The Schuylkill Township Planning Commission held their regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at the Township hall. Members of the Planning Commission present were Mr. Reading, Mr. Quigg, Mr. Davis, Mr. Seib and Mr. Keogh. Mrs. Potts was not present. Also in attendance was Mr. John Sartor, Township Engineer from Gilmore & Associates as well as Mr. Morrisson and Mr. Parry of the Board of Supervisors. Mr. Kunz and Mr. O’Dell from the Environmental Advisory Council were also present.
On motion by Mr. Quigg, seconded by Mr. Davis and passed, the Planning Commission approved the minutes of January 19, 2011.
Natural Resource Overlay District Ordinance (NRCOD) – Mr. Reading stated that he read the February 9, 2011 draft of the ordinance from the Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) as well as the Township Solicitor’s draft memorandum on the ordinance dated February 4, 2011. Mr. Reading stated that in reviewing the ordinance he believes that the NRCOD contains too many regulations. He advised that residents are regulated enough through current State, County and Township laws and ordinances. Mr. Reading stated that he did not want to see an increase in taxes to defend an ordinance that appears to over regulate.
Mr. Kunz stated that the EAC is working on incorporating Mr. Brennan’s comments. He advised that the courts are upholding these types of ordinances. Mr. Kunz stated that the comments in Mr. Brennan’s memo dealt with preserving farm land more so than natural resources. Mr. Kunz advised that the NRCOD is not trying to preserve agricultural areas. He stated that he sees no problem with the Township spending money to defend this ordinance if need be.
Mr. Davis stated that some of the ordinance language in the NRCOD such as steep slopes is already in the Township ordinances. He questioned why the Township needed to put the issue into another ordinance. If the EAC wanted to update steep slopes couldn’t the Township revise the current ordinance instead of incorporating it into a whole new ordinance? Mr. Davis advised that if the Township is trying to strengthen certain points of the Zoning Ordinance then do it; don’t write a whole new ordinance. Mr. Morrisson stated that the NRCOD is an overlay ordinance that covers all the zoning districts in the Township. He advised that if an argument is made fairly to justify the ordinance, the law will prevail. He stated that with the ordinance being placed under the zoning ordinance umbrella, a property owner could apply for a special exception or variance to be exempted from the ordinance in whole or in part.
Mr. Quigg stated that Mr. Brennan’s memo should be taken into account. He stated that he also believed that there is enough Township regulations. Mr. Morrisson stated that this ordinance arose from the Township dealing with the Reeves property matter. Mr. Keogh stated current residents will need to be informed and educated about this proposed ordinance. Under this ordinance residents may not have the latitude to do what they currently can do on that property. He advised that new property owners will need to be educated as well since they bought a property with the assumption that they can do certain things to their properties. Mr. Keogh stated that the proposed ordinance has a fine of $5,000 for cutting down a specimen tree which seems unreasonable. Mr. Seib mirrored Mr. Keogh’s statement that new property owners buy a lot and think that they have the right to do certain things on that lot.
Mr. Kunz stated that he did not see a great rush of people wanting to cut down specimen trees. Mr. Davis questioned why it should then be regulated. Mr. Davis stated that regulating things that people are adverse to do does not make sense. He stated that there are points in the ordinance that have some validity such as riparian buffers and no clear cutting. Mr. Morrisson stated that maybe there are too many restrictions in the ordinance. However, he advised that he did not want to see the NRCOD disappear. He stated that some of the sections may be too wordy and should possibly pared down without losing the intent of the ordinance section.
Mr. Kunz stated that the EAC needs clarification on creating this ordinance as an overlay district. Mr. O’Dell stated that putting these issues in one ordinance shows that the Township cares enough about the issues to bundle them into one ordinance making it easier to find the natural resources the Township wants to protect instead of in various location in the Zoning Ordinance or the SALDO.
Mr. Reading stated that the Planning Commission is generally not in favor of the NRCOD as written. He stated that the Planning Commission is in favor of extracting sections such as specimen tree protection, clear cutting, riparian buffers and steep slopes and looking at each of them as separate uses and possibly supporting them separately. Overall the NRCOD ordinance needs to be simplified. Mr. Sartor suggested dividing up the NRCOD into workable topics to review and discuss.
In other business, the consensus of the Planning Commission was to appoint Mr. Seib as the Planning Commission representative to the Regional Planning Committee. Mr. Quigg stepped down as the representative.
There being no further business for discussion the Planning Commission adjourned the meeting at 9:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary R. Bird
Township Manager
Next Meeting: March 16, 2011