improvements)

Natalie Kostelni, BET Investments breaks ground on $12M mixed-use project, Phila. Bus. J., Dec. 29, 201

CONCLUSION

Planning and economic activity do not always work hand-in-hand. In the late 1970s neighboring Abington Township approved what became the Willow Grove Park Mall to replace the long dormant site of the once famous Willow Grove Amusement Park. That development remains the largest single capital investment in eastern Montgomery County. However, with changing in shopping patterns among other things, the mall, opened in 1982, has seen its customer base erode, with significant unused space and two of its four department stores (an increasingly threatened species of retail) shuttered.

In early 2025 the Upper Dublin Township Board of Commissioners approved zoning changes sought by BET, a real estate development company located in Upper Dublin, for the development of Promenade East. Linda Finarelli, Commissioners agree to changes in zoning required for Promenade East, mainlinemedianews.com, March 24, 2025. Together with BET’s adjacent Promenade, it would, when full built-out as a planned mixed-use development, became the largest capital investment in Eastern Montgomery County since Willow Grove Park Mall.¹⁰⁶

As seen from this history of modern Upper Dublin, when examined in depth a reader would note some cautionary notes. Much of the success of 20th century suburbs like Upper Dublin continues to be altered by 21st technologies, most recently by artificial intelligence, Stephane Cedric Koumetio Tekouabou, El Bachir Diop, Rida Azmi & Jerome Chenal, Artificial Intelligence Based Methods for Smart and Sustainable Urban Planning: A Systematic Survey, 30 Archives of Computational Methods of Engineering, 1421 (2023); Desmond Lartey & Kris M.Y. Law, Artificial intelligence adoption in urban planning governance: A systematic review of advancements in decision-making, and policymaking, Landscape and Urban Planning (June 2025).

There will always be circumstances that will attract new residents to the suburbs, due to its favorable quality-of-life and some the incidental impacts of suburban living. Kim Parker, Juliana Menasce Horowitz & Rachel Minkin, Americans Are Less Likely Than Before COVID-19 To Want to Live in Cities, More Likely to Prefer Suburbs, Pew Research Center, Dec. 16, 2021. How present and future leaders nurture Upper Dublin’s future will continue to be challenging.