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MCPC MONTHLY
The Latest on Planning in Montgomery County, PA
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Congratulations to Our
2025 Montgomery Award Winners!
Five outstanding projects and an exceptional advocate have received 2025 Montgomery Awards. This annual program recognizes the best in planning, design, environmental stewardship and planning advocacy in Montgomery County and acknowledges the high-quality work and commitment of communities, organizations, and professionals. A highlight of the program this year was the redesign of the Montgomery Awards logo.
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Farmstead Park
Farmstead Park, an outstanding restoration project in Upper Moreland Township, received a 2025 Montgomery Award for creative and sustainable site design, community engagement, and adaptive historic preservation. Through visionary work and a meaningful partnership, this outstanding public park was successfully transformed into a sustainable, inclusive, and historically rich public space that integrates ecological restoration, historic preservation, and community programming, offering an enhanced visitor experience.
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Jeffersonville Golf Club Renovations
The Jeffersonville Golf Club Renovations, an outstanding revitalization project in West Norriton Township, received a 2025 Montgomery Award for strategic planning, design excellence, and community impact. Through visionary leadership and strategic investment, the township transformed this historic public golf course into a dynamic destination, showcasing how thoughtful redevelopment can preserve heritage, promote sustainability, and create lasting community value.
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The Residence at Bala Cynwyd
The Residence at Bala Cynwyd, an outstanding senior living facility in Lower Merion Township, received a 2025 Montgomery Award for design and environmental sensitivity, extensive collaboration, and community revitalization and impact. This exceptional project, which transformed a long-neglected industrial site into a vibrant, welcoming, and environmentally conscious community asset rooted in history and nature, is a testament to resilience, vision, and the power of redevelopment to enrich lives and landscapes.
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Zieglerville Village Adaptive Reuse
The Zieglerville Village Adaptive Reuse project received a 2025 Montgomery Award for context-sensitive design, village revitalization vision, and lasting community impacts. This outstanding project, located in Lower Frederick Township, successfully revitalized two deteriorating 19th-century homes into vibrant commercial spaces, protecting the architectural heritage of the properties and supporting the township’s preservation and village revitalization goals. The project demonstrates how historic preservation, careful planning, and community-focused placemaking can breathe new life into a village gateway.
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Foulkeways at Gwynedd
Foulkeways at Gwynedd, an outstanding nonprofit continuing care retirement community in Lower Gwynedd Township, received the 2025 Charles J. Tornetta Planning Advocate Award for sustainability planning, environmental stewardship, and community engagement. This initiative, led by residents in collaboration with the Foulkeways board, administration, and staff, demonstrates a commitment to environmental preservation, responsible land use, and a shared value of sustainability, which is integrated into the daily lives and management of this appealing community.
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Ursinus College Food Forest
The Ursinus College Food Forest, located in Trappe Borough and the first of its kind in Montgomery County, received the 2025 Environmental Stewardship Award. This exceptional, innovative project expanded an existing narrow riparian corridor onto previously farmed lands, creating a multifunctional edible landscape that nourishes both people and ecosystems. Through continued student involvement, cultural connections, and ecological stewardship, the food forest, which serves as a model for environmental restoration, stands as a beacon of hope, resilience, and collaboration.
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LATEST ISSUE!
Quarterly Construction Report
The latest issue of The Quarterly Construction Report focuses on the third quarter of 2025. The report tracks the progress of developments with at least 50 multifamily housing units/30,000 square feet of nonresidential area. In the third quarter of 2025, a total of 348,140 square feet of nonresidential development was completed, and 50 multifamily units were completed. The report includes project names, locations, unit types and nonresidential types, totals of units and square feet, and construction phases. The developments are also mapped. Archived Reports
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Next Stop: Pottstown – Accepting Comments on Train Station Area through December 31
DVRPC is helping Pottstown and its planning partners prepare for the potential return of passenger rail service between Reading and Philadelphia, with a stop in Pottstown, by exploring strategies to make the station area more accessible to all users. Pottstown community members are encouraged to provide ideas for station area improvements on an interactive map. Comments will be accepted through December 31, 2025.
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AVAILABLE!
Crestmont Station Area Walking Tour Brochure
MCPC has published the fifth and final self-guided walking tour brochure to demonstrate the concept of transit-oriented development (TOD). The Crestmont Station Area Self-Guided Walking Tour brochure focuses on the Crestmont regional rail station area in Abington Township. This station area is an example of the Suburban Neighborhood station area typology depicted in MCPC’s Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Model Ordinance. The brochure describes the characteristics of this typology, which can be seen along the tour route. A map pinpoints numbered stops along the route and images/descriptions of each point of interest. A second map depicts all Montgomery County station area typology included in the model TOD ordinance. All typology areas are described in the brochure. The series of walking tour brochures for all five station area typologies, the TOD model ordinance, and more are available at www.montgomerycountypa.gov/Transit-OrientedDevelopment.
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200th Farm Preserved in Montco!
As 2025 comes to a close, we’re rapidly approaching the preservation of the county’s 200th farm (and nearly 11,000 preserved acres of land) under the Montgomery County Agricultural Land Preservation Program. We’re not stopping here, though! If you’ve considered preserving your farm but don’t know where to start, please contact us and we’ll help you get your application submitted before the February 1 deadline.
