Local Government TV

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Updated: Planners Deny Administrative Review of Green Pond Marsh Plan

Att'y Tom Elliott
Traditions of America, one of the most successful developers of active senior communities, have plans for one in Bethlehem Township. It has an agreement with Green Pond Country Club to build a 256-home gated community right next to the Green Pond Marsh, which has been designated by the US Army Corps of Engineers as a wetland. This marsh has also been designated by the Audubon as an Important Bird Area. It is home to over 180 species of migratory fowl. Rather than saying it's "for the birds," Traditions Principal David Biddison has been fairly aggressive about pushing his plan through both the Planning Commission and Commissioners for deferrals that somehow became outright waivers. But he suffered a minor setback last night.when the Planning Commission refused to send the plans into administrative review. The reason for this can be summed up in two words - Tom Elliott.

Kenn Edinger
Green Pond Marsh supporters have retained Tom Elliott, a Township resident who has served off and on as Township Solicitor over the years. He also served for 14 years as a Planning Commissioner.

The first thing he did was ask Biddison to waive his copyright to the plans so Elliott could copy and inspect them.

"I'm not prepared to have a negotiation on copyright law at a Planning Commission meeting," Biddison bristled, as Chairman Lee Snover explained that developer plans are generally not copied for members of the public, although they can inspect them at municipal offices.

Having insinuated a lack of transparency, Elliott went in to claim that the 86-sheet plan is itself "pretty disappointing." He called it both "unimaginative" and "way too dense." He scoffed at the notion of a project for senior citizens located next to a golf course, noting that many of them will be unable to ambulate in just a few years."You're building a project that by its very nature is ill-proposed for a golf course community," he argued.

Les Walker and Harry Powell
But his biggest argument was that planners have seen no storm water management plan, "You do not have a storm water study and are going into administrative review," he observed. "I'm led to wonder what's in that report. ... I think you would at least have a passing interest." Elliott pointed out that just one week before, the township was hit with a downpour that resulted in many closed roads.

Planner Les Walker, who last month derided opponents of this development as NIMBYs, told Elliott that he happens to be a Professional Engineer and that the downpour that closed roads in Bethlehem Township only happens once very 500 years.

"I don't know how many times I've heard in the last 5-10 years, 'That was a 500-year storm,'" responded Elliott.

In addition to the complete absence of a storm water study, Elliott questioned whether there's been any study of the water quality going from the pond and golf course and into the wetlands. he noted the golf course refuses to use that water to irrigate its fairways.

Agreeing that water quality is something that should be looked at, Kenn Edinger moved to table the proposal to send the development into administrative review. He was joined by Planning Commission members Don Wright, Mark Grandinetti, Harry Powell and James Daley. Chairman Lee Snover, who has a personal relationship with Biddison, abstained. Walker was the sole planner willing to move the plans into administrative review without even examining a storm water study.*

Earlier that evening, Walker askked that the minutes be corrected to reflect that he never said he supported the Traditions plan. He did say again that he is opposed to "some of the antics" displayed by Green Pond Marsh supporters.

Citizens also spoke out against the proposed development. Mary Claire Diamond told planners that she grew up on the golf course, and as a little girl, would count the deer and watch baby owls hatching. She called it a "terrible shame that you considering letting this plan go forward." She still lives on Church Road, near this development, and reported that "traffic in the morning is horrendous." She finally called on planners to "address the flooding issue."

Malissa Davis provided a historical perspective. She noted that planners turned down Tuskes plans to develop Green Pond Marsh in 1999. She reported that Leonard Hudak, when he was a Commissioner, complained about increased traffic and stormwaters. A Toll Brothers plan in 2003 was unpopular enough with residents that 50 of them showed for a DEP meeting. A Petrucci plan proposed in 2010 was given a "Yuck!" by Planning Chair lee Snover, and at that time, Commissioner Michale Hudak, like his father  leonard, was concerned about traffic.

After the meeting, Township residents Barry and Roy Roth reported that the flooding from last Monday's storm was so bad that Hope Road is completely washed way at the Bethlehem Boat Club. They believe all these storm waters cascaded down from St. Luke's Anderson campus, which is incidentally expanding.

_______________________________
*    Update 12:45 pm: During the roll call vote on the motion to table administrative review, the Recording Secretary forgot to call on Grandinetti for a vote. Chair Lee Snover caught this, and asked her to get Grandinetti's vote, which was a No. Planning Director Nathan Jones tells me this can be clealry heard on the tape, but I never heard it in the meeting room.

I have also asked Jones why the documentation that should accompany the agenda prior to a Planning meeting is not being attached.  That will start next month. 

Finally, I think it's time to say that the new PA system in place is horrible, worst than the last, and needs to be replaced. When people speak