The Sanatoga Post

Safer motorcycle riding is on the minds of volunteers at the Ringing Hill Fire Company

POTTSTOWN PA – Volunteers from Lower Pottsgrove’s Ringing Hill Fire Company teach children what to do when a fire alarm sounds. They teach fellow members about how to be better firefighters and emergency responders. Now the company is looking to use its property for yet another teaching role: motorcycle safety.

Ringing Hill has asked the township Zoning Hearing Board to grant a special usage exception in the R-1 residential zone where its fire hall located – 815 White Pine Ln., Pottstown PA – “to teach a Pennsylvania-approved motorcycle safety program,” according to an advertisement published Friday (Feb. 3, 2012) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, Lower Pottsgrove’s publication of record for legal notices.

The board is scheduled to meet Feb. 21 (2012; Tuesday) beginning at 6 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Sanatoga PA. The hearing is open to the public.

If its exception is granted, Ringing Hill would be the only approved provider of motorcycle safety programming within a 10-mile radius of Pottstown, according to the Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Program. Others closest to the greater Pottstown area are in Phoenixville, Wayne, Emmaus, Leesport and Cheyney, the last being 23 miles away.

The program is supervised by the California-based Motorcycle Safety Foundation and the state Department of Transportation.

The foundation’s Pennsylvania website explained the program “was established to teach riders of all skill levels the basic fundamentals needed in order to safely operate a motorcycle. The MSP was created from legislation in 1984 and began one year later. The Motorcycle Safety Program is free to all Pennsylvania license holders.”

Its 15-hour basic rider course “is designed to prepare (motorcycle operators) for entry into the complex world of traffic,” the website said. A second, more advanced 6-hour course “was developed to address the skills needed for low risk, enjoyable on-street motorcycling,” it added. A third and newest course is similar to the basic session, but is specifically geared toward increasingly popular three-wheeled ‘cycles.

A set of courses to be taught at Ringing Hill, where there is plenty of isolated parking lot space for such activity, is classified as an “educational purpose” for the hearing board’s consideration.

SANATOGA PA – Local government junkies love early January. It’s the best time of year to make their marks on a brand new, pristine calendar.

Like local governments everywhere, Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township has obliged those who follow its inner workings – far more closely than most of us – by supplying in advance its schedule of commissions, boards, and agencies meeting dates during the next 12 months.

Meetings are planned for:

• the Board of Commissioners, at 7 p.m. on Jan. 3 and 19 Feb. 6 and 23, March 5 and 22, April 2 and 9, May 7 and 24, June 4 and 21, July 2 and 19, Aug. 6 and 23, Sept. 4 and 20 Oct. 1 and 18, Nov. 1 and 15, and Dec. 3 and 20;

• the Sewer Authority, at 7 p.m. on Jan. 9, Feb. 13, March 12, April 9, May 16, June 11, July 9, Aug. 13, Sept. 10, Oct. 9, Nov. 12, and Dec. 10;

• the Planning Commission, at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 23, Feb. 27, March 19, April 16, May 21, June 18, July 16, Aug. 20, Sept. 17, Oct. 15, Nov. 19 and Dec. 17; and

• the Parks and Recreation Board, at 7 p.m. on Jan. 30, Feb. 28, March 26, April 23, May 29, June 25, July 23, Aug. 27, Sept. 24, Oct. 22 and Nov. 26, with no meeting in December.

Exceptions in scheduling meeting dates are the township Zoning Hearing Board and Civil Service Commission. They meet only on an as-needed basis.

All meetings are held at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown, and are open to the public. Both the building and its and meeting room are wheelchair accessible. Anyone who needs assistance or accommodation to attend a meeting is asked to call the township office, 610-323-0436 Ext. 8, at least 24 hours in advance. Those with limited or no hearing can contact the township using a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD) by calling the AT&T Pennsylvania Relay Center toll-free at 800-654-5984.

The township advertised its meeting dates Dec. 21 (2011) in The Pottstown Mercury newspaper, its publication of record for legal notices.

SANATOGA PA – Tracy Heebner hopes to open a beauty and personal services salon in Sanatoga village, near the corner of East High Street and Heritage Drive, but first she’ll need the approval of the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Zoning Hearing Board.

