SANATOGA PA – Repairs have begun on a lengthy section of Rupert Road fronting the “Links At Raven’s Claw” golf and housing community, after Lower Pottsgrove Township threatened to seek a court injunction that could have temporarily prohibited the community’s developer from selling more real estate there, Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway said Monday (Aug. 6, 2012).
The affected portion of Rupert Road, as it looked in May (2012) before repair work began
Township engineer Chad Camburn of Bursich Associates reported contractors for developer DHLP LLC were busy last week installing concrete curbs, sidewalks and driveway aprons along the east side of Rupert. The work, in an area roughly north of Shire Drive to north of Putter Lane, should be completed by mid-August, he told the Board of Commissioners during its first monthly meeting.
It will be followed by re-paving of Rupert along the same length, about 200 yards, as well as by the installation of curbside trees and property markers. The entire project should be finished in October, Camburn estimated.
But little of it would likely have gotten under way, Holloway suggested afterward, if the township hadn’t bared its teeth.
Commissioners agreed in June with Holloway’s recommendation to have township special counsel Michael Furey sue DHLP and its bonding agent in Montgomery County courts for an alleged failure to abide by subdivision and land development agreements. Those contracts, signed years ago with the company’s predecessor, called for improvements now being made.
Furey’s “continuing pressure” demonstrated the township was intent on completing the work, Holloway said. Involving DHLP’s bonding agent probably ratcheted the pressure up a notch, he added. Then, last Tuesday (July 31), the township was scheduled to go to court for a hearing on the injunction that Holloway indicated, if successful, might have halted DHLP’s ability to sell homes until a settlement was reached.
By that time, according to the solicitor, “serious negotiations” between Lower Pottsgrove and DHLP were already in progress. The scheduled hearing has not yet been held, or canceled; “just continued,” Holloway said, providing the township with the opportunity to return to court if needed.
Other court actions may face the developer from neighboring Limerick Township, according to The Limerick Patch online news service.
The majority of the community lies east in Limerick, across the townships’ mutual border line. Limerick’s Board of Supervisors voted June 19 to have its attorney pursue legal remedies because the developer allegedly missed deadlines to make improvements required there, and because the amount of money held in escrow by Limerick is insufficient to cover their costs, The Patch reported.
Related:
- Township Threat Pays Off; Rupert Repairs In Progress
- Back To The Courts: Township Suing Developer, Again
- Township OKs Payment For Rupert Bridge, Ends Lawsuit
- Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit
- Rupert Road Bridge Repair Funds ‘Wait’ In DE Bank
- Township Plans $375,000+ Suit To Fix Rupert Bridge
- Report: Six Bridges In Township ‘Structurally Deficient’
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Aug. 6):
- Woof, Meow, Hiss! Township Looking At Animal Control
- Township Threat Pays Off; Rupert Repairs In Progress
It seems that the work being done has more to do with the piping than the roadway. Thus far the beneficiaries are the Limerick residents on the east side of Rupert …
Progress is always slow.