The impact of a proposed town house development on the safety of Salisbury Township School District students at the East Emmaus Avenue and Gaskill Avenue intersection has been raised by members of the Salisbury Township Planning Commission.

“Our main concern is that we have school traffic,” Planning Commission Chairman Richard Schreiter said at the Jan. 22 meeting for a development proposed on approximately 48.5 acres in the vicinity of East Emmaus Avenue, Gaskill Avenue and Honeysuckle Road. Salisbury Elementary School is at 1400 S. Gaskill Ave.

“This is our problem, the major issue for this project,” Schreiter said of school student safety.

Several planners at the meeting said they favor a traffic light signal at East Emmaus Avenue and Gaskill Avenue. There is a stop sign on Gaskill Avenue at East Emmaus Avenue. There is a stop sign on Honeysuckle Road at East Emmaus Avenue.

Salisbury planners voted 6-0 at the Jan. 22 meeting to table Vistas at South Mountain, an 88-unit town house project proposed for the township’s east side.

Planners approved several variances and deferrals for the development submitted by Vistas at South Mountain Holdings, LLC.

In tabling the project, a meeting was proposed with officials of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation concerning the East Emmaus Avenue and Gaskill Avenue intersection.

“Let’s talk about having a meeting with PennDOT,” Salisbury Township Consulting Engineer Stan Wojciechowski, department head, Municipal Engineering Services, Barry Isett & Associates, Inc., said at the Jan. 22 meeting.

Salisbury Township Chief of Police Donald Sabo, in his report to commissioners at the Jan. 23 township meeting, said he met with representatives of PennDOT and other agencies concerning student safety at the East Emmaus Avenue and Gaskill Avenue intersection, and at the East Emmaus Avenue and South Dauphin Street intersection.

Salisbury High School is at 500 E. Montgomery St. The sign for the high school is on the northeast corner of South Dauphin Street at East Emmaus Avenue.

“They are going to prepare a list of options to improve safety,” Sabo said.

Wojciechowski, in his review letter of the town houses project at the Jan. 22 planners’ meeting, said he will meet with PennDOT officials concerning student safety in the vicinity of the proposed development.

PennDOT requires a warrant system before approving a traffic light on a state road. East Emmaus Avenue is a state jurisdiction highway.

The PennDOT warrant system is a set of guidelines to determine when to install signs or traffic devices. According to a PennDOT website, warrants for traffic signals consider factors such as pedestrian volume, crash experience, peak-hour traffic, school crossings and coordinated signal systems. Warrants are used in conjunction with professional judgment and local knowledge.

“We talked with Chief Sabo. He said that intersection [East Emmaus and Gaskill] has a lot of accidents,” Wojciechowski said at the Jan. 22 planners meeting.

“Chief Sabo is going to provide accident information. We are going to see if it warrants a signal. It did not in PennDOT’s analysis,” Wojciechowski said.

Under consideration instead of a traffic light signal are a mast-arm mounted flashing warning device and a pole-mounted flashing warning device. It would be an activated system with the mast arm out over the road. Diagrams of the device were projected on video screens in the municipal building meeting room.

The town house development project is at 1030 E. Emmaus Ave., 1108 E. Emmaus Ave. and 1210 E. Emmaus Ave.

Lot No. 1, which is 46.7965 acres with frontage along East Emmaus Avenue, would have 88 town houses.

Lot No. 2, which is 1.903 acres with frontage along Honeysuckle Road, would have one single-family detached dwelling.

There would be 0.0819 of an acre dedicated as a right of way along Honeysuckle Road.

The dwelling units are in the R3, Medium Low Density Residential zoning district.

Portions of the overall 48.5197-acre lot are in the CR, Conservation- Residential zoning district. The land is vacant.

Representing Vistas at South Mountain at the meeting were Phillip C. Malitsch, professional engineer, director of land development, Tuskes Homes; Justin Q. Massie, professional engineer, Terraform Engineering and Robert L. Hoffman, professional engineer, regional manager, Traffic Planning and Design, Inc.

