Building Relationships: RGS Associates and Pleasant View Communities
Successful land planning, site design, and civil engineering projects rely on strong relationships between firms and their clients—a truth exemplified by the five-year partnership between RGS Associates and Pleasant View Communities.
Over the last five years alone, RGS Associates has helped shape the landscape at Pleasant View Communities in Manheim, PA, through multiple major projects. This collaboration has not only expanded the retirement community but also strengthened a professional partnership that has spanned more than a decade.
A Relationship Built on Trust
The connection between RGS Associates and Pleasant View Communities was significantly strengthened in 2021, when Gary Gaissert joined as Vice President of Facilities & Project Management at Pleasant View. Gary was already well-acquainted with RGS Principal Alex Piehl from their previous work together at another senior living community, Moravian Manor Communities, in Lititz, PA.
“We worked on Moravian Manor projects together for almost seven years,” Gary said. “So, when I came to Pleasant View, I inherited him from there.”
That established relationship proved invaluable as Pleasant View embarked on an ambitious series of expansion projects to enliven and expand the campus.
“When I came here and found out it was Alex again, it was pretty cool,” Gary said. “Just easy and smooth.”
Building West Lawn Apartments
RGS’s involvement with Pleasant View began in 2017 with the expansion of Hearth and Harrow Bistro, which included a patio area, minor building additions, and parking lot work for the Town Square area.
From there, work moved to the West Lawn Apartments project—two apartment buildings and associated parking that would add significant residential capacity to the campus.
“We started the West Lawn apartment project in 2020,” Alex said. “I remember that because it was almost exactly five years ago—during COVID.”
“The day I started was the day they first started pushing dirt,” Gary added. “They literally mobilized the construction of the buildings on my first day at Pleasant View.”
The project showcased RGS’s ability to design spaces that worked harmoniously with existing structures.
“Two things worked really well with that project,” Alex said. “One was the distance between the buildings and the fact that we wanted to keep the view down the Town Square drive open so you could see between the two buildings.”
The other element was how the buildings were situated on the Pleasant View campus.
“It was nice because we could set the first-floor elevation similar to the existing buildings nearby,” Alex said. “That allowed for first-floor apartments with a ground floor parking level that was tucked in behind the building. So, the elevations worked out really, really well.”
The Hoffer Farm Transformation
Perhaps the most complex project in the partnership has been the development of the Hoffer Farm property adjacent to Pleasant View.
This project, which will soon house the Kreider Farms Cultural Center at Hoffer Farm, required not just site design and permitting but significant regulatory work.
Zoning
A significant focus for the Hoffer Farm was integrating the new development into both the existing campus and the surrounding community, while preserving the agricultural character of the property. This meant changing the zoning from agricultural to mixed-use.
This was only possible, Alex said, because the Hoffer Farm property was located within the county’s urban growth boundary.
“A real fundamental goal Pleasant View had with the Hoffer Farm property was wanting to retain as much agricultural land as possible,” Alex said. “We changed the zoning district for the Hoffer Farm to allow Pleasant View to use it as an integrated part of their community. It was zoned ag (agricultural), so we helped rezone the property to mixed-use to allow for development that was consistent with the rest of Pleasant View.”
The next major step was a text amendment to the zoning ordinance, which was necessary to accommodate the variety of uses Pleasant View wanted to incorporate into the area.
This was easier said than done, because Pleasant View and the Hoffer Farm are technically on two different properties, which are separated by North Penryn Road.
Traffic
A major point of contention during the planning process involved the traffic plan, particularly regarding pedestrian safety along the roadway dividing the properties. When the cultural center is completed, it will serve as the new home of the Manheim Community Library, which only promises to increase traffic in the area.
“You have a very publicly accessible element with the library that’s open to the public on a regular basis,” Alex said. “And then you have Pleasant View facilities very close to that area, too. Pleasant View felt very strongly—and we concurred—that the Hoffer Farm had to be integrated with the rest of the PV community.”
“Making sure the internal circulation between Pleasant View and the Hoffer Farm was as safe as possible was a priority,” he said.
“In that area, North Penryn Road is straight and long, and traffic speeds can be excessive,” Alex said. “We were insisting that we had to get a boulevard through there for both traffic calming and pedestrian safety.”
Ultimately, the zoning amendment was approved.
Managing Multiple Concurrent Projects
What makes the RGS-Pleasant View partnership particularly impressive is the number of projects they have managed simultaneously. In addition to West Lawn Apartments and the Hoffer Farm Cultural Center, RGS has been involved with the Lofts at Lititz Springs in the heart of Lititz Borough and the Hershey Farm Cottages—another residential site now under construction to the north of Pleasant View’s main campus.
“It’s insanely crazy,” Gary said of PV’s demanding pace of development. “I often joke that we didn’t even put a shovel in the ground on Hershey, and Jonathan [Hollinger, Pleasant View’s CEO] was already talking about the next project.”
This level of activity requires careful coordination, especially given the non-contiguous nature of the properties.
“A really big difference between Moravian Manor and Pleasant View was that Moravian Manor was a much more linear process,” Alex said. “We were continuing the building of that community, of that site. So, you’re moving from this street to that street to the next street.”
“Pleasant View is much more far-reaching,” he said.
“Here you have the existing campus, here you have the Hoffer Farm, and over here you have the Hershey Tract,” Alex said. “It’s kind of a unique element. You’re planning for the future, but the future is kind of … now.”
The Value of a Trusted Partnership
The established relationship between PV and RGS has been vital to the success of these ambitious projects—for both parties.
“I depend on them and their expertise through the entitlement process because they do this all the time,” Gary said. “They know the different nuances of the different townships and all that good stuff. They know how to get things through the planning and permitting processes.”
This level of trust and understanding allows for a more efficient process, even when working with challenging municipal requirements.
“Whenever you work with clients that understand the process, understand the ups and downs of it, and know how to navigate that as an owner—that makes a world of difference,” Alex said.
For Pleasant View, the partnership meant having a reliable team to help execute an ambitious vision, even as that vision continued to expand.
“We bought the lot north of here,” Gary said, ticking off Pleasant View’s future plans. “Plus, Jonathan wants to extend the Town Square North Building, which is where Hearth and Harrow is located. He just told me that the other day, so we’ve got to start planning. Plus, he wants to update all the areas across campus …”
“It just keeps going,” he said with a chuckle.
With such growth on the horizon, the relationship between RGS Associates and Pleasant View Communities only looks to strengthen.
“There’s a big comfort level we have with RGS,” Gary said. “They make it really easy.”
