Towamencin approves Sprouts supermarket and six-sign package

A proposed Sprouts Farmers Market at the Shops at Town Square has received unanimous conditional-use and signage approval from the Towamencin Township Board of Supervisors. The decision authorizes the supermarket as a C-16 Retail Trade and Retail Services use within the ELO Entertainment Lifestyle Overlay district at 1758 Allentown Road. It also grants a modification of the township's normal sign requirements, allowing five wall signs on the building façade facing Allentown Road and one wall sign facing Forty Foot Road. The applicant is the Robert Nicoletti Family Trust, which owns the property. Supervisors conducted a public hearing on the application July 22 and approved the resulting decision and order Wednesday without additional debate. The approved Allentown Road signs include a 193.7-square-foot 'Sprouts Farmers Market' sign and four smaller signs reading 'Wellness,' 'Fresh,' 'Local' and 'Organic.' The smaller signs range from 6.1 square feet to 10.4 square feet. A second 'Sprouts Farmers Market' sign measuring 143.2 square feet is permitted on the façade facing Forty Foot Road. The store has 121.5 linear feet of frontage facing Allentown Road and a 174.65-linear-foot building façade facing Forty Foot Road, according to the township's written findings. Attorney Leonard Altieri III, representing the applicant during the July hearing, said the additional signs were necessary both to identify the supermarket and maintain its established image. 'The signage is necessary for the identification of the Sprouts, but also part of our national brand,' Altieri said, according to testimony quoted in the township's decision. Joseph J. Ferrier, co-CEO of PSDC, testified that securing Sprouts as a tenant was important to efforts to reinvigorate the shopping center. 'When it came to Sprouts, because of the importance of having a grocery store in the shopping center, in order to get this to become a thriving center again, we had to take on the fight for Sprouts to get them the signage that they were requiring,' Ferrier said. The board's written decision found Ferrier's testimony credible and concluded that the supermarket satisfied the township's conditional use criteria. The approval includes eight conditions governing the store, its façade and its signs. The signs must substantially conform to a nine-sheet package prepared by Atlas Sign Industries. Construction and finishing of the supermarket façade must substantially conform to a May 27 elevation study. The signs may be illuminated only between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. The applicant must also control glare so the signs do not adversely affect nearby properties, zoning districts or residential uses. Compliance will be determined to the satisfaction of the township and its engineer. Most notably, the order prohibits additional signage along the building frontage facing Forty Foot Road beyond the single Sprouts sign specifically approved Wednesday. All signs must remain in substantial conformance with the testimony and exhibits presented during the July hearing. Supervisors did not announce a construction schedule or anticipated opening date. This article appears courtesy of a content-sharing agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit www.NorthPennNow.com.