SANATOGA PA – What might be called a path of least resistance has been opened up – or, actually, mowed down – through the vacant acreage of formerly wooded land at 3049 E. High St., Pottstown PA, next to the Turkey Hill convenience store, that is being marketed for commercial sale by Tornetta Realty Corp. of Norristown.
Yellow warning standards and rope fencing with orange streamers marke the Sunoco pipeline right-of-way off East High Street near Turkey Hill.
Tractors equipped with bush mowers last week cut a wide swath from south to north through the center of the property, and workers marked it with impromptu fencing and yellow hazard signage. It identifies the right-of-way under which sits a Sunoco Corp. gas pipeline, but it also represents a plan to start site work there, engineer Scott Exley told the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Board of Commissioners on Monday (May 3, 2010).
Exley, president of the township engineering firm, Bursich Associates, explained that property owner Charles Tornetta and his company have yet to reach agreement with Sunoco on covering its right-of-way with earthen fill and, later, potentially building commercial structures there. Tornetta has been under pressure by township officials and neighboring residents to level a still-growing mound of fill material on the site.
Lacking an easement, Exley said, Tornetta may leave the right of way open and use the fill to level ground on either side of it. “He’s working on a number of different scenarios,” Exley told the board.
The stockpile of dirt, gravel, and other fill was to have been razed and evenly distributed there almost two months ago, under a grading permit granted by the township Planning Commission. Planners as recently as April 19 made it clear they were unhappy progress wasn’t being made at the site, which has been a source of controversy since trees were cleared and dump trucks began emptying loads there about a year ago.
Tornetta did not attend the commissioners’ Monday meeting in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, and board members accepted Exley’s report without comment.
Related:
- Grading Plan May Leave Gap In Sanatoga Land
- Talks Delay Take-Down Of Sanatoga Mound
- Huge Fill Mound On East High To Come Down
- Earthen Mound Could Grow Higher
- Still Piling It Up At The Interchange
- Sanatoga Soil Mound Concerns Its Neighbors
- Grading Gets Started Near Interchange
- Fill Piles At Sanatoga Exit
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of May 3):
Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail. Share this article.
See our galleries for photos that appear in The Post. Got news for us? E-mail The Post.
Mr. Tornetta is being difficult.
What has he done recently in the name of benevolence?
It is Sunoco Pipeline that is being difficult, not Tornetta Reality.
So what kind of fine is he paying for his unsightly pile of dirt and rocks?
This is going to be interesting to watch.