This evening I attended a meeting of the Towamensing Township Zoning Hearing Board. Here’s the way it works. The Township has a zoning ordinance. Let’s say you want to do something forbidden by the ordinance, for example, open and Air B&B in a rural conservation area. (That was the issue this evening.) You can go to the Planning Commission. If the Planning Commission says yes, then the Supervisors can approve, and they usually do what the Planning Commission says.
But let’s say the Planning Commission says no and the Supervisors say no. Then you can appeal to the Zoning Hearing Board, although you must pay a hefty fee to make that appeal. The Zoning Hearing Board, a three-member board, conducts a legal proceeding with attorneys and a court stenographer.
The hearing began at 7 p.m. and was still going on at 10:10 when I left. It was winding down; the last person was testifying–for the second time. I testified against granting the variance. I pointed out that I had helped rewrite the Township zoning ordinance, and those ordinances are not done lightly. The provisions are discussed at length before adoption, and you better have a good reason to be granted a variance from the rules. Plus, any variance granted sets a precedent.
I don’t know if the Board will rule this evening or take the whole case under advisement. I’m betting they uphold the ordinance and do not grant the variance. I thought I was pretty convincing.
As a present member of the Planning commission I did not attend, I was asked to attend. I declined as a matter of "conflict of interest." Generally, we planning members do not attend these meetings. If one has an interest in a situation we recuse ourselves from any planning vote. That way we are able to attend.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, for a hearing that lasted until 10:15, no final decision was made. The hearing is continued in Sept.
ReplyDelete