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Meet Our New MCPC Board Member Kym Shegog-Ramsey
We are pleased to announce that Kym Ramsey has joined the Montgomery County Planning Commission Board. Originally from Aurora, Colorado, Kym has called Montgomery County home for 25 years, where she and her husband raised three daughters now living across the U.S. and Europe. A longtime entrepreneur and business leader with an MBA and a degree in economics, she has founded and operated several ventures including The Willow School in Norristown, Go! Ground Xpress, and a property management company in Scottsdale, Arizona. As the founder and President/CEO of the Norristown Chamber of Commerce, Kym has spent more than a decade supporting local businesses, building partnerships, and advancing economic opportunities across the county. Her volunteer leadership on numerous boards and initiatives has given her deep insight into planning, equity, and revitalization efforts. A U.S. Army veteran (Captain), Kym brings a distinctive blend of entrepreneurial insight, service-driven leadership, and regional understanding to MCPC. The commission looks forward to the experience Kym brings in small business development, economic strategy, and cross-sector collaboration, grounded in her strong commitment to Montgomery County.
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Focus on Montco 2050
Our team is currently working on an important element of Montco 2050: a comprehensive series of maps. These will include updated maps of existing conditions and new policy maps that will guide development and infrastructure investments for the next decade and beyond. Visit our Map and Resource Center, to explore maps of existing conditions and check back soon for the upcoming policy maps. You’ll also find a fascinating collection of historic maps of Montgomery County that have been digitized for you to view anytime (very interesting!). Information on Montco 2050: A Comprehensive Plan for a Changing World is available at Engage Montco.
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Focus on Housing
Montgomery County’s annual Point in Time Count assesses the scope of area homelessness during a single winter night. While this cannot be assumed to be the complete scope of homelessness in the county, it is a way to assess change each year. In January 2025, 534 individuals were recorded as unhoused across the county. Of those counted, 59 were unsheltered and 475 were sheltered in a temporary location. This is an increase of 14 percent from 2024. As the county gears up for its next count in 2026, please consider donating to the Point in Time Count, during which volunteers distribute needed items to the individuals encountered.
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GRANT OPORTUNITIES
Deadline: January 2, 2026 (for Pre-Application Scoping Forms) Applications Accepted Through March | PennDOT Green Light-Go Program
Open to municipalities and planning organizations for funds to improve existing traffic control signals, such as LED replacement, retiming, and studies. Projects require a 20 percent match. More information
Deadline: March 13, 2026 or Until Funds Are Depleted| PA DEP – Small Business Advantage Grant Program
Open to Pennsylvania-based small businesses, funds are available to adopt processes or make equipment purchases that results in energy efficiency, pollution prevention, and natural resource protection. Funds must be spent by June 30, 2026. More information
Rolling Deadline | Pennsylvania First
Open to businesses, municipalities, and others. Potential grant recipients must show substantial economic impact. This program funds machinery/equipment, job training, infrastructure, land and building improvements, environmental assessment and remediation, and other projects.
More information
Rolling Deadline | PA SITES (Pennsylvania Strategic Investments to Enhance Sites) Program
Funds, approved on a quarterly basis, are available to develop competitive sites for businesses to relocate or expand within the state. More information
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PARTNERS IN PROGRESS
MCPC participates on and engages with many boards, agencies, councils, and other stakeholders in our county and the region. This provides an excellent opportunity to share information, gain insight, and collaborate for success. Recent participation includes:
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Pottstown Station Area Planning Open House
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) held an open house at the Montgomery County Community College’s Pottstown Campus North Hall on November 6 to solicit community feedback regarding travel to and from a potential passenger rail station in the borough. As part of the Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority's effort to restore service from Philadelphia to Phoenixville, Pottstown, and Reading, attendees were asked how they would travel to a station and what parts of the transportation network should be a priority for additional investment.
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Montco 2040 Check Presentations
The Montgomery County Commissioners, MCPC staff, and others have been traveling throughout the county to recognize some of the work our municipalities are undertaking to get their Montco 2040 Implementation Grant Program projects started. In the last couple of months, visits were made to Royersford, Perkiomen, West Norriton, Hatfield Borough, East Greenville, Red Hill, and Lansdale to congratulate these communities on a job well done and to encourage even more great projects in future grant cycles. The grant program has been funded in the county’s draft budget, and we anticipate that the grant guidelines will be released after adoption of the county's 2026 budget in mid-December.
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MCATO Fall Convention
MCPC participated in the annual fall convention of the Montgomery County Association of Township Officials (MCATO) on November 12 in East Norriton Township. We provided an information table, which was a popular spot for municipal officials to stop by, ask questions, and take information related to Montco Forever Green (the county’s new open space program), our award-winning Pocket Guide to Active Transportation– Friendly Code, new electric vehicle resources, and more!
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STAFF NEWS
Meet Our New Senior Transportation Planner!
We are pleased to announce that Bobby Fanning has joined MCPC as a Senior Transportation Planner. Bobby comes to the county from the United States General Services Administration (GSA), where he served as a Lease Contracting Officer for over six years. During his time with GSA, he led numerous projects that focused on providing long-term operational needs for a variety of federal agencies across the region. Bobby received his undergraduate degree from La Salle University and his master's degree in city and regional planning from Temple University. As a Senior Transportation Planner, he will provide project management expertise to the ongoing Ridge Pike Improvement project and assist with various other transportation planning initiatives throughout Montgomery County. In his free time, he likes to read, exercise, cook, and attend concerts. Bobby is excited to return to Montgomery County, this time in a professional role. Welcome Bobby!
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Interested in Serving Montco?
Montgomery County has an application available for all residents interested in serving on a county board or commission. After the county receives an application, it will reach out to confirm the applicant’s information and interest. Once a board vacancy is available, the applicant will be considered for appointment.
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