Submitted by Andrew Bowman
On the innocuous side, the meeting began with the 2024 Zoning and Planning Commission Report, which reviewed the development projects undertaken in the area over the past year. As the township is winding down from a construction boom, this report contained a relative dearth of information compared to years past. In fact, the report’s only highlight was a single zoning change to 14 acres of the Autumn Chase Planned Residential Development (PRD) from R1 to R2 to match the rest of the project. According to Jennifer Royer, the Community Development Director, this change will have minimal effect on the design plans for the plot of land as the R1 zoning designation only allowed single-family housing, which is what this land is going to be used for anyway. Review of the zoning designation directory confirms this.
After this, the police and fire departments each gave updates on their activities. The police chief reported that the department has finally received a new patrol car that was ordered all the way back in late 2023. Thereafter, the fire chief reported on the status of certification training and fielded concerns from the board regarding the possibility of full-structure fires in multi-unit residential buildings.
These reports then gave way to talk the discussion of ordinance amendments. These ordinance changes were largely benign and had to do with specific wording, however there was some public concern about the accessibility of these ordinance changes to the public. This presented the board an opportunity to showcase the revamped township website, which has been designed to help citizens find the information they need to know. In this case, specifically, they directed the member of the public to the government section of the website, which includes a page dedicated to ordinance amendments. They also showed a way to be alerted when new ordinance changes are proposed by using the E-Notify button at the bottom of the page, and announced that an online system for residents to book Upper Allen Township’s public parks is in development.
Speaking of parks, this topic served as the center of a somewhat lengthy debate as Assistant Secretary Eric Fairchild expressed a desire to open an investigation into an alleged violation of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act committed by the Parks Department in 2021. The department had entered into a closed meeting with the landscaping company Derck & Edson regarding a design proposal for the Generations Park at 1340 Eastern Lisburn Road. This desire was opposed by Executive Vice President Richard A Castriano Jr. and solicitor J. Stephen Feinour, who argued that, while the meeting was private, it did not fall under the purview of the Sunshine Act as it was not an official meeting. It was instead a meeting between the landscaping company and certain members of the Parks Department, and that no deliberations or official actions took place during the meeting. Solicitor Feinour, also argued that it was up to interpretation whether the specific group that met with D&E held enough authority to fall under the Sunshine Act’s jurisdiction. Fairchild responded by contending that deliberations had, in fact, occurred as the members of the Parks Department asked questions about D&E’s design proposal. There was no clear resolution to this debate. As a footnote, it should be stated that Derck & Edson did receive the contract for the park design.
As for future matters, the board is closely watching the Soland vs East Bradford Township case currently before the State Supreme Court, which has the potential to expand the Des Minimis power of zoning hearing boards to issue waivers for slight dimensional deviances to also include slight deviances in land usage. The board seems very interested in seeing how this plays out, though they went into executive session before I could ask much about it.