Homeowners’ group wants road deeded to township

KENNETT TOWNSHIP >> Other than wanting to help resolve the matter, Kennett Township officials say they “don’t have a dog in the fight” among neighbors on Black Rock Hill Road.

The Kennett Township supervisor’s meeting Wednesday night had a nearly empty official agenda — only two escrow releases, among the most routine tasks a board of supervisors performs.

Then came the public comment section, in which Joseph and Dianne Duffy, residents of Black Rock Hill Road, asked the supervisors what progress or decisions had been made in a longsimmering dispute among neighbors there.

As Joseph Duffy explained the situation, the problem reaches back some 30 years ago, because the developer never turned the deed for the road over to the homeowner’s association (HOA). Since then the HOA has paid to maintain the road itself.

The HOA would like to have the road turned over to the township, but discovered the title to it was clouded by an agreement affecting one residence that had a set of steps down to the road. It seemed the developer had given that residence’s owners title to a portion of land extending into the right of way on the road.

Duffy said the HOA attempted to clear up the title by several times offering the current owners “handsome sums of money” to settle the matter and give up their claim to ownership within the right of way.

The township had determined the original deed to the piece of land in question was a violation of its subdivision and land development ordinance, so the developer lifted the deed and gave the owners an easement in the same area, Duffy said.

Duffy said the owners can park and even build within the easement. This complicates access for other residents, he said, clouds the title, prevents dedication of the road to the township, and can make the road uninsurable.

Township manager Lisa Moore said nobody had filed an application for the easement in question, and it was not put on the subdivision plan as a revision.

But Moore added that Dave Sander, the township’s solicitor, had said that once the original deed was lifted, the technical violation of the township’s ordinance was cleared up and the township no longer had legal standing to involve itself in the dispute.

Scudder Stevens, chair of the board of supervisors, said he very much sympathized with the other residents on the street who wanted to resolve the situation, but as he understood it the solicitor was correct and the township did not have “a dog in the fight.”

Moore was in contact with Sander during the meeting, and said he had sent her a message explaining that while the easement caused the same complications the original deed had, it was not technically considered a subdivision and so was not a violation of the township’s subdivision laws.

Moore said she continued to believe that because the easement would amend the recorded plan, that could give the township standing. Duffy wondered if easements had to go through the planning process, another way the township might have standing to become involved.

In the end, the supervisors agreed to continue investigating the situation to see how they might help resolve it. But Stevens said it did seem that strictly speaking the core legal issue was between the HOA and the homeowners with the easement, and the township was not technically involved.

In other business, Recording Secretary Michael O’Brien said Caitlin Abate of HoneyBadger Woodworks was currently creating benches and mushroom-shaped seats for Barkingfield Park out of wood available at the park.