Township says no to zoning law change

A plan that would have preserved a heller’s Church Road property in Bedminster by transferring the development rights and increasing the amount of homes allowed on two other tracts in the Pipersville area and off Bucks Road LV QRZ RIfiFLDOOy GHDG.

There is a total of about 600 acres on the three tracts. About 200 homes would have been built on the Pipersville and Bucks Road sites under a plan proposed by the Piper Group.

Bedminster’s rules currently allow the transfer of development rights to properties zoned for industrial use, but not to other zoning districts, so a change in township rules would have been needed in order for the plan to move forward. The three tracts are in the Agricultural Preservation zoning district that makes up most of the township.

After neighbors of the Pipersville and Bucks Road sites raised objections during a December meeting, Rob Sigety, president of the Piper Group, said the proposal was being dropped and the properties will instead be developed as separate tracts within existing township rules.

At a later meeting, other residents supported the plan as a way of preserving farmland.

At the Jan. 9 Bedminster Township Board of Supervisors meeting, the board made a short announcement that it would not change the zoning laws to allow the proposal, Jack Terry, township manager, said.

“They were concerned because they had heard from many residents who were apprehensive about the proposal,” Terry said.

“Rather than have the people stew, they decided to PDNH D VWDWHPHQW DW WKH fiRVW real meeting of the year,” Terry said. “They wanted to put people’s minds at ease, at least what the position of the supervisors was.”

Some of the property involved in the proposal was part of a legal battle that went to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which sided with lower court rulings that upheld Bedminster’s rules for determining the number of homes allowed.