Exeter Township Weighs 236 Apartments, Outside Finance Help

A developer wants to build 236 apartments at 3925 Perkiomen Avenue with far less parking than Exeter Township's zoning code requires, and the Board of Supervisors will say Monday whether it supports that request. The same meeting takes up a plan to bring in an outside firm at $95 an hour to help with the 2027 budget, accounting, payroll, compliance and reporting while the finance office changes hands, because the finance director leaves Oct. 30. Both items are in the 50-page agenda packet posted Friday (pp. 2-3).

The board meets Monday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. at the township building, 4975 DeMoss Road, after a 6 p.m. workshop on the 2027 budget; a second workshop follows Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 6 p.m. (pp. 3, 8).

236 apartments, 1.9 parking spaces each

Metropolitan Company "is proposing a 236-unit apartment complex at 3925 Perkiomen Avenue," the agenda says, and has asked for a variance from Section 390-37.Q(1) of the zoning code "to reduce the required parking from 3 spaces per unit to 1.9 spaces per unit" (p. 2). A variance is permission to break a specific zoning rule on one property, granted by the Zoning Hearing Board rather than the supervisors. The Zoning Hearing Board is a separate appointed panel that hears variance requests and zoning appeals, and it is scheduled to take up this one on Oct. 29 (p. 47).

Monday's vote is advisory: the motion is to "Recommend Approval, Denial, or No Position" to the Zoning Hearing Board (p. 2). The zoning officer's memo, dated Oct. 23, recommends approval. It says the developer "is in the planning stages" of the complex, that all units are planned as one- and two-bedroom apartments, and that the Planning Commission recommended approval at its October meeting. Under "Budgetary impact," the memo says "None" (p. 47).

By our arithmetic, 3 spaces per unit would mean 708 parking spaces for 236 apartments; 1.9 per unit would mean about 448. The packet has no site plan, timeline, rents or the developer's reasons for the request, and does not say what is on the property now. Residents who want to argue the variance itself should go to the Oct. 29 hearing; Monday's public comment period is the chance to tell the supervisors what to recommend.

Outside help for the finance office

Township staff want to hire Sumter Local Government Consulting for "interim financial support, including assistance with the 2027 budget, accounting, payroll, compliance, and reporting," the agenda says. The proposed rate is $95 per hour for up to 24 hours per week, plus travel time, and either side could end the deal with 30 days' notice (p. 3). At the full 24 hours, that is $2,280 a week before travel time, by our arithmetic. A scanned Oct. 22 memo from Township Manager Larry Piersol in the packet lists the work as "accounts payable and receivable, payroll administration, general ledger management, compliance, and reporting" and asks for "the Board's consideration to proceed with this arrangement to provide financial support during the transition" (p. 49). The agenda lists the item as a discussion rather than a motion, so a vote Monday is possible but not promised; no end date is given.

The reason is in the draft minutes of the Oct. 12 meeting, which are up for approval Monday (pp. 4-8). Piersol told the board that staff were "reaching out to outside finance firms for assistance because of the Finance Director's departure," that one firm had already met with staff and two or three more were scheduled, and that "the Finance Director's last day is October 30" (p. 7). Chairperson George Bell asked that the firms also propose multi-year planning support.

The departure also changed who can sign township checks. Every check needs two signatures, Piersol explained, and with one signer on medical leave and the finance director leaving, the board voted 4-0 to add Piersol and Accounting Associate Tina Stephens as authorized signers "pending final requirements and bonding" (p. 6). Bonding is insurance that covers the township if an employee who handles money causes a loss. Piersol said the chair or vice chair, who already sign, would still sign the upcoming disbursements, and Bell offered to sign that run (p. 6).

A related item is on Monday's agenda: Resolution 2026-39 would direct CBIZ, which the resolution names without describing, to remove Sarah N. Busch, Kristina D. Kerper and William M. Heim as authorized signers on the police and non-uniform pension plans and designate Piersol in their place, citing "changes in Township personnel and responsibilities" (pp. 2-3, 48). The resolution does not say who the three are.

The 2025 audit and where 2026 stands

Jeffrey Kowalczyk of Barbacane Thornton & Company will present the township's 2025 audit and financial statements (p. 2). The audit itself is not in the packet.

The September treasurer's report, on the consent agenda, shows where this year stands. With 75 percent of the year gone, the General Fund had taken in $14,722,746 of a budgeted $18,192,640 in revenue, or 81 percent, and spent $12,365,613 of a budgeted $17,729,840, or 70 percent. The fund started the year with $5,544,906 and is projected to end it with $6,007,706 (p. 16). Those are the numbers behind the budget workshops, where Bell's stated goal is to avoid a tax increase, as we reported in our September Exeter recap. Exeter's current township tax rate is in our guide to property tax rates by municipality.

Emergency Services Center payment tabled

Our September story said a $43,109 change order to Boyle Construction for extra construction-management work on the Emergency Services Center was on the Oct. 12 agenda. The draft minutes show the board tabled it, 4-0. Bell said information from a session just before the meeting, where Boyle briefed the board on the project, "required additional time to process," and that the board wanted staff help "so that it could make a sound decision on the expenditure on project funds" (pp. 5-6). The change order is $12,680 for added services, including a Cumberland fire station cost-comparison visit, and $30,429 for scheduling work "beyond the originally anticipated timeframe" (p. 5). It is not on Monday's agenda.

Also from the Oct. 12 draft minutes

All votes were 4-0 with Supervisor Clarence Hamm absent (p. 4). The board approved Resolution 2026-37 distributing state pension aid: $439,590 to the police plan, $106,873 to the non-union employee plan and $55,475.48 to the union plan, plus $74,304.52 from the General Fund, for a total minimum municipal obligation of $676,243 (pp. 6-7). It approved the 2027 Safety Net Sanctuary animal-control contract (p. 5) and tabled Resolution 2026-38, the $5,500 sale of a Nagle Road parcel (p. 7).

Solicitor Chad Schnee reported that the "e-bike and solicitation ordinances" are being revised (the board voted in September to advertise both, as our recap reported), that the solar ordinance is finalized, and that "a productive meeting had been held on a data center ordinance, which was in progress" (p. 7). Exeter is one of the Berks municipalities writing data-center rules; the countywide picture is in our data center tracker.

What happens next

The Zoning Hearing Board hears the Perkiomen Avenue variance Thursday, Oct. 29 (p. 47); the packet gives no time or room, and the township's Zoning Hearing Board agendas page had not posted an Oct. 29 agenda as of Saturday (its newest is Sept. 30); that page says the board meets in person at the township administration building with a YouTube livestream. The second budget workshop is Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 6 p.m. The next regular supervisors meetings are Nov. 9 and Nov. 23 at 7 p.m., and the Planning Commission meets Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. (p. 3). Watch for a vote on the Sumter engagement, the return of the tabled Boyle change order, and the 2027 budget figures; Piersol said Oct. 12 that preliminary budget information would reach the board "no later than the week before the budget workshops" (p. 7), a week that has now passed, and none is in the packet.

Sources and contact

The meeting is streamed on the township's YouTube channel. To speak during public comment you must attend in person and sign up at the front of the room; the chair may limit speakers to three minutes, with 30 minutes of comment per meeting (p. 1). Agendas post on the agendas page; approved minutes appear on the minutes page. Township office: 4975 DeMoss Road, Reading, PA 19606, 610-779-5660 (p. 1).