SANATOGA PA – It’s been almost a year (June 20, 2011) since representatives of the Berean Bible Church, 2675 E. High St., won final approval from Lower Pottsgrove planning commissioners to build a new 10,960-square-foot gymnasium next to its worship center. The structure would allow the congregation to expand its youth programs without having to constantly re-arrange the church interior.

Berean Bible Church, 2675 E. High St., Pottstown PA

Construction hasn’t yet begun, though, due primarily to what church representatives on Monday (May 7, 2012) complained were continually changing requirements and “recurring issues. It almost seems like this is a moving target,” one church member told the township Board of Commissioners during its meeting in the Buchert Road municipal building.

Commissioners publicly empathized with the church’s plight, sought on-the-spot answers from their engineers and assistant manager, and partially eliminated one administrative hurdle. The church group was appreciative, but the incident once again raised questions about whether Lower Pottsgrove is as business-friendly as its leadership claims.

Part of the church’s delay is regulatory; its plans are awaiting approval from the Montgomery County Conservation District. Construction can’t move forward without the agency’s OK, according to Chad Camburn of the township engineering firm, Bursich Associates, and if the district demands changes the process is sure to take even longer, he warned.

Two remaining items on the church’s self-described “punch list” are the amount of a proposed escrow for the project – Bursich and Berean’s engineer have yet to agree on a figure – and the congregation’s request to abandon installation of a landscape buffer that would visually screen the gym from surrounding property owners.

Berean Administrative Pastor Bill Neitz contended a Planning Commission demand repeated last month, that the church again poll some neighbors about the need for the buffer, was unnecessary and time-consuming. “This township has a reputation that precedes it,” he told commissioners, noting that other churches and commercial developers have told him of similar project delays they encountered in Lower Pottsgrove.

“It bothers me that maybe the township doesn’t appear so business-friendly,” Commissioner Stephen Klotz, himself a former building contractor, interjected. “I agree with that entirely,” added commission Vice President Bruce Foltz, an electrician.

Commissioners have heard the accusation before, most recently from Bassett Industries when it sought last year to expand its manufacturing plant on Sanatoga Station Road. The board ultimately agreed to the expansion, but endured highly critical comments from the company’s president on legal obstacles he said he faced in getting the building erected.

Klotz suggested the township needed to create a checklist for developers on what would be expected from them in submitting projects for review. The checklist is created for each project in the form of engineering advisories, Camburn and Bursich President Scott Exley replied, but Exley volunteered his firm to work with commissioners at their discretion to possibly streamline the process further.

As for the church, commissioners limited the number of letters it needed to send to neighbors about the buffer, and halved the number of days allotted for a response.

Related:

• Township’s Business-Friendliness Topic In Church Project
• Township Planners Approve Church’s New Gymnasium
• Zoning Board OKs Berean Bible Church Expansion
• Two Expansions Considered On Lower Pottsgrove Agenda
• Sanatoga Church Looks To Expand Its Gymnasium
• Applications Withdrawn; Township Cancels Zoning Hearings
• Lower Pottsgrove Hearings Set For Apartments, Lighting

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ May 7 meeting):

• Township’s Business-Friendliness Topic In Church Project
• Township Names Goodwill Ambulance First Responder
• Yerger Road Fatal Crash In March Ruled As Accidental
• Township Meeting Set For Monday, Despite Road Trip