“This isn’t your average project,” Joe Mugavero told the Lancaster City Planning Commission midway through his presentation Wednesday evening.

And indeed it isn’t. Mugavero and his business partner, Mark Peteritas, are looking to build a 75- to 80-home “pocket neighborhood” called Sycamore Ridge on Sunnyside Peninsula.
In a pocket neighborhood, smaller-scale houses are sited around a shared common area, such as a courtyard or village green. The arrangement and modest scale are designed to promote social connections and outdoor activity. Think Mount Gretna, Mugavero said — in fact, he said, the original vision for Sunnyside, many decades ago, was as a neighborhood of summer cottages, secluded amid woodland but convenient to the city nearby.
The site presents significant challenges, so the city will have to provide some regulatory flexibility if Sycamore Ridge is to become a reality, Mugavero said. But the result would be truly transformative, he said, “something we can all be proud of.”
About the project
Located on Lancaster’s south edge across from County Central Park, Sunnyside Peninsula’s development has long lagged that of the rest of the city. Its south side is home to Sunnyside Mennonite Church and a scattering of small houses. Residents share a strong sense of community pride and a wariness of change imposed from outside. Further to the north are the Lancaster County Youth Intervention Center and an abandoned quarry.

Mugavero’s and Peteritas’ partnership is called MPLR Holdings. Both are real estate developers; Peteritas’ projects include the Lofts at Savoy in Elizabethtown; Mugavero, who built Lancaster’s first tiny house, recently built and opened Twin Sycamore River Cottages, a pair of vacation rentals overlooking the Conestoga River on Sunnyside Peninsula’s east side.
Sycamore Ridge would be built on 11 acres, zoned residential, just north of Sunnyside Mennonite Church. Mugavero said MPLR Holdings has the 47 properties that comprise the site under agreement with the current owner, David Costello, an East Petersburg developer who bought them from Angelini & Groff Inc. in 2006. Much of the area is the now overgrown car junkyard Angelini & Groff operated until the property was sold.
Sycamore Ridge would be a mix of two-bedroom and three-bedroom singles and duplexes, averaging about 1,200 square feet, with two off-street parking spaces for each unit. They would encircle a central common area, anchored by a community garden and other amenities. Instead of sidewalks, there would be off-street footpaths in the green “pocket” areas, promoting safety and walkability.
The houses would look much like his newly built rental cottages, Mugavero said. They would be market-rate, priced around $350,000. The target market would be first-time homebuyers, young families and older households looking to downsize.
Steep slopes, invasive trees
What are the challenges? Because so much of the property is steep and rocky, some of the streets won’t be able to meet the city’s standards for maximum grade. For the same reason, not all of the site can be made fully compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, though Mugavero said MPLR Holdings will do its best.
The plan calls for streets without sidewalks, since the off-street footpaths will be available. Sidewalks are mandatory under city ordinances, so an exemption would be needed.
Lastly, the site is overgrown with invasive “nuisance” trees that have to be removed. Mugavero said his team is working to identify the trees that are worth saving, but it shouldn’t be penalized for removing the rest, or obliged to replace them, which is simply not feasible.

What Mugavero and Peteritas presented was a preliminary “sketch plan.” The goal, city Senior Planner Lauren Finn said, was to identify “critical path” issues — any clear dealbreakers that would prevent the commission from approving the plan if it moves forward.
There did not appear to be any. Planning Commission members were enthusiastic about the pocket neighborhood concept. Several said it should be realized more fully; they encouraged Mugavero and Peteritas to reconsider the street shown running through the center of the development and the parking lot near the community garden.
The two developers were asked about the prospects for increasing density or making the development car-free. There are practical barriers, Mugavero said. Available sewer capacity limits the site to no more than 116 housing units, and adding multi-family units would require sprinklers, significantly increasing costs, he said. As for going car-free, that was considered but ruled out due to the lack of transit and the distance one would have to walk to reach other parts of Lancaster.

Plans for an eco-district
Lancaster city’s comprehensive plan calls for incorporating Sunnyside into a new “eco-district” zoning overlay and building an environmental education center, as part of a larger push to create an environmental and recreational corridor along the Conestoga River.
Mugavero said he and Peteritas are excited about the proposed nature preserve and environmental center, and would be eager to establish trail connections to whatever ends up being created. Sycamore Ridge is designed to appeal to people who enjoy the outdoors and who will appreciate having a preserve next door, he said.
Creating an eco-district overlay would require an ordinance. That could increase regulatory requirements: The comprehensive plan calls for any construction in the overlay to meet rigorous environmental standards.
Multiple residential developments have been proposed for Sunnyside over the years, but none has come to fruition. In 2019, affordable housing developer Community Basics abruptly dropped plans for a large project incorporating single family homes, duplexes and apartments — 300 units in all.
Mugavero said he’s got to know many of Sunnyside’s residents while building his cottages, through a community meeting and door-to-door visits. While they’re not necessarily 100% sold on Sycamore Ridge, they appreciate its relatively modest scale, he said; some of the earlier development proposals “really scared them.”
Fundamentally, “they want to be heard,” he said.
What’s next
MPLR Holdings hopes to submit a plan to the commission for conditional approval early next year. It would apply under the city’s “Flexible Residential Development” option, which gives officials leeway to grant reasonable regulatory relief in zoning and land planning to allow for unusual site constraints and encourage creative solutions.
Securing conditional approval would allow MPLR Holdings to seek an NPDES permit, a requirement for construction under state and federal clean water laws.
Once that is obtained, the project will require about six months of preliminary site work, Mugavero said.
The houses would be built in six-month phases, with six to 12 houses per phase. If everything goes without a hitch, the first ones could be ready for occupancy by summer 2026, Mugavero said. Overall, MPLR Holdings is projecting a five year construction timeline and a preliminary estimated project cost of about $25 million.
Commission members said it’s an exciting project and they look forward to hearing more.
While there’s a lot of work ahead, Sycamore Ridge has “great potential to really be a special place,” commission Chair Nicole Seuffert said. Porter Stevens praised the creativity shown, saying, “You’ve had to thread a lot of needles.”
Mugavero said that for him and Peteritas, revitalizing the peninsula has become a personal mission.
“There’s still so much to do for Sunnyside to see it really thriving,” he said. “… Sunnyside just needs a win.”