Here's an update from Friends of Laurel Wood Association President Tom VanVreede, written after the Township meeting on 8/4/2020.
According to Chris at the Township, the Developer has asked to be removed from the last two
Planning Commission meetings to continue to work on plans. He expects
that they will be back to the Planning board this month to restart the
process.
The
first expected step is the Developer will ask the Planning Commission board at the
August 25th 7:30pm meeting to approve a Lot Line Adjustment. This is
needed to add land to the AARC necessary to meet the 25 acre minimum
plus additional space for water runoff, recreation area, and other
requirements that the contracted zoning expert brought up. Currently
the drawings for the Lot Line Adjustment that they initially submitted
for review (then withdrew) at the June Planning meeting seem to be the
basis of what they will bring back in August. This contains a lot of
land on the west side of Overlook Road from just north of the existing
farm pond to the area that they previously had on the west side of the
road including the area dedicated to the waste water treatment plant.
It is uncertain if that area on the west side of Overlook and north of
Clearview remains as part of the proposed AARC or if it would be
removed. Review shows several questions/issues that can be raised with their drawings for the
adjustment. When the Planning board approves it, either at this
meeting or a later meeting if there are things to be fixed, then it would be
presented to the North Whitehall Township Commissioners for approval. That could be
taken up as early as the September meeting, but more likely it will be
October at the earliest, even if it is forwarded to the Commissioners on
the first reading. If you want to you can check the agenda of the
Planning Board on the Township Website (check repeatedly) before the meeting
to review the agenda and submitted drawings as we get closer to the
meeting.
The lot line adjustment will be approved at some
point. This is just a legal matter to break up the old farm into two
parts that can be treated differently. This is a common action that is
approved all the time. As long as they fulfill the requirements of
various ordinances there is no legal reason for this not to be approved.
Once
they have the land issue resolved, then the Developer will go back to
the Planning Commission with the proposal to build an AARC. This is the
general issues of an AARC itself, and that they have satisfied the
general requirements of the AARC ordinances (such as space, utilities,
number of units and sewer) and have the right to build the facility.
Again, it is expected that it would take more then one presentation
before the Planning board will forward it to the Township Commissioners
for their action. That could take several meetings before a resolution
is reached.
Assuming
that a AARC is eventually approved, then then process of planning
review prior to the Commissioners review is repeated for the exact
design details proposed by the developer. The most optimistic time
frame for the developer is to obtain full approval by the end of the
year. Most likely the process will extend further as it has in the
past. Remember we cannot prevent the Developer from developing the property in a legal fashion. We can, however, make sure what is built is fully in line with land use and codes in order to protect our property values as much as possible.