Heebner, a Gilbertsville resident, is an “equitable owner” of a former home at 2135 E. High St., Pottstown PA, according to an advertisement that appeared Friday (Sept. 2, 2011) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, the township’s publication of record for legal notices. The zoning board, which placed the ad, has scheduled a hearing for Sept. 20 (Tuesday) at 6 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., to consider Heebner’s request to locate a business there. The meeting is open to the public.

Montgomery County property records list the property’s last owners as Dr. Charles and Mary Vickerman. Vickerman, a dermatologist who operated his medical practice there, closed it in Spring 2010 after his license was suspended for one year by the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine. The property is located in an R-4 residential district and the Sanatoga Village Overlay District.

Heebner has petitioned the zoning board for permission to:

• Forego the need of a Historic Building Impact Study, because there are no changes proposed for the building exterior;
• Allow 14 new parking spaces in the rear yard; and
• Operate the salon as a special exception use within the districts.

POTTSTOWN PA – Lighted, digital billboards approved Tuesday (April 19, 2011) by the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Zoning Hearing Board, to be seen by drivers on U.S. Route 422, are expected to be colorful and eye-catching. What if, township resident and former commissioner Thomas Troutman wondered aloud, they were eye-popping too?

A controversial billboard for a Gucci perfume, which appeared last October in Los Angeles

Is there any guarantee the advertising signs will not show sexual or offensive content?, Troutman asked board members and representatives of owner Lamar Advertising of Penn LLC, during their hearing at the township municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown.

Two chances of that, Lamar Director of Real Estate Melissa Nye quickly replied: slim and much slimmer. Her company, she said, follows strict guidelines to prevent such displays. “I know my manager would never allow it,” she said.

“I’m sure that’s so now,” but companies, policies and managers change, Troutman contended. What will keep unappealing, or maybe overly appealing, images off those oversized, television-like screens in the future?, he asked.

Possibly nothing, hearing board attorney Robert Brant observed.

In fact, Brant added, imposing any such restriction would violate the First Amendment – the one that ensures the right of free speech – of the U.S. Constitution. “We can’t limit free speech,” Brant said of the board, whose members must deal only with applicable township laws.

The best Troutman might hope for, apparently, is that good taste will prevail.

Related:

• Sex Sells … But, He’s Hopeful, Not In Lower Pottsgrove
• Lamar Wins Township Approval For TV-Like Billboards
• Hearings Scheduled For National Penn’s Sanatoga Sign
• Lower Pottsgrove, Lamar Negotiating Over Sign Request
• All Signs Point To More Township Signage Talk Tonight
• Anticipated Township Billboard Battle Gets A Reprieve
• Legal Fight Shapes Up Over Signs In Lower Pottsgrove
• Advertisers Propose Colorful, Electronic Sign In Township

Photo from Daily Billboard

SANATOGA PA – A proposal for a four-story building of garden suite apartments to complete the Buchert Ridge Community at Buchert and Kepler roads received Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Zoning Hearing Board approval Tuesday night (April 19, 2011), but it came with a list of 12 conditions that regulate the height of some nearby buildings, the size of accompanying carports, and placement of landscaping items.

The hearing board did not rule on the height of the apartment building itself, because developer J. Wilmer Hallman of Hallman Retirement Communities, based in Sanatoga PA, earlier agreed it would not exceed township limits. What was considered its excessive height, when first presented, prompted objections in recent months from neighboring property owners.

One such owner, Matthew Cappelletti of 1215 Kepler Rd., Pottstown PA, was represented by legal counsel at earlier hearings. The board’s conclusions of law, to be distributed today (Wednesday, April 20), specifically found Cappelletti did not meet a “burden to prove to a high degree of probability” that he adjoining buildings would “substantially affect the health, safety and welfare of the community.”

The hearing board ruling could be appealed in civil courts.

The board’s several conditions limit the:

• Amount of impervious coverage (like asphalt and buildings) on the parcel;
• Coverage area of the apartments and service buildings;
• Size and placement of landscape buffers on Buchert Road and facing Kepler Road;
• Height of a pedestrian walkway between the apartments and nearby parking garage, the garage itself, adjacent carports an service buildings; and the
• Number and square footage of adjacent carports.

