Conewago Online Report
Conewago Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania

Planning Commission Public Meeting on Draft Comprehensive Plan

Update: A second meeting has been scheduled for Wed., November 19, 2008 at 7pm at the Conewago Elementary School.

On Wed., October 15, 2008 at 7pm, the Conewago Planning Commission met at the Conewago Elementary School to receive public comment on its new Draft Comprehensive Plan. This is a report on that meeting.

Joel Buckley
Joel Buckley
Citizen

Ken Grubb
Ken Grubb
Chairman


Joel Buckley Citizen


Ken Grubb Chairman

Joel Buckley had been giving his comments about the Conewago Township Draft Comprehensive Plan for less than one minute, when Chairman Ken Grubb tried to shut him down, saying, "I’m not going to allow you to give a political diatribe." After the audience members shouted, “Let him speak, let him speak”, Grubb relented and Buckley spoke.

Click here to see Mr. Buckley's comments that Chairman Grubb tried to stop. Decide for yourself if it was a "political diatribe" or well reasoned criticism of the plan.

Buckley criticized the proposed Trust Zoning, affecting about 600 acres, including 40% of all the road frontage on Route 743.
He criticized the proposed Mixed Use Zone, 100 acres of high density commercial/residential on Trust land just south of the Elementary School, allowing lots smaller than a quarter acre, which would allow nearly 400 housing units.
He made specific suggestions as to how the township could do more to preserve Agricultural properties and reduce High Density Residential development.
He criticized the plan’s focus of development on 743, turning it into another Rt 39.
He actually didn’t give his prepared critcism of the resurrection of the previously rejected Warehouse Zoning.
He even criticized their map (see township map), and brought his own (see Buckley's Enhanced Map) claiming their map did not adequately show the major zoning changes.

Other people spoke. (I will add more information on other speaker’s comments when I have a chance to review the video.)

Nobody, nobody, but nobody, made a comment in favor of the plan.

Lack of Notice

People were unhappy with what they thought was inadequate notice of the meeting. The only official notice of the meeting was in two legal ads in the Hummelstown Sun. Many of the people attending the meeting learned of it not from the official township notices, but from a Letter to the Editor criticizing the plan written by Mr Buckley, or an email version or printed copy of the same letter that was widely distributed.

Inadequate Information

People were unhappy with what they thought was inadequate information about the plan. If people wanted to read the plan, they would have to go to the township office during regular business hours to read a 188 page plan. (It was possible to borrow a CD with the plan, but few people were aware of this.) Joel Buckley made the whole plan available on his websites www.ConewagoOnline.com, and www.Conewago.us. There you can review the whole plan, or just the Future Land Use Chapter or Future Land Use Map. But most people weren’t aware of this either and obviously people without internet service could not access it. Most people were unable to comment on the plan because they didn’t know very much about it. Practically speaking, people should not have to read a 188 page plan to participate in this process. A summary of 10-20 pages should have been prepared and widely distributed.

No Presentation

People expected there would at least have been a presentation of the significant changes in zoning proposed in the plan. There was nothing other than a few maps on easels. The township’s consultant, Frank C. (Rettew) said it would have taken too long to present a summary of the plan. [I totally disagree. I could have given a pretty complete summary of what changes are in the plan in 15 minutes. (Ask Dave Smith, I did it for him.) The consultant should have been able to it as well.] Chairman Grubb said the Planning Commission was only there to receive public comments on the plan. They were not there to talk about the plan or to answer questions about the plan. He said if anybody wanted to comment on the plan they should have read it before the meeting!

The people wanted a Cliff Notes version of the 188 page plan, and all they got was "you should have read it yourself already". Even if they had read the plan, it doesn’t include a copy of the Current Zoning Map. Nowhere does it summarize the changes between Current Zoning and Proposed Future Land Use. I had requested the Comprehensive Plan include exactly that at their June meeting. It was not done. I repeated the request at the October 15 meeting.

More Information

Well, if you want something done, I guess you have to do it yourself. I promise the readers of Conewago Online that I will prepare a Summary of Significant Zoning Changes in the plan. I’ll try to have it posted by next week. So before the Supervisors hold their Public Hearing on the Plan, if they don’t make the information widely available, I will.

See CO Report: Plan B: a better Comprehensive Plan. Includes Plan map, description, criticism and two alternate plans. 29pages 4MB This includes the Summary of Significant Zoning Changes
See CO Report: Plan B.11 page version

Click here to see Enhanced version of Future Land Use Map

Update: A second meeting has been scheduled for Wed., November 19, 2008 at 7pm at the Conewago Elementary School.

Sincerely, Joel Buckley

[Note: The Joel Buckley referred to in this report wrote this report and publishes this website.]