Approvals have been received by a Salisbury Township landowner that are expected to clear the way for 27 acres on South Mountain to be acquired by The Wildlands Conservancy.

The Salisbury Township Zoning Hearing Board voted unanimously 5-0 to approve the appeal of Stuart G. Rogers, 415 Mountain Blvd., for a variance from the township zoning ordinance requiring a new lot to “have frontage and direct access onto a public street, without traversing through or over another lot.”

The site is in an R-1 Rural Residential Zoning District. The variance would “allow the existing driveway to be located within a proposed access easement that traverses across another lot.” There are no proposed improvements as part of the subdivision. The existing driveway traverses an existing access easement on an adjacent lot.

Zoners at the Feb. 6 hearing also voted 5-0 to approve a variance to allow “only one principal building to be permitted per lot. An in-law suite is to be located in a separate building from the main dwelling on the site. The in-law residence will not be rented and will only be used for immediate family members.

Rogers, who did not attend the hearing, was represented by Atty. Fred Fleischaker and Jason Buchta, senior landscape architect, Ott Consulting, Inc.

A neighbor, Karen Poshefko, a member of Wildlands Conservancy, attended the hearing.

“We are absolutely thrilled that this is happening,” Poshefko said. “We are thrilled that this property is becoming protected.”

Fleischaker said that Clean and Green is limited to subdividing two acres per year. Rogers plans to go before township zoners for another subdivision in 2019.

“The goal is to make one single, three-acre lot,” Fleischaker explained.

Clean and Green is a Pennsylvania land conservation program that can lower the property tax rate for landowners.

“The Wildlands Conservancy has land surrounding these lots,” Buchta said, who showed zoners the site’s location on a map displayed on an easel in the meeting room in the township municipal building.

Mountain Boulevard is a “paper street,” in that, though paved, it was never deeded to the township for public works department maintenance. An agreement for its maintenance is signed by six neighbor property owners, according to Fleischaker.

The site’s house dates to 1850, Fleischaker said. The in-law accommodations were added in a separate building in 1998.

“The intention is for the in-laws to live on the same property,” Fleischaker said, noting that because the residences are separate, a variance is needed.

At the recommendation of zoner Atty. Kent H. Herman and zoning board solicitor, Atty. Victor F. Cavacini, of Gross McGinley, LLC., and agreed to by Fleischaker, a deed restriction will be placed concerning the use by in-laws only.