Bensalem has a vision for its Delaware River front. Why these business owners aren't seeing it

For decades, the waterfront in Bensalem has been looked at as a land of opportunity.

Consider its Delaware River location, its proximity to Interstate 95 and its acres of land that could support a town center with homes, shops and more. Officials have long envisioned the waterfront as a place where residents and others could live, work and play. When they unveiled the original plan, after years of study in 2015, they even gave the vision a lofty name, Riverfront Renaissance in New Bensalem.

But years later, little has changed, the vision has yet to be realized and an effort to jumpstart revitalization has been met with stark opposition by businesses and land owners who say they have been cut out of the process and the changes envisioned will put them out of business. Some even say they are so far from the waterfront, fronting I-95, that they don't belong in the zone.

"I found out about (this plan) late last week when it was presented to me kind of flippantly that there was a map that was drawn up that looks like roadways are going to go through the property and create parcels," said Broken Goblet Brewery co-owner Mike LaCouture said. "I looked at this map and I looked at my building and I see there's a road going through our parking lot.

"Just to be clear to everybody; this will bankrupt us."

LaCouture and others were at the Bensalem Council meeting Monday to voice concerns with a plan that would amend a township ordinance that governs the zoning of what is known as the R-55 Riverfront Revitalization District. The district is a huge swath of land from Street Road to Station Avenue from the Delaware River to Interstate 95.

It's about 675 acres and plans call for a new road, Renaissance Boulevard, to run through it from Station Avenue to Street Road. It could bisect other proposed properties in the tract, including a warehouse long sought by Johnson Development Associates, Inc.

Plans describe the proposed Renaissance Boulevard as the connector road that would help tie this new walkable town-center community together and a transitional border between lighter mixed-use development and industrial sites. It would help move truck traffic from the heavy industrial and manufacturing uses in the zone on State Road away from more residential developments and small businesses there, according to a presentation when the plan was unveiled years ago.

In an early version of the revitalization plan, building Renaissance Boulevard was Phase One of the proposed changes in the zone.

On Monday, Bensalem Mayor Joe DiGirolamo and Bensalem Council introduced the amendment, which would ban a litany of future heavy manufacturing and warehouse projects while encouraging residential, mixed-use and light industrial use of the land.

"If there's a conversation about trying to changing all of the zoning in the area when I am having trouble just putting on events or having a tent put in the parking lot," said LaCouture, whose brewery sits on State Road. "There should be a little more conversation."

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Monday's hearing was the first time affected business and land owners were appraised in full of the plans, and also their first opportunity to confront DiGirolamo and township council about it. LaCouture was one of several operators to offer sometimes-scathing rebukes of the plan.

Opponents say they feel left out of the process, and they fear the long-term negative impact it will have on their businesses, many of which rely on quick access to the highway.

"Council members, let's call this ordinance what it is. It takes a zoning district which is entirely industrial and flips it on its head," said Andrew Stoll, representing several owners of businesses along State Road in the Revitalization District. "It eliminates a lot of the vast value in the R-55 district."

John Grossi, co-owner of three entities which own eight parcels of industrial land along I-95 in the district, is one of the group of owners that lived through initial efforts to start the redevelopment zone 17 years ago, and said this plan won't work without an honest dialogue among the owners, the mayor and council.

"This is a 640-acre area; one square mile, about the size of Hoboken (New Jersey)," said Grossi, of Samuel Grossi and Sons, a structural steel fabricator that has for decades operated in the zone. "This is a monumental idea and a monumental plan and it cannot happen just by taking away the uses of over 3 million square feet of industrial property that is nowhere near the waterfront.

"We want to work with the township to get these types of things done, but I'm an old-school industrialist, so I am going to differ a little bit from what the mayor wants down there," Grossi added. "I believe this country became great not by housing or Starbucks, but by building things. We need to work together."

Members also voiced concerns that zoning changes would prohibit some current uses in the zone in the future, and questioned if new tenants would need to obtain a zoning variance to begin operations in existing uses, like warehouses.

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Bensalem Solicitor Joseph Pizzo struck back at allegations the township was trying to hurt businesses by undertaking what amounts to an eminent domain land grab. Eminent domain refers to government taking of land.

"There seems to be a concept that's been shared throughout the business community that this is being driven to turn the entire R-55 District residential, and that's simply not the case," Pizzo said. "The change in the zoning ordinance has been done previously in this district. It will allow the uses that are there to continue, and will, we hope, spur a gradual change in use to continue to move the R-55 District from what was in 2005 an entirely industrial area into an area that will be ... one that will have residential, will have commercial to support the residential, places like the Broken Goblet, and stores and restaurants and those kinds of facilities to support them.

"Less heavy manufacturing and more precision manufacturing; more research and development," Pizzo added. "The expectation is, as one use goes away, another use will take its place."

DiGirolamo said as a developer and owner of industrial land in Buckingham, he empathizes with the impacted business owners. And while the mayor acknowledged his dream of a fully redeveloped Bensalem waterfront "probably wouldn't happen" in his lifetime, he took issue with the idea that he or council were singling out a particular industry.

"I understand more than anybody. For anybody to think that we're building any kind of homes on the railroad is just not common sense; that's just not going to happen under any condition," DiGirolamo said. "Maybe we can come to an agreement on how we can do this. We're talking about a road we've had on the plans since (at least) 2015.

"It's not just a dream; it's a vision and it's common sense," DiGirolamo continued. "All over the world riverfronts are changing from industrial and shopping and all that, and Bensalem shouldn't be left out there."

After absorbing marathon public comment, Bensalem Council voted in favor of tabling the matter until Sept. 27, during which time council will meet with members of the business community and hopefully reach a workable compromise.

"We have a certain designation in Bensalem of being business friendly, what we are doing right now, to me, without talking to and meeting with you guys like we did (with previous rezoning efforts)" is wrong," said council member Joseph Pilieri. "The vision that's for the waterfront is a fantastic vision, there's room for both but we all have to work together to make that happen.

"I think that's something that's very important, and we're not doing that," Pilieri added. "We didn't give you the opportunity to give us your feedback until this meeting, and I don't think that's the right thing to do."

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bensalem Township Council tables controversial riverfront amendment