Borough of Lansdale, Pennsylvania

major categories – apartment complexes or townhomes. Recently, Lansdale sold a large parking lot to a developer who constructed four apartment complexes geared towards Millennials and young adults. The main idea behind the development was that many younger people want to live close to Philadelphia but not in Philadelphia. And the railway was a key access point to that. Lansdale’s downtown area is quite busy with restaurants, breweries, distilleries, and many other amenities that make it a highly desirable place for young professionals. The project helped create an additional downtown draw with buildings that have business space at the bottom and residential spaces at the top and the Millennial influx that the project developers were anticipating did indeed happen. In fact, the results have been so promising that another complex with a similar bend will be built on the other side of the railway. That complex is going through the approval process now. Herbert notes, “In terms of specific incentives for businesses that want to locate here, or existing businesses that want to expand or upgrade, we review all questions around that on an ongoing basis. For example, if a developer is looking for certain tax abatements, we review the whole proposal so that we can fully comprehend and understand what the abatement would be used for. Here is a good example of this. There is a piece of land that is not far from our borough hall that is regarded as a superfund site. Developers came in and said they wanted to redevelop it and put townhomes and convert it into a usable space. Right now, the site has no purpose. There is a waterway that runs through that site, and it would have to be reimagined and reinvested in. And the investors are looking to do it. So, they came to us with a tax abatement, and we looked at it and found that it is exactly what we need to do in order to make sure that this property gets utilized. Otherwise, it could potentially continue to sit empty.” As Lansdale is only three square miles in size, the authorities have to think carefully about