By MICHAEL HIRSCH

Special to The Press

The North Whitehall Township Planning Commission had its reorganization meeting on Jan. 25.

Chairman Brian Horwith began with an announcement that Bruce Stettler would no longer be vice chairman.

Robert Korp, who was absent, was appointed to replace him.

“Richard Fuller is the new board member who will be filling out Chris Mullins unexpired term,” Horwith said. You will recall he resigned toward the end of last year.”

Leonard Nuss will serve as secretary. Also absent was John Barto. The alternate is Rod Lowe.

The first guest to speak was a representative for Maple Street at Greenleaf Estates.

“Have you withdrawn your plan? Horwith asked.

The representative, Andy Wood, said the comments were in the engineer’s letter.

Horwith asked for the big picture.

“I think the main issue is talking to the planning commission about what really is involved, what’s going on with traffic and, in particular, what the township is looking for,” Woods said. “Maple Street and the road width distances for this piece of project. Whether this plan comes in at 13 months or 15 months.

“Those are the sort of issues that carry through these different iterations of the plan.

“The other issue is Maple Street is not a posted road right now. So, technically, the speed limit is 55 mph on that road.

“Everyone who is speeding is technically not speeding for that posted speed limit.”

Horwith said the applicant was not showing the entire plan for the development.

They were showing one piece with 13-14 properties with frontage on Maple Street.

If you look at the full picture, the other part of the development had homes arranged on an interior road, he explained.

Resident Thomas Dean spoke via Zoom.

“Thank you very much, I appreciate the way we’ve been working on this,” Dean said. “Obviously, there is a creek and wetlands associated with the property.

“The planning commission is aware my family has lived in that area for over 80 years.

“The creek flows through our property. It’s a beautiful creek. It supports all kinds of wildlife from hawks to herons to muskrats and it’s all potentially at risk here.

Dean noted he did not see anything in the plans on how the developer plans to protect the wetlands and the stream.

“I would like to see something built into the HOA documents or whatever they’re going to do to turn that into open space and perhaps even expand it from its current state and extend.

“Then, what’s going to happen afterward, after it is developed?

“Is there going to be any consideration of how that property gets used to preserve the wetland?

“That’s my first issue that I’d like to see addressed in this plan.”

Dean said his second issue is the entire vision for the property.

“Personally, I think the developers are missing an opportunity to develop this the right way,” Dean said. “Putting 14 to 15 driveways on Maple Street is not only disadvantageous, but they also say advantageous to our community. These are disadvantageous.

“So, my vision for this property, if I were them, would be developed into a community of 100 acres so the residents can enjoy a more intimate environment.

“I would throw out where they currently have them and ask them to put a road in that fronts on the green, and leaves access to these properties from the back so you don’t have all the safety issues associated with driveways.

Dean said that might be more expensive, but it would make for a better community and increase the financial values of the homes they are selling.

“I would encourage a completely different plan that does not have 15 houses access on what is an increasingly busy road.

“Those are my two main ones. I’d really like those to be considered. The Maple Street intersection at Sand Spring (Road) is also very dangerous that we’re on the traffic there.

Dean said the biggest concern is for children with their driveways accessing onto a busy road.

This discussion was tabled.

The next item was the township comprehensive plan.

Horwith said six goals and objectives were created for the plan.

They had a good discussion with the consultants and a plan of future land uses was presented.

Horwith said some observations included that the map misidentified sites. Some schools were not appropriately marked.

There was mention of the difference in zoning and land use.

The map had some descriptions of farmland with suburban residential.

The future land uses are a wish list.

A big concern was the new map showed most of the properties along Route 309 were red for commercial use.

The current designation is village residential on the west side and village center on the east side. No decisions were made.

The next planning commission meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22 at the municipal building.