Warriors Mark Township supervisors amended their Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance at last night’s meeting.
After the meeting, Chairman L. Stewart Neff said most of the changes concerned conforming to the township’s zoning ordinance.
Previously, Neff told The Daily Herald, the last major work done on the subdivision/land use ordinance was about seven years ago. He said there had been some minor changes to the ordinance in 2000.
Earlier this year, by a unanimous vote, supervisors approved a zoning ordinance. The move brought zoning for the first time to the Huntingdon County community of about 1,600 residents. The zoning ordinance was in the works for at least two years before supervisors made a final decision in early March.
The final Warriors Mark zoning map features a predominance of (green) agricultural zones that are designed primarily for agricultural land preservation.
The map also includes an industrial zone in the far west part of the township, close to the county line, near Route 453. The final version of the zoning map included yellow regions to indicate rural residential zones. Those areas are much more sparse than in previous versions of the map.
A red “village zone,” centered on the main town area of Warriors Mark, remained virtually unchanged during the process.
At last night’s meeting, a number of residents raised concerns regarding the amended version of the subdivision/land development ordinance.
Jane Branstetter said she was concerned about a lack of definitions in the amended document. She told The Daily Herald this morning, “They did correct some of it, but not all of it. They created new language, which they did not define.”
She said that the township planning commission had suggested several words that should be listed in the document’s glossary. Branstetter said the township planners made their recommendations in May, but the supervisors ignored it.
“They (the supervisors) weren’t creating law,” said Branstetter. “It was a simple thing to do and they even chose not to do that.”
Branstetter said she agreed the subdivision/land development ordinance needed to be brought into compliance with the zoning ordinance.
“If you are going to do it, do it right,” said Branstetter.
She had told supervisors some of the language was “ambiguous.” Township solicitor Terry Goldstein described it as “subjective.”
This morning, Branstetter wondered, “Do you want to create laws that are subjective? They should be objective.”
She said although what the supervisors did may have been legal, she indicated she didn’t think they were considerate to the township or county planning commissions or the residents.
Branstetter said a public notice appeared in the newspaper about the ordinance in October. The legal notice was published in The Daily Herald on Oct. 11. However, Branstetter claimed the revised ordinance wasn’t made available until Tuesday of last week. She said township planners didn’t have a copy of it when they met last Thursday.
Branstetter said she believed there were substantial changes to the document from a May version. She concluded that having less than a week to review it “is not enough time.”
Solicitor Goldstein said the supervisors were not required to send the document back to county or township planners to review the latest changes that were made to it.
During the meeting, a detailed discussion ensued between township officials and developers, developer’s representatives and residents regarding several road-related issues including speed limits, site distances, highway occupancy permits and other concerns related to the subdivision/land development ordinance. After a lengthy amount of back and forth, the supervisors made no further revisions to the ordinance before a motion was made and seconded for its adoption.
After the meeting, Chairman Neff said, “This has been a long process. A couple months ago we had a public hearing regarding the ordinance. Along with that we took the comments of the Warriors Mark Planning Commission, the Huntingdon County Planning Commission, developers, developer’s representatives and other citizens of the township.
“Based on those comments, along with (input) from our engineer and solicitor, we took all that and in some cases utilized some of those and other cases we didn’t,” said Neff.
He said the board could have still made minor changes to the document before passing it last night. However, if it was a major change, the ordinance would had to have been readvertised.
“I’m sure the issues that were brought up tonight were genuine from those who expressed them,” said Neff.
He said no ordinance of this type could satisfy everyone. Neff concluded that as the subdivision/land development ordinance is implemented, supervisors might need to make further changes.
The supervisors are scheduled to meet again next Monday at 6 p.m. to consider the hiring of the Halfmoon Township zoning officer to take on such duties for Warriors Mark.