A audience significantly smaller than the crowd that turned out for earlier hearings was on hand to hear the board’s ruling. It was issued shortly after the 6 p.m. start of the board meeting in the township municipal building on Buchert Road.

Related (to Buchert Ridge Community):

• Hallman Apartments At Buchert Ridge Get Zoning OK
• Buchert Ridge Added Sewer Capacity Gets Board OK
• PART Buses Play A Part In Buchert Ridge Building Plans
• Surprise: Height No Longer Zoning Issue At Buchert Ridge
• Over Objections, Commissioners Endorse Buchert Apartments
• Two Expansions Considered On Lower Pottsgrove Agenda
• 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

The red circle on this Google satellite image shows the Porter Road location where Lamar Advertising's existing billboards will be swapped for newer, digital versions.

SANATOGA PA – Outdoor billboard company Lamar Advertising of Penn LLC will be allowed to erect lighted digital signs, which display advertising messages that change every 10 seconds, atop a Porter Road, Pottstown PA, support structure that’s been in place since 1999, the Lower Pottsgrove Township Zoning Hearing Board unanimously decided Tuesday night (April 19, 2011).

Hearing board acceptance of the Reading PA firm’s proposal ends months of promised legal fights and subsequent negotiations between Lamar and the township. The Board of Commissioners initially opposed, and then ultimately reached a deal on, Lamar’s use of the billboards that resemble giant flat-screen televisions and will face traffic on all four lanes of U.S. Route 422 near the Armand Hammer Boulevard interchange.

Township law limits the physical size of some advertising signs in certain zones, and makes few if any provisions for frequently changing messages. “What you’re telling us is that the technology has changed but the ordinance hasn’t … that the relief you want reflects the technology you’re using,” board attorney Robert Brant said. “That’s exactly right,” replied Lamar attorney James Lillis.

Lamar considers the Porter Road site, which currently supports a different and older set of billboards, “an important part of its inventory,” Lillis said. Their messages also change, and more frequently (every 5 seconds, but without internal lighting) than the new signs will. “But current market conditions demand a digital sign,” he noted.

The commissioners’ agreement with Lamar, reached in recent weeks and approved by the board during its April 4 meeting, limits the frequency of changes and the brightness of the lighting. It also gives the township opportunities to use the billboards for its own public announcements or emergency notifications.

Lamar had indicated it would challenge the legality of the township sign ordinance, first with the hearing board and later in civil courts if necessary, to ensure it could continue operating locally. Commission President Jonathan Spadt in January said the board was attempting to find a compromise with Lamar and avoid what could be a costly showdown.

Both sides “agreed to come to terms rather than fight a long legal battle,” Lillis, of the Kozloff Stout law firm in Wyomissing PA, said following the hearing board decision.

Related:

• Lamar Wins Township Approval For TV-Like Billboards
• Hearings Scheduled For National Penn’s Sanatoga Sign
• Lower Pottsgrove, Lamar Negotiating Over Sign Request
• All Signs Point To More Township Signage Talk Tonight
• Anticipated Township Billboard Battle Gets A Reprieve
• Legal Fight Shapes Up Over Signs In Lower Pottsgrove
• Advertisers Propose Colorful, Electronic Sign In Township

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ April 4 meeting):

• Lamar Wins Township Approval For TV-Like Billboards
• Drug Take-Back Event Returns To Lower Pottsgrove
• Trout Rodeo Launches Six Weeks of Township Fun

SANATOGA PA – Sanatoga developer J. Wilmer “Wil” Hallman is scheduled to return next week (Monday, March 28, 2011) to continue a Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Zoning Board public hearing on his plans to build garden-style apartments on Buchert Road. Although the future of the project itself hasn’t been decided, one of its necessary components is now in place.

Hallman’s proposal for his Buchert Ridge Community Phase 2, to be built on the north side of Buchert – just east of Kepler Road and across the street from the Walnut Ridge townhome complex – received approval earlier this month from both Montgomery County and the township Board of Commissioners for the sewer capacity needed to make its construction possible.

The number of apartments available exclusively to senior citizens was expanded in the last version of Hallman’s plans. Eight additional equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) of capacity represented by the expansion were approved by the township Sewer Authority last December (2010), and were later also accepted by the county. Commissioners were the third and last group to make it official, with a unanimous vote during their March 7 (2011) meeting.

