Conewago Online Report
Conewago Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania

Board of Supervisors Public Hearing
on Draft Comprehensive Plan

On Wed., September 23, 2009 at 7pm, the Board of Supervisors met at the Conewago Elementary School to receive public comment on its revised Draft Comprehensive Plan. This is a report on that meeting.

In October, 2008, when the Conewago Township Planning Commission first received public comment on the August 2008 draft Comprehensive Plan, sparks flew, as speaker after speaker criticized the plan. Eleven months later, as the Supervisors received public comment on the significantly changed June 2009 plan, it was a much quieter and shorter meeting.

Frank Chlebnikov
Frank Chlebnikov - Rettew Ass.


Frank Chlebnikov - Rettew Ass.

Frank Chlebnikov, with the township's engineering firm, spent about 11 minutes reviewing the changes that had been made to the plan after last year's public feedback.

Plan Changes

The Eleeomysonary or Trust Zoning, originally over 600 acres in the 2008 plan, including 40% of all the road frontage on Route 743, was reduced to under 300 acres.
The 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, was eliminated. The parcel was returned to Low Density Residential.
Medium Density Residential was restored to the Petrina farm.
Land near Schoolhouse and Meadow Ln that had been changed from Rural Resource to Ag was changed back.

This was followed by a brief seven minutes of public comments.

Joel Buckley
Joel Buckley


Joel Buckley

Public Comment - Joel Buckley

Joel Buckley, winner of the Republican nomination for Township Supervisor in May, and a citizen concerned with controlling growth in Conewago Township, said:

"In short, this revised plan features much more modest changes to current zoning than did last year's plan. While it doesn't have everything I might have liked, it probably represents a reasonable compromise among competing interests in the township. I recommend the Board of Supervisors adopt this plan"

Public Comment - Hershey Trust Attorney

Tim Anderson, an attorney representing the Hershey Trust as Trustee for the Hershey School, which owns about 22% of the land in Conewago township, said:

"... the Trust makes suggestions for appropriate future land use in the township. The Planning Commission and Supervisors didn't necessarily agree with all of our suggestions and so in some aspects we're disappointed with this plan. But we think the plan... the Trust accepts the plan overall and we thank the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission for all their hard work."

Other Comments

Local attorney, Jonathan Crist, opined that if two parties each are somewhat disappointed, it's a sign of a good compromise settlement, which he thought the revised plan was.

Mr. Meily and Mr. Frank Graybill each made requests concerning Commercial zoning on their respective properties. The Supervisors closed the public comment period and after a few more minutes decided to postpone any action on the plan until a later meeting. Total time: 22 minutes.

What's Next?

The ball is in the Supervisor's court. They declined to take action tonight, saying they wanted to review witten comments that they had received in addition to comments from the public hearing. Any time after the Public Hearing, the Supervisors can vote to approve, reject, or change the Plan. If substantial changes are made, certain aspects of the review process have to be repeated. Any Zoning changes suggested by the Plan would need to be drafted, reviewed and voted on later.

Click here to see June 2009 Plan Future Land Use Map

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