SANATOGA PA – An obviously frustrated Sanatoga-based real estate developer, during Monday night’s (Dec. 20, 2010) Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Planning Commission meeting, accused the municipality’s staff of failing to abide by an understanding he thought he had reached with other township representatives, and of unnecessarily delaying a project he wants to expand on Buchert Road.

The entrance to the Buchert Ridge Community on Buchert Road.

Developer J. Wilmer Hallman, who hopes to add a three-story garden suite apartment complex that would be certified as environmentally friendly to his Buchert Ridge housing community, 2011 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, alleged a previously scheduled review of his plans was wrongly removed from the board’s agenda. The resulting delay, he said, could cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” over the life of the project.

Hallman did not identify specific individuals, but clearly directed his wrath toward township Manager Rodney Hawthorne, Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott and Chad Camburn, who represents Lower Pottsgrove’s engineering firm, Bursich Associates Inc. Hawthorne, who Hallman claimed had arbitrarily canceled his project’s review, was not present at the meeting; Elliott and Camburn, both of whom attended, denied the accusations.

The commission took no action, despite Hallman’s urging that it recommend the apartment plans as submitted to the township Zoning Hearing Board. “We have no new information” on the proposal, Chairman Frank Cebular said, “and we can’t do anything about it until we do.”

However, Commissioner Ronald Dinnocenti – himself a former developer – offered Hallman some interesting advice: Return to the commission with “the meanest son-of-a-bitch lawyer you can find” in tow. “You’ll get things done pretty fast that way,” Dinnocenti suggested.

Township Commissioner James Phillips sat in the audience while the back-and-forth argument raged.

At issue are a list of items in Hallman’s plans that, unless modified to conform with existing regulations, will require several zoning waivers. Hallman disagrees with staff interpretations of the law on some; suggested a few involve private property rights beyond the township’s oversight, and contended others had been addressed and solved earlier in meetings he had with his attorney, Hawthorne, and township Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway.

“I’m not blaming the Planning Commission, but I am blaming the staff,” Hallman said.

Hallman wants to erect the multi-story “green-certified” apartments, designed to appeal to retirees, in a zoning district that limits building height. Parking, a public transit turn-around, and property line set-backs apparently also pose problems. His initial plans, which won strong endorsement from the township Board of Commissioners in October 2009, have since changed considerably, Cebular said. “We’ve had to look at it with new eyes,” he added.

Related (to Buchert Ridge Community):

• Accusations Fly At Planners’ Meeting Over Buchert Ridge
• Applications Withdrawn; Township Cancels Zoning Hearings
• Lower Pottsgrove Hearings Set For Apartments Lighting
• Walk Through These Rooms Without Moving
• Commissioners Warm To Energy-Saving Apartments
• Commissioners Get An Early Start Tonight
• Meeting Moved Up For Buchert Ridge Presentation
• Buchert Ridge Unveiling Final Phase

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Planning Commission’s Dec. 20 meeting):

• Accusations Fly At Planners’ Meeting Over Buchert Ridge
• Planning Commission Agenda For Dec. 20, 2010