Township to scrap planning commission
UPPER POTTSGROVE >> The township commissioners have moved to eliminate the planning commission.
In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the commissioners instructed Township Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. to advertise an ordinance eliminating the planning commission.
The vote on that ordinance will be taken up at the Feb. 3 commissioners meeting.
Responding to a email query from The Mercury, commissioners’ Chairman Trace Slinkerd wrote, “The intent is to vote on
rescinding the ordinance on 3 Feb; the rationale is to create a planning committee (a provision provided by the municipal planning code) that supports the governing board,” which is the board of commissioners.
Slinkerd added, “the majority of the board of commissioners feels that the current planning commission disposition does not do this.”
Asked what “supporting the governing board” means, and for a specific example of the planning commission not providing support, Slinkerd demurred.
“The ordinance status will be considered on 3 Feb where all commissioners can comment where appropriate,” was his only reply.
As currently structured now, the planning commission reviews development proposals and makes recommendations to the township commissioners for both preliminary and
final site plan approval. The power of final approval rests with the board of commissioners.
According to the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, the township commissioners have the power to “create or abolish” a township planning commission or planning department and assign the responsibilities accordingly.
The code also states “in lieu of a planning commission or planning department, the governing body may elect to assign the powers and duties conferred by this act upon a planning committee comprised of members appointed from the governing body.”
As a practical matter, the board’s pending action would have the effect of removing all current planning commission members and allowing the current board to appoint all the members of a new planning committee, which would be directly answerable to the board of commissioners.
The idea of the planning commission “supporting the governing board” is an odd choice of words when taken in context with last year’s four-month effort to get the planning commission’s chairman, Elwood Taylor, to resign.
In August, the board passed a resolution barring any sitting commissioner from serving on any other township or non-profit board or commission that interacted with the township.
At the time, Taylor was serving both as a township commissioner and as chairman of the planning commission.
He has been a member of the planning commission for more than 25 years and served as a township commissioner for a total of 20 years.
In August, Slinkerd explained the move by writing, “this is to maintain a separation of different spheres of influence that additional roles provide. This precludes commissioners from having to vote on an issue at a lower committee
level then again at the BOC level as well.”
At the time, Taylor also said he felt the resolution adopted was directed primarily at him, in part for political reasons.
“Last year, when I announced I was resigning from the Republican Party, the board chairman complained that I was ‘no longer on the team,’” Taylor in August.
Taylor ran for reelection in November as a Democrat.
Slinkerd told The Mercury in August, “I don’t ever recall Elwood announcing that he changed parties nor do I recall ever saying he was ‘no longer on the team.’”
When Taylor refused to resign from the planning commission, the township commissioners convened a hearing in October to have him removed.
The board never followed through with a formal vote to remove him, and when Taylor lost his reelection bid in November, he was no longer in violation of the resolution and the matter
became moot. Until now. Taylor’s term on the planning commission still has one year remaining and he remains the chairman there.
Contacted by The Mercury, Taylor wrote “to my knowledge,” the planning commission was not informed before the vote Tuesday about the township commissioners’ intentions regarding the dissolution of the planning commission in favor of a planning committee.
“I find it ironic that in the run-up to last year’s recent election, the (board of commissioners) was so concerned about a single board member having ‘undue influence’ over the deliberations of the PC, that they adopted a Resolution intending to prohibit it — but now they have chosen to exert total influence over the township’s panning duties themselves,” Taylor wrote in response to an mail seeking comment.
The move also comes just as the township is in the midst of managing a large
residential development, one of the largest in the township’s recent history.
In November, a 3-2 vote of the board provided preliminary and final site plan approval to the Kummer Tract project, which aims to build 143 housing units for residents 55 and older.
The project was recommended by the planning commission, but Slinkerd and Commissioner Renee Spaide, who was named the board’s vice chair at the January reorganization meeting, voted against it, saying it was pushed through too quickly.
The second phase of the plan calls for nearly doubling the first phase by purchasing more acreage along Evans Road, and eventually building 279 units and moving Kummerer Road to intersect with Evans instead of Farmington.
Should the commissioners make good on their intent to abolish the planning commission at the Feb. 3 meeting, the second phase of this project would be overseen by the new planning committee.