As reported by CitizenPortal.ai, "The flexible development overlay is completely 100% in your sole discretion."
That's attorney Tom Nahila, representing the applicant behind a 98-unit apartment building proposed for the York Galleria Mall parking lot, talking to the Springettsbury Township Board of Supervisors. He wasn't complaining. He was explaining why his client needed the supervisors' discretion in the first place: according to CitizenPortal.ai, the zoning written for that exact parcel doesn't list multifamily housing as something you're allowed to build there. Not as a permitted use, not even as something requiring a conditional-use hearing. It simply isn't on the list.
CitizenPortal.ai reported that the board approved it anyway through the flexible development overlay. If you're looking at East York as a place to hold rental property, that gap, and how it got closed, tells you more about where this market is headed than the median price on any listing sheet.
What Actually Got Approved
The project now carries the name Signature Flats at Galleria. It sits on a 2.5-acre parcel at 2899 Wakeford Road, carved out of a larger 7.5-acre tract that had been sitting as unused parking near the mall's Extra Space Storage building, itself a former Bon-Ton. Engineer Jake Krieger of RGS Associates presented the site plan: a four-story building with 98 one- and two-bedroom units and 147 parking spaces, working out to 1.5 spaces per unit rather than the higher ratio the township typically expects from multifamily projects.
The application had been under review since March 2024, moved through planning commission meetings across February, March, and April 2026 covering utility connections, pedestrian access, and site design, and cleared the Springettsbury Board of Supervisors on May 14, 2026. Construction is expected to start this fall, with completion targeted for the end of 2027.
Worth flagging for anyone tracking the paper trail: the applicant name shifts depending on which hearing record you read. Earlier filings reference Gallery Apartments LLC and Monarch Development. The construction announcement names Vanguard Development Group as the builder moving dirt this fall. That's not necessarily a red flag. Entitled land changes hands between the entity that fights for approval and the entity that actually builds, and that handoff is common on projects that take two years to clear a planning commission. But it's a reminder that the name on a zoning hearing agenda isn't always the name that shows up at closing.
The Rule That Wasn't There Yet
Here's the part that matters for underwriting. Springettsbury's draft town center district, the zoning language meant to eventually govern the Galleria area, does address multifamily housing. It just doesn't govern it generously. Nahila told the board that under the draft language, density would cap out around 20 units per acre. On a 2.5-acre site, that pencils to roughly 50 units, which he said would make the project economically infeasible.
Ninety-eight units is nearly double that. The application instead went through the flexible development overlay, a tool that exists specifically because Springettsbury's supervisors wanted a way to approve projects that don't fit neatly into the zoning code as written, on a case-by-case basis, entirely at the board's discretion. Township staff were explicit on the record: applying the overlay is discretionary, and the approval doesn't set a rule for the next applicant. Each project has to make its own case to the same five supervisors.
That's the friction an investor needs to sit with. The precedent here isn't "multifamily is now allowed at Galleria." The precedent is "the board was willing to say yes once, using a tool built for exceptions." Whether they say yes again depends on the next site, the next attorney, and the next set of supervisors sitting on that board.
The Map Is Being Redrawn This Year
The overlay was a workaround because the permanent rule hadn't caught up yet. That's now changing. In an April 2026 work session, the Springettsbury supervisors opened the first of up to three sessions to rewrite the township's zoning map and subdivision ordinance. The changes on the table include formally creating a town center district around the Galleria Mall that would permit multifamily housing and community uses not currently allowed there, alongside a new continuing care community district, adjusted multifamily density limits, and administrative updates covering EV charging and short-term rentals.
The consultant leading the review told the board the work follows directly from the township's comprehensive plan, adopted in July 2025, which already flagged the Galleria site by name as a strong redevelopment candidate given its location across from Springettsbury Park and its proximity to newer multifamily development. Staff also proposed exempting parcels smaller than two acres from the township's heavier master-planning requirements, meaning smaller infill sites near the corridor could eventually clear review faster than a project the size of Signature Flats did.
None of this is adopted yet. The process still has to run through Pennsylvania's Municipalities Planning Code, including a 45-day review window, before any ordinance is final. But the direction is clear enough that an investor evaluating a small multifamily deal near this corridor today is making a bet on which side of that rewrite their parcel lands.
East York Has Been Here Before
The Central Penn Business Journal reported on an earlier East York debate over whether an apartment building belonged in a neighborhood built for single-family homes. In 2017, developer Seth Predix asked Springettsbury to rezone a building at 2309 E. Philadelphia Street, in what residents called Old East York, from R-7 residential to mixed-use so he could convert it into 12 apartments. About 50 neighbors showed up to the planning commission meeting. One resident's objection was recorded plainly: once a property is rezoned mixed-use, it's open to all kinds of things, whether or not the current applicant intends to stay involved forever. The commission backed the rezoning anyway.
That fight and the current one at the Galleria aren't the same project, but they rhyme. Both involve a developer asking the township to reclassify a parcel that current residents assumed would stay single-family. Both drew organized pushback rooted less in the specific unit count than in what the rezoning might open the door to later. And in both cases, the township's planning apparatus sided with the applicant.
Springettsbury's zoning page lists base zoning outside these special districts as R-7, R-10, and R-20, with minimum lot sizes of 7,500, 10,000, and 20,000 square feet respectively, all built around single-family homes. The township has a longer track record of granting exceptions than the "East York is single-family country" shorthand suggests.
What This Means If You're Underwriting Here
If you're evaluating a small multifamily deal anywhere near the Route 30 or East Market Street corridor, the zoning line on today's map is not a fixed input. It's a variable the township is actively negotiating in real time, in public work sessions you can actually attend or read the minutes from.
A few things worth building into your process rather than assuming:
- An approval that used a discretionary overlay doesn't create a right for the next parcel. Each project still has to convince the same board.
- The town center district rewrite, once adopted, will set a formal density ceiling for the Galleria area. Until then, every multifamily proposal near that corridor is negotiating in the same gray zone Signature Flats did.
- Smaller parcels under two acres may see a lighter review path once the ordinance update is final, which changes the math on infill duplex or triplex conversions differently than it changes the math on a 98-unit build.
- Watching supervisors' meeting agendas tells you more about where density is headed next than watching listing inventory does.
None of this makes East York a sure bet or a bad one. It makes it a market where the zoning code is mid-sentence. If you're underwriting a deal in this corridor, that sentence is worth reading before you write an offer, not after.
If you want to talk through a specific parcel, or figure out whether a property you're eyeing sits inside the area the township is currently rezoning, I'm happy to walk through it with you. Reach out to Spencer Blake and let's look at the actual map together.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
