Keeping Things Open in New Hanover Township

Photos by Evan Brandt

Township Supervisors approved the preservation of more than 33 acres of a beloved dairy farm and are poised to enjoy the preservation of another 455 acres of open space in the coming months.

The location of the Suloman Farm is marked by

the red circle in the lower left portion of the map.

The farm that was preserved is the Suloman Dairy Farm on Leidy Road between Swamp Pike and Buchert Road.

The retail dairy store, on about 1.16 acres, was not part of the preservation said Township Solicitor Andrew Bellwoar.

The remaining 33.4 acres will remain with the Suoman family, but a conservation easement costing $700,000 will ensure it remains a farm no matter who owns it.

"You can't buy better milk anywhere," said Planning Commission Chair Susan Smith in endorsing the move.

The money for the conservation easement comes from the .15 mill open space tax on earned income approved by voters in a townwide referendum in 2006, said Bellwoar.

The farm was identified in the township's Open Space and Recreation Master Plan as a property worthy of preservation and consists of a total of five parcels.

The second and larger open space effort underway concerns the Laughing Waters Girl Scout Camp, located south of Route 73 between New Hanover Square Road and Fagleysville Road.

Part of the property is in Upper Frederick Township, but the majority of the property is in New Hanover township, said Township Manager Jamie Gwynn.

Montgomery County has already agreed to put up $2,767,000 toward the $3,917,000 price of the conservation easement and another $1,150,000 grant is being sought from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

In cooperation with the Girl Scouts, Natural Lands and Montgomery County, DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn, will be hosting local state legislators and inviting the press to tour the camp on May 2 according to information provided by state officials.

The idea is to highlight the importance of the camp's preservation and promoting the Governor’s Restore PA initiative which would assist in helping to preserve large important conservation areas such as the camp, as well as many other essential infrastructure needs across the state. 

The township supervisors voted unanimously Thursday night to endorse the effort to preserve the camp from development.

Route 663 News

On the state grant front, Gwynn said the township has already received a $125,000 grant from PennDOT to install a signal at the intersection of Route 663 and Route 73, the western side of that dog-legged intersection.

A traffic control signal will be installed at the intersection of routes 73 and 663 next to Saldutti Car Corner. That hill will be reprofiled to increase sight distance and widened to put a left-turn lane facing west on Route 73 to turn onto Route 663 at that intersection.

The western intersection of Route 663 and Route 73 

where a traffic signal is planned.

But Thursday night he announced a second grant for $377,000 from the Commonwealth Finance Authority toward the same project. That's a total of $502,000 toward a project whose cost is currently estimated at $640,000, said Gwynn.

He thanks the township's traffic consultant Sandy Koza for writing the grant application. He said a third grant application is still pending for the remaining $138,000, although he warned that the project will probably end up costing more than the estimate as construction costs are rising.

Without the third grant, New Hanover will turn to the funds it has collected from developers for the impact their residential projects have on township roads.

More improvements are coming to the heavily traveled road. During the same meeting, Township Public Works Director Dennis Flynn told the supervisors that he has been contacted by PennDOT and they intend to repave one of two sections of Route 663 this summer.

They will wither repave the section from Swamp Pike Route to Route 73; or the section from Route 73 to Hill Road.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting"

Keeping Things Open

New Hanover to Appeal Quarry Zoning Decision

Photo by Evan Brandt

ALMOST  AN EAGLE: Kevin Jackmore, from Boy Scout Troop 

367, was recognized last night for the work he did in Hickory Park 

and at the Township Recreation Center for his Eagle Scout project.

He is expected to be officially awarded the rank shortly.

What do you get when the New Hanover Township Zoning Board makes a decision?

Appeals, potentially lots of them.

With the clock ticking on the deadline to appeal the decision earlier this month to allow the expansion of the Gibraltar Rock Quarry, the supervisors had a decision to make.

And the decision they made, unanimously, was to appeal the decision by the zoning board.

Robert Brant, the township's special counsel on all things quarry, also said that Gibraltar Rock may appeal because of the conditions that the zoning board attached to its approval.

And finally, the friendly folks over at Ban the Quarry, as parties to the whole matter, also have an opportunity to appeal the decision.

In other word, more lawyers.

In the meantime, here are the Tweets from the meeting.

