POTTSTOWN PA – A sketch plan for development of the land on which Ringing Rocks Elementary School would be expanded was unanimously endorsed last night (Monday, Nov. 16, 2009) by the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Planning Commission, but only after engineers employed by the Pottsgrove School District wrestled with what they claimed was a last-minute curve.
Ringing Rocks Elementary School.
Representatives of Landmark Engineering in Wayne PA, on the district’s behalf, said they were surprised earlier in the day by a letter from the township informing them of the need to ensure the finished school building was situated a little more than 30 feet away from Kauffman Road, rather than the 25 feet called for in engineering drawings.
The district must receive variances from the township Zoning Hearing Board to accommodate that and other demands. The zoning board’s next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 8 (2009; Tuesday); the district said it intends to apply today to be on its agenda.
- This event has been added to The Post calendar.
An appearance before the zoners had been anticipated anyway. Besides asking for permission to improve the school building, which extends an institutional use in an R-2 residential zone, the district must also obtain variances to build a retaining wall, limit some landscaping, and eliminate publication of local impact statements.
Those five-plus extra feet, however, were the cause of protracted conversation during the Planning Commission meeting.
The township’s 1992 comprehensive plan identifies Kauffman Road, where the school is located, as a “secondary feeder street,” according to township Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott. It specifies that any construction there must provide the state with enough right-of-way to expand or alter the road if traffic conditions make it necessary. The difference between the space required, and the space Landmark engineers allotted, is 66 inches … or 5-1/2 feet.
Lower Pottsgrove’s letter to Landmark made it clear the reduced right-of-way presented a problem. Complying with it probably would require new drawings and delay construction, according to the firm.
Whether the engineers should have known about comprehensive plan requirements months earlier briefly was the subject of casual and polite disagreement. On the other hand, almost all involved agreed it was unlikely Kauffman Road will ever be widened as a secondary feeder street. Planning commissioners said they believed the right-of-way issue represented a hardship to the district that merited a zoning variance.
The plan presented to commissioners did not show drawings of the school building itself or its layout, only how the 19,000-square-foot addition to the existing 57,000-square-foot school would be located on the 64-acre property at 1401 Kauffman Rd., Pottstown PA. The district must return to the commission, possibly several more times, for other approvals regarding the project.
The school district has determined Ringing Rocks must be expanded and upgraded to adequately support current and future enrollment. It will hold a public hearing Dec. 3 on the project’s estimated $17.84 million cost.
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So how competent is this firm if they are unable to check into zoning conditions on a property prior to engaging in planning? You would think that they should examine closely the ordinances and regulatory impacts of additions and reconstructions prior to planning themselves into a corner.
Makes one dubious of their products. What else have the overlooked or discarded in their plans?
The board should not accept slipshod work from their contractors and if the drawings must be redone because of the contractors error and oversight, the onus is on them.