After nearly five years, the Girl Scouts project to improve its South Mountain camp sits atop the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners’ 7 p.m. July 25 meeting agenda in the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

First on the meeting agenda is:

1. Resolution Approving the Girl Scouts of Eastern PA (GSEP) Land Development Plan at 2638 W. Rock Road.

The Salisbury Township Planning Commission voted 5-1 with one abstention at the March 27 meeting to recommend approval of the project, known as The Girl Scouts Adventure Place at Mountain Home, to the township board of commissioners.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 with one commissioner absent at its Feb. 22 meeting to approve a motion accepting a time extension to Aug. 31 for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania land development for Adventure Place at Mountain Home, 2638 W. Rock Road, west of the Interstate 78 interchange at Summit Lawn on South Mountain.

Township residents, most of whom reside in homes in the Summit Lawn area where the Girl Scouts project is proposed, have opposed the project.

The land development plan submitted by The Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, Inc., successor by merger to Great Valley Girl Scouts Council, Inc., is to construct a new, 3,177-square-foot, single-story multipurpose building with supporting infrastructure, including an additional parking area located internally on the property at 2638 W. Rock Road.

The property contains 15.2128 acres of land, is improved as a nonprofit recreation area and is located within the CR, Conservation Residential zoning district.

The one-story with basement building will be heated; have bathrooms with showers, sinks and flush toilets; activities rooms; staff office; trading post for purchase of Girl Scouts items and a paved parking area for 15 vehicles.

The March 27 township planners’ meeting reviewed the project’s sewage facilities planning module.

“It meets all zoning regulations,” Salisbury Township Planning and Zoning Officer Kerry Rabold said, referring to the project in her March 20 review letter presented at the March 27 planners’ meeting.

“We would recommend conditional approval,” Engineer David J. Tettemer said, who read from a March 20 review letter about the project at the March 27 planners meeting.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approved the project’s sewage facilities planning module, required for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

A Feb. 8, 2024, letter stating DEP approval of the project’s sewer module was cited at the March 27 meeting.

The DEP required the Girl Scouts’ project to revise its sewer module. There will be two sand mounds: 315 feet by 60 feet and 95 feet by 60 feet.

“They [DEP] directed us to use a drip-irrigation system,” Christopher Williams, operations manager, Lehigh Valley Civil Land Development, Barry Isett & Associates Inc., engineer for the Girl Scouts project, said at the March 27 planners’ meeting.

Township commissioners voted 5-0 at its Sept. 14, 2023, meeting to approve revisions to the project’s sewage module.

“We can’t deny something that the DEP has approved,” Jason A. Ulrich, partner, Gross McGinley LLP Attorneys at Law, which is Salisbury Township’s solicitor firm, said at the March 27 planners’ meeting.

“If there are any issues with the DEP, you need to raise them with DEP,” Ulrich said to the audience March 27. An estimated 30 residents attended the meeting.

“DEP has reviewed the information and they have determined that it met the requirements and we have to follow that,” Tettemer said.

The project’s sewer module requires an annual inspection by DEP and township officials.

“If there is any noticeable damage to the pipes, they will be repaired immediately,” Tettemer said.

“If anybody notices the system, is failing ... smell ... they [Girl Scouts officials] will be required to go in there and fix it,” Tettemer said.

“This project has been going on for a long time,” Attorney Stephanie A. Kobal, shareholder, Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba Attorneys at Law, representing the Girl Scouts, said at the March 27 planners’ meeting.

“The scope of the project has been reduced,” citing the approximate 3,100-square-foot size, “which is less than many of the residences in the area [of the project],” Kobal said.

Geotechnical studies came back positive, Williams said.

Concerning stormwater, an underground detention basin will be constructed.

“The post-stormwater results are better than they are before,” Williams said.

Summit Lawn homeowners have voiced concerns at township zoning, planning and commissioners’ meetings about the project’s impact on residential wells, stormwater runoff and traffic.

The Salisbury Township Zoning Hearing Board voted unanimously 5-0 at its March 9, 2020, meeting, which was more than four hours and the third and final zoning hearing on the project, to approve the Girl Scouts’ appeal for a special exception to construct the building.

An estimated 100 residents attended each of three zoning hearings in the Salisbury Middle School cafeteria.

The Girl Scouts’ zoning appeal was for a special exception to construct the building as an expansion of a special exception use and a favorable interpretation to permit an existing cabin to remain as a nonconforming structure.

Trees would need to be removed for construction of the building, parking lot and septic field.

The zoners’ approval stipulated at least 10 conditions, including: the building is restricted to Girl Scouts’ recreation use and administration of the facility, the Trading Post will operate during camp hours, 10 trees to be cut down must be replaced by 10 trees, the number of Girl Scouts attending the camp is limited to 55 per week, the Girl Scouts will provide a trained safety monitor during camp pickup and drop-off times of Girl Scouts, speed-limit information will be provided to parents and guardians and a lighting plan for the parking lot must be submitted.

The Feb. 4, 2020, Salisbury Township Zoning Hearing Board meeting, which included two hours of testimony, was moved from the municipal building meeting room to the Salisbury Middle School cafeteria to accommodate attendees.

A second hearing, which included four hours of testimony, was held in the middle school cafeteria Feb. 18, 2020.

The zoning hearings were held before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in mid-March 2020.

Approval of the project’s sewer planning module by the DEP was subject to COVID-19-related delays, according to then Salisbury Township Consulting Engineer David J. Tettemer of Keystone Consulting Engineers, Inc.

Tettemer, who retired from Keystone Consulting Engineers, was Salisbury Township’s consulting engineer and has reviewed the Girl Scouts’ project and attended township zoning hearings and planners’ meetings ever since the project was proposed.

The Girl Scouts submitted a sketch plan for Adventure Place to the Salisbury Township Planning Commission at its Dec. 10, 2019, meeting, attended by an estimated 60 Summit Lawn residents who filled the meeting room in the municipal building.

What is now Mountain House Day Camp is attended by approximately 45 Girl Scouts each week.

Hours for the camp are to be 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekly mid-June to mid-August for several age levels. There would be four to 11 employees.

The facility has on-site water facilities and no latrine sanitary sewage facilities. There are no indoor bathroom facilities at the camp.

The camp has tent platforms, pavilion, lodge, cabin, garage, kiln, fire pit, other buildings and a gravel road.

The Girl Scouts organization has owned the approximate 15.21-acre site and operated it as a private recreation area since 1952. A cabin has been on the property since 1943.