Consuming New Hanover, One Parcel at a Time

Although Township Supervisers lauded the proposed reduction of the 

approved 54-townhouse project to 29 single-family homes on 13 acres off 

Dotterer Road, they balked at the idea that the developers should be granted 

preliminary approval with so many unanswered questions.

Monday night's New Hanover Supervisors' meeting, coverage of which was possible by the fact that it was a fifth Monday in a month, was interesting from the standpoint of development "creep."

President James Madison once said "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

And so it seems to be with development in New Hanover Township.

While the impact of the 700-residential unit Town Center continues to draw the eye of those concerned about the loss of the township's rural character, smaller projects, whose impacts are cumulative, slip along toward approval.

At least that seemed to be the sentiments expressed by Supervisor Charles D. Garner Jr., who told the board and audience at the end of Mondaty night's meeting that the very thing that attracts residents to so many new developments -- the township's rural character -- is the very thing threatened by the township's counter-intuitive ordinances and developer-accommodating officials allowing for the approval of so many such projects.

In a meeting where the collapse of one developer -- and the bank which had guaranteed the financing

The final, 40-townhouse phase of the Renninger Tract project was 

unanimously approved by the township supervisors Monday.

to- fix the roads the developer could not longer build -- were referred for further legal action, the supervisors were asked to approve two new developments with a total increase of 69 housing units in the township.

Although the supervisors balked at granting premature preliminary approval to a project off Dotterer Road known as Trotter's Gait, a reduction of units from 54 townhomes to 29 single-family homes, they did approval the final phase of a project known as the "Renninger Tract. which will add 40 attached homes to the township's housing stock -- and to Boyertown School District's student rolls.

Located on 33 acres between Middle Creek and Dotterer roads, the Gambone project has been in the works since 2012. Recommended for final approval by the planning commission, the supervisors followed suit and unanimously gave final approval to the final phase.

But afterward, Garner questioned the township's vision -- or lack thereof.

"I question the township ordinances that allow these projects of such extraordinarily high density," Garner said at the end of the meeting. "They are going to have impacts on traffic and parking issues that I would think people are moving here to get away from."

"I'm not so sure what the board's vision is for New Hanover, which we seem to be allowing to be turned piece by piece into something other than the rural character I think we all want," he said. "I am worried it's beginning to look like the eastern part of the county."

The board also put off the task of replacing Garner's wife, Connie Garner, who has tendered her resignation as the parks and recreation director; as well as being briefed on the township's new web site, and plans for the planting of 60 new trees to help control stormwater pollution.

But you can find all that in the Tweets down below.

Out of 11 Applicants , New Hanover Supervisors Chose Only Woman to Apply to Replace Muller

Photo by Evan Brandt

Phil Agliano, vice chairman of the New Hanover Supervisors,

congratulates Marie Livelsberger on her selection
as the newest township supervisor.

From a surprisingly long list of 11 candidates to replace Doug Muller on the board of supervisors, the remaining board members Monday chose the only woman to apply.

Marie Livelsberger, who two years ago worked for the township and is on New Hanover's Board of Auditors, was their unanimous choice.

The North Charlotte Street resident, who now works in the human resources department at the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District, said she wants to give back to the community in which she has lived for 40 years.

Livelsberger didn't get the appoint without some confusion, as it became apparent during the special meeting held Monday that the application and resume of one of the applicants, Jim Butler, was never provided to the supervisors.

Luckily for Jim Butler, he attended the meeting and alerted the supervisors to the oversight.

Attendance at the meeting was a strong selling point for some of the supervisors, but resident Celeste

Other than a notice in the Town & Country, this sign was the only

public notice of a special meeting held Monday to choose

a new township supervisor to replace Doug Muller. 

Bish pointed out to the board that a notice in the Town and Country newspaper was the only way anyone would have known to be there in the first place.

"What if they don't subscribe to Town and Country?" Bish asked.

She pointed out that the special meeting was not posted on the township web site and, as Supervisor Andrew Kelly noted, the township did not reach out to those who applied to let them know about the meeting.

Nevertheless, the supervisors moved forward, partially by process of elimination, and partially by stating their preference.

The vote to appoint Livelsberger was unanimous.

It was unclear to this reporter, who had to dash off to a Pottstown School Board meeting, if the supervisors also chose to re-organize and name a new chairman Monday night or not, given that one supervisor, Charles D. Garner Jr., could not be present for the regular meeting.

Anyway, here are the Tweets from the roughly hour-long special meeting.