Falls Supervisors Approve Massive Nuuly Facility Zoning Change, Development

A nearly 1-million-square foot Nuuly clothing rental facility owned by Urban Outfitters that looks to employ 2,800 people has moved closer to reality at a former mining site on E. Penn Valley Road across from a community park, now that Falls Township supervisors approved a zoning change and final land development plans.

However, there were concerns from some residents at the supervisors meeting last week, not so much on the massive operation’s use, but rather its proposal for the wrong place.

The Falls Township Board of Supervisors on Oct. 26 approved a zoning change to materials processing and manufacturing and preliminary and final land development plans for the project at 700 E. Penn Valley Road, across from Falls Township Community Park.

The project would replace a portion of an existing mining and reclamation operation with a facility around 975,000 square feet for Nuuly, the clothing rental subscription service operated by Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters Inc.

Plans call for Urban Outfiitters to shutter its 380,000-square-foot Nuuly location in nearby Bristol Township, moving about 1,000 jobs to Falls Township, according to Dave Ziel, chief development officer for Urban Outfitters.

An additional 1,800 jobs would come with the new Falls operation, bringing it to full capacity, per Ziel. He told supervisors the company spent about a year and a half searching for a Bucks County property large enough to accommodate the expansion.

“The facility needs to be in Bucks County in order to retain the thousand jobs and add 1,800 more,” Ziel said. “We will not go build this facility anywhere else in the Commonwealth and abandon those people.”

Ziel said a Morrisville-area property was considered but ultimately became too expensive, while the Keystone Trade Center had also been a finalist.

“North Point before the data center activity was a finalist site,” Ziel said. “They turned us away.”

The Penn Valley Road property, he said, ultimately emerged as the only available Bucks County site capable of accommodating the size of the operation.

“This site is the only site post extensive search that could accommodate the size of what we are doing and meet the needs of it being in Bucks County,” Ziel said.

Road improvements planned

Traffic was a major point of concern for supervisors and the public. 

Development plans called for widening Penn Valley Road along the parcel frontage and continuing through the Route 13 interchange. 

There would be new turn lanes, with Route 13 ramps expanded and the two existing traffic signals upgraded.

A new traffic signal would be put at the main entrance at Penn Valley Road, opposite Wheatsheaf Lane. 

Mark Roth of Bowman, the project’s traffic engineer, said the improvements are intended to address both Nuuly traffic and existing congestion, which estimated about 30 trucks a day. 

Project representatives contrasted that with the current mining and reclamation operation, which they said sees about 100 trucks on a peak day and historically reached about 200.

“What we’re trying to provide is additional capacity that does not exist there today,” Roth said, adding the Penn Valley Road culvert would also have to be widened to accommodate an additional travel lane.

The company could work with PennDOT to create a second entrance near Tyburn Road. 

Ziel acknowledged that the existing operation in Bristol Township ended up requiring more workers than initially anticipated, which was a major catalyst in relocation. 

The company worked with Bristol Township to alter shift changes because of traffic impacts near a school, Ziel said. 

Nuuly used actual data from the Bristol operation to develop traffic projections for Falls. The Falls facility is expected to begin with the equivalent of about 400,000 subscribers before eventually reaching capacity for roughly 600,000.

If remaining approvals are obtained, Ziel said the company hopes to begin ground stabilization work in April and begin installing equipment around November, with the first phase of operations going live in November 2028.

Several residents stressed that their objections were not necessarily aimed at Nuuly itself.

Instead, they questioned placing such a large employment center next to the township’s flagship park and near residential neighborhoods. 

Project representatives pushed back on characterizations of the property as undeveloped open space, noting that it is already an active industrial mining and reclamation site.

“Let me first say that I’m not against this business,” resident John Tablock said. “I object to the location.”

Tablock questioned why the company could not locate in one of the township’s established industrial areas.

Other residents expressed concern about the effect the development could have on the character of Falls Township Community Park.

One resident described the park as a peaceful place she relied upon after having her first child during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, when you walk around the lake, people are “going to see a warehouse.”

The proposed development would include about 400 new trees and 2,000 shrubs, according to the project engineer.

The plan also includes more than 19 acres under a conservation easement, a rain garden covering just under 10 acres and more than four acres of preserved wetland margin.

Water and environmental questions

Residents and supervisors also questioned how the facility’s large-scale laundering operation would affect wastewater, stormwater and nearby Martins Creek. Project representatives said process wastewater would remain within a closed system before being discharged to the sanitary sewer and regulated through the applicable authorities.

Ziel said Nuuly has not been required to pretreat wastewater at its Bristol Township or Kansas City facilities, but would install pretreatment equipment in Falls if required.

Water and sewer service would be provided through Lower Bucks County Municipal Authority rather than the Township of Falls Authority.

Project engineer John Richardson said the majority of the site does not currently drain into Martins Creek and the proposed stormwater system would direct water toward the existing quarry pond. The site would include four rain gardens, including one covering about 5.5 acres.

The Nuuly operation involves receiving rented clothing, cleaning it, repairing garments when necessary and preparing items for shipment to subscribers.

 The project still requires reviews and approvals involving PennDOT, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bucks County Conservation District, Lower Bucks County Municipal Authority and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.