Board President Jonathan Spadt was absent and did not vote.

The sewer capacity gives Hallman the opportunity to add the extra apartments if he either wins zoning board approval for variances needed to bring his existing plans to fruition, or if he determines how to build the project within the scope of earlier plan approvals without requiring variances.

“If the zoning’s not approved, then maybe these EDUs go nowhere,” township Manager Rodney Hawthorne told commissioners.

Hallman’s project has run into opposition, primarily from Kepler Road residents, who object to its building height and other features. During the last Zoning Board meeting on Feb. 28, Hallman attorney Charles Garner Jr. said the developer’s request for a height variance was being withdrawn. It means that, if the project is allowed to proceed, it must be built within the height limitations of township law.

Related (to Buchert Ridge Community):

• Buchert Ridge Added Sewer Capacity Gets Board OK
• PART Buses Play A Part In Buchert Ridge Building Plans
• Surprise: Height No Longer Zoning Issue At Buchert Ridge
• Over Objections, Commissioners Endorse Buchert Apartments
• Two Expansions Considered On Lower Pottsgrove Agenda
• 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 Board of Commissioners’ March 7 meeting):

• Buchert Ridge Added Sewer Capacity Gets Board OK
• Proof Lower Pottsgrove Loves You: Tax Bills In Mail
• Emergency Team Took What February Threw At It
• Board Orders Long-Delayed Drain Repairs … Or Else
• Commissioners Again Reject Boulevard Name Change
• To Those Who Dug Out, Lower Pottsgrove Salutes You
• Commissioners Approve Park Trail Bid Advertising
• Sprogels Run Park Project On Commissioners’ Agenda

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

SANATOGA PA – Sanatoga’s Berean Bible Church won approval Monday (Feb. 28, 2011) from the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Zoning Hearing Board to move ahead with plans to construct an 11,000-square-foot gymnasium addition to its building at 2675 E. High St., Pottstown PA. The expansion allows church youth programs to continue without disrupting an adjacent area for worship services.

Zoning board members unanimously granted the church relief from lighting and landscape requirements that would otherwise be enforced due to its location. However, they ordered the church to comply with all other applicable building regulations, to apply for all necessary permits, and to provide future lighting and landscape buffers if desired by the township.

Church plans also received earlier approval from the township Planning Commission.

The church’s 300- to 500-member congregation wants to permanently use its existing gym for worship; the new gym would accommodate weekly youth athletic activities. Asked if both gyms could be used simultaneously for sports events, Administrative Pastor Bill Neitz smiled and pledged that once the worship center is set up, “there won’t be any balls in there.”

Several area residents spoke on behalf of the church, testifying it had been a good neighbor and they foresaw no problems with the expansion.

One adjacent property owner reported he experienced storm water run-off problems from a portion of the church lot. Planning commissioners, who next must approve the building design, will address that and other issues, the zoning board assured him.

A Pottstown Area Rapid Transit bus en route to Sanatoga

SANATOGA PA – Retirement community builder J. Wilmer “Wil” Hallman years ago hoped to win Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township approval of his plans to create an age-restricted housing project on Buchert Road. He wanted to do the right thing too, his attorney explained Monday (Feb. 28, 2011), in solving a problem that troubled the place he also called home.

So at the township’s request, Hallman agreed to include in his plans for what became Buchert Ridge Community, 2011 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, a paved loop that would serve as a turn-around for Pottstown Area Rapid Transit Inc. (PART) buses. It would mark the east end of their Sanatoga-to-Stowe route, which takes riders primarily along High Street.

In helping the township eliminate what is recognized as a dangerous situation posed by PART, though, Hallman may have inadvertently made problems of his own for Buchert Ridge.

The bus loop was one of several features highlighted by attorney Charles Garner as he spoke during a Monday night hearing on Buchert Ridge conducted by Lower Pottsgrove’s Zoning Hearing Board. Hallman’s plans require a variance on the number of parking spaces his community must have by law; the board has yet to rule on that request, and continued its hearing until March 28.

