`Residents, supervisor chairman question proposed zoning rules`

By Christina Greggs
Allied News Staff Writer

Anyone who thought Springfield Township’s long-discussed zoning ordinance was a done deal may have to think again.

Over the last week, the township planning commission has run into a few snags as several residents and at least one township supervisor expressed concern over what they had heard about the proposed commercial areas that were being laid out in the zoning ordinance draft. “I think I speak for a lot of people here,” said Tim Blose, owner of 208 Auto Outlet, “when I ask why the area from the Boot Box store, on Route 208, on to the Pine Township line is zoned village commercial now?”

Under the proposed ordinance, village commercial means the property owner is limited in what kinds of businesses he or she can put in.

Businesses such as a medical clinic or a child care facility — essentially businesses that generate little traffic or pollution — are allowed to be built in that zone. If an area is zoned commercial, bigger businesses, such as a large department store, would be allowed in. Preliminary drafts of the zoning ordinance showed the commercial zone extending east of Interstate 79, to the Pine Township line.

“When the vision meetings were taking place, the area zoned for commercial use was from the Pine Township line to the Number Five sewer line,” he said. “I understand that things can change, but ... why it was changed so dramatically.”

The planning commission offered several explanations.

“There was concern about the impact of increased traffic flow by the Pine Road intersection,” said Larry Gruntz, the commission’s chairman. The Mercer County Regional Planning Commission also suggested that the lines be drawn that way, planners said.

Zones should also take surrounding townships into account, said Barb Conroy, township administrator. “You can’t have a commercial zone right next to another township’s area that has been zoned rural.”

Although the meetings were in part to allow the commission and the supervisors to go over the terms and definitions of the ordinance, the ordinance’s necessity took center stage. “Not having an ordinance would be more detrimental to the community,” Wilson said. Resident Jerry Craft said the township had gotten along fine without one for 200 years. “Things change,” planner Patty Wilson replied.

“Not everyone is going to be happy ... but we have to give up some individual rights for the good of the township,” said resident Joanne Harvey Doubts about zoning also plagued supervisor Chairman Randall Magee. “What is the purpose of this ordinance? Why are we doing it?,” Magee asked. “I’m not comfortable with it yet.”

Jim Gagliano, the planning consultant on the project, assured Magee that the ordinance was to protect the township and to restrict incoming commercial development. “Without zoning, anything can happen anywhere,” Gagliano said.

Andrew Mudrenich, a legal consultant hired by a township business, said zoning could be stymied by residents securing a restraining order to halt the progress on the ordinance.

“These are our friends, relatives, neighbors,” Blose said. “We want to work this out without resorting to legal means. We admire the work they have put into drafting this ordinance.” Blose said he wants to hear a legitimate reason for the change in the zoning areas. “Our land has been devalued enough, and without commercial zoning our property will be worthless,” Blose said.

“They say that the draft isn’t set in stone,” said David Gray, owner of Gray’s Nursery. “But it feels like it’s set in quick drying cement.”

Gray was surprised by the commission’s decision to zone the area village commercial. “We were under the assumption that the maps were drawn and all that they had left to do was write out the terms and definitions.”

After hearing the same concerns about the proposed zoning areas at a second meeting Monday, Gruntz offered a tentative solution. “Let’s not go over the ordinance anymore, and give it to the supervisors right now to go over ... I don’t think we should waste anymore of our time on it,” he said.

Planner Mark Hughes wasn’t comfortable with that plan. “When it gets presented to the supervisors, it should be the best ordinance that we can come up with.”

Before supervisors can adopt zoning, a formal public hearing has to be held. No date for a hearing has been set.

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