First phase of major Dale Summit residential development plans reviewed. What’s next?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Council will on final first-phase plans soon for the Crew 814 residential development
- First phase: 191 units, community center, amenities; groundbreaking likely early 2025
- Full development will total 623 units, including 62 workforce units and commercial space
Final plans for the first phase of a 48-acre townhome and apartment complex in the Dale Summit area were reviewed Thursday by the College Township Council as the major project moves closer to approval.
Submitted by developer Burkentine, the plans for the 19-acre first phase of the Crew 814 planned residential development (PRD) show a mix of 191 different housing units to be built at the end of Point Pleasant Road, behind the Pleasant Pointe Apartments. Developers say their goal is to create a neighborhood that seamlessly incorporates modern living and nature.
The units include 64 fee-simple town homes, 55 rental townhomes and two 36-unit, three-story apartment buildings that developers say will be offered at different prices to keep them affordable for people of varying income levels. Two stormwater ponds and a community center would also be built in the first phase that would have amenities like a clubhouse, playground, swimming pool, pickleball courts and more.
The project’s second phase would be completed in multiple sub-phases, and would see an additional 432 apartment units constructed, bringing the total units offered to 623. Of those units, about 62 would be designated as workforce housing, including four fee-simple town homes, six rental town homes and eight apartments in the first phase.
That designation is required under a section of College Township code that states that at least 10% of new residential developments be reserved for workforce housing.
“I think we should all be really proud of this effort,” council chair Eric Bernier told PennTerra President John Sepp Thursday about the first phase’s plans. “This can be a complicated and labor-intensive process, and I think for the most part, thanks to staff and the folks [Sepp is] working with, it’s going about as well as it possibly could.”
Aside from the housing units, the completed PRD will have a roughly seven-acre development space for future commercial businesses and several outdoor amenities. That includes a recreation area between apartment buildings, three on-site dog parks, two community gathering and grove area spaces and five stormwater management ponds, two of which would used for outdoor recreation.
The development also has two planned points of access — one street intersecting Shiloh Road and another linking with Pleasant Point Drive. Roughly 75% of the overall development’s roadways will be completed in the first phase.
With the project’s overall sketch plan first seen by the township’s planning commission in June 2024, Crew 814’s complex has had to go through a lengthy submission process before being ready for final plan approval.
Following township council approval of the first phase’s tentative plans in April — with 18 conditions attached to it— the developer began working toward fulfilling those conditions, and did so for the most part, with a final first-phase plan submission in late September.
According to a project memo included in Thursday’s meeting agenda, the council’s Oct. 2 meeting signified the beginning of a 45-day “shot-clock,” where the plan would have to be approved by Nov. 16, although a time extension was granted to extend the ultimate approval date to Dec. 21, at the latest.
This extension means that the council will vote on the first phase’s plans at their meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 18. The plans seen this week were only for a preliminary discussion, as the township’s staff will review them one final time before the Dec. 18 meeting, to smooth out any staff comments.
“The comments have all been technical in nature — and definitely no major comments — because there was so much work done at the tentative level of this plan,” Sepp said. “It was a very detailed tentative plan. Now we’re just ironing out the really minor technical issues that remain, and I think we hit about 90% of them with our last submission.”
If the council approves the first phase of plans, ground is expected to be broken early next year. The first phase is expected to take roughly two years to complete.
The latest date that the developer can submit the final plans for the second phase of construction, as outlined in the first phase’s development plans, is April 15, 2028, with construction on that phase expected to take three years to complete.