PART’s route currently ends at the Rolling Hills rental complex on Buchert Road, on the west end of semi-circular Rolling Hills Drive and across the street from Buchert Ridge. The turn-around there is a three-pointer: buses are driven west to, and then stopped just past the intersection (Point 1); drivers then back across the width of Buchert Road into Rolling Hills Drive (Point 2); and when ready to return to Stowe they leave the drive turning right (Point 3) and head east on Buchert to North Pleasant View Road.

A sketch shows the bus loop proposed at Buchert Ridge near Kepler Road

Township police and officials have long complained that the three-pointer is an accident waiting to happen on the busy and often speedy highway, in an area filled with children. Construction of Buchert Ridge, with its second entrance closer to the intersection of Kepler and Buchert roads, and with what at the time appeared to be available vacant land, seemed the perfect opportunity to install a PART loop and remove the perceived accident threat.

The loop’s location, in Buchert Ridge’s southwest corner, is adjacent to a proposed multi-story building of garden suite apartments that is now a bone of contention among Kepler Road property owners. They crowded into the zoning hearing, and a earlier meeting of the township Board of Commissioners, to protest its excessive height. Hallman would have needed a variance for it, too, but announced Monday the building would comply with township height requirements.

Could the building be lengthened, and its objectionable height further reduced, if the designed bus loop wasn’t in its way? Hallman’s engineering consultant, John McMenamin, hinted at it – but did not testify to as much – during the hearing.

Ironically, Hallman estimates 75 percent of buyers at Buchert Ridge, and an earlier project about two miles east – Sanatoga Ridge – rely on their own cars for transportation. Of the 25 percent without vehicles, Hallman reported, “few ride a bus.”

Related (to Buchert Ridge Community):

• PART Buses Play A Part In Buchert Ridge Building Plans
• Surprise: Height No Longer Zoning Issue At Buchert Ridge
• Over Objections, Commissioners Endorse Buchert Apartments
• Two Expansions Considered On Lower Pottsgrove Agenda
• 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

SANATOGA PA – The need for a height variance in the proposal to build a four-story building of garden suite apartments in the Buchert Ridge Community at Buchert and Kepler roads came off the table Monday night (Feb. 28, 2011), in a surprising move by developer Wil Hallman before a crowded meeting of the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Zoning Board of Appeals.

Lower Pottsgrove Zoning Office Keth Place, right consults with Zoning Board attorney Joseph McGrory, second from right, and board members during Monday night's hearing.

Buchert Ridge attorney Charles Garner told board members Hallman was withdrawing his request to allow the apartment building to exceed the township’s 35-foot height limit. Hallman, himself a Lower Pottsgrove resident, still intends to erect the building, but does not yet know whether its design will involve four or fewer stories, or fewer units.

It will, however, comply with township law, Garner added. “We want to make sure community concerns are properly addressed,” he said.

The building’s re-design must be reviewed and approved by Lower Pottsgrove’s Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners. It might sail through both, if it hews to overall plans for Buchert Ridge accepted by the township during 2006.

Removal of the height issue took away a primary reason several Kepler Road property owners came out to the hearing: to convince the board that plans for what was envisioned as a 48-foot-tall building were inappropriate for the surrounding neighborhood of mostly one- and two-story residences. That left zoners to consider only Hallman’s request for parking relief, and five special exceptions for additional accompanying maintenance structures.

Arguments about the proposal seem far from over, however. An attorney representing nearby property owner Matthew Cappelletti, 1215 Kepler Rd., was among those who questioned Hallman and other witnesses during the more than two-hour hearing, preparing what he hoped were grounds for a potential lawsuit to force re-examination of the entire project.

Buchert Ridge’s first phase – the installation of mostly one-story, one- and two-family buildings for owner-occupants age 55 and older, on seven acres at 2011 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA – is considered finished. Area residents embraced that proposal introduced by Hallman several years ago, favoring it over what could have been higher-density, less attractive dwellings in the same space.

Some of the same residents are adamantly opposed to current plans for an additional six acres of Buchert Ridge Phase 2, which have changed with the distressed economy. On Monday night and earlier, they complained the towering garden suites – to be built along side a tributary of Sprogel’s Run – would dwarf their homes.

Related (to Buchert Ridge Community):

• Surprise: Height No Longer Zoning Issue At Buchert Ridge
• Over Objections, Commissioners Endorse Buchert Apartments
• Two Expansions Considered On Lower Pottsgrove Agenda
• 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