“Everything you’re saying is fine and dandy, but it’s not going to slow traffic down,” Schreiter said, referring to the East Emmaus Avenue and Gaskill Avenue intersection.

“I live close to there [East Emmaus Avenue and Gaskill Avenue] and I see all the accidents,” planning commission member Holly Weiss said.

“With all the kids we have there and traffic, I don’t see how we’re going to have more traffic,” Weiss said.

“There are cars parked along Gaskill at 2:30 p.m.,” Weiss said. “It turns into a nightmare. And I don’t want a school bus hit,” Weiss said.

“It’s an existing condition, yes. But you’re adding to it. It may warrant that,” Planning Commission Vice Chair Jessica Klocek said of student traffic during school opening and dismissal hours.

“These are elementary kids,” Schreiter said.

“We spoke with the [Salisbury] School District traffic guy and he assured us they would provide buses [to transport students to and from the development],” Massie said. A bus stop in the development and not along East Emmaus Avenue is under consideration.

“Having them [the students] picked up in the development is what they proposed,” Wojciechowski, said adding, “They [Salisbury School District officials] did see the wisdom and they agreed to work with the developer.”

“LANTA does not service this area. So, we don’t have a bus stop. The school district understands that putting a bus stop on Emmaus Avenue may not be the best idea,” Wojciechowski said.

“You’re going to have a lot of traffic going to work and coming home,” Planning Commission member Richard Hassick said.

“The other part of the problem is the curve [of East Emmaus Avenue],” Wojciechowski said.

Wojciechowski said PennDOT is requiring shrubbery, said to obscure vehicle driver sight lines, to be cut down on the north side of East Emmaus Avenue at the property of Belles Tree Service, 1205 E. Emmaus Ave. “That shrubbery will be removed,” Wojciechowski said.

During the public comment portion of the planning commission meeting concerning the township project, former Salisbury Township planning commission member, commissioner and Salisbury Township School Board member Norma Cusick, who is on the Lehigh County Authority board, said, “It is my opinion that this development would cause extensive flooding.

“The development will overwhelm Trout Creek, the flood plain and back up the sewer system,” Cusick said.

The town houses will be rental properties. How many children will there be, asked Cusick. “Salisbury Township residents cannot afford to build another school,” Cusick said.

“You need a light at that intersection [East Emmaus Avenue and Gaskill Avenue],” Cusick said.

“If PennDOT won’t permit a light, we can’t put a light there,” Wojciechowski said.

Cusick objected to a new township policy to not send out letters to notify residents of planning commission agendas of projects to be reviewed.

“The residents, your neighbors, are going to be affected by the flooding,” Cusick said.

“It [the development] meets the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission Act 167 and are working with the Lehigh County Conservation District and the NPDES [National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System],” Wojciechowski said. NPDES is a permitting system regulating sources of water pollution.

“They’re [the developers] also showing a reduction in runoff,” Wojciechowski said.

“We’re using the latest NOAH [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] data,” Massie said.

“I have two large [water retention] basins on site. Three-quarters of the site is getting into that basin. We only have a three-in-one infill. It does discharge into Trout Creek. It’s a very small discharge that will be let out,” Massie said.

“We do have diversion swales and level spreaders,” Massie said.

“There will be an operations and maintenance plan” [for the development’s stormwater system],” Wojciechowski said.

“We did do soil testing, We didn’t run into any limestone,” Massie said.

Planners voted in separate 6-0 votes to approve a deferral for curbs and sidewalks, a waiver for tree placement and to not require loading and unloading zones.

The Vistas project was also tabled at the Sept. 25, 2024, planning commission meeting when an estimated 30 township residents attended. Five residents attended the Jan. 22 meeting.

Salisbury Township School District sold the property Oct. 25, 2023, for $1.45 million to Tuskes Homes.

The property was taken by eminent domain by Salisbury Township School District in 1967 as a site for a senior high school.

A project for 70 to 90 age-restricted homes fell through in 2005. Salisbury Township considered purchasing the land in 2008 to connect it to Franko Farm Park.

The Salisbury Township Planning Commission is next scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Feb. 26 in the meeting room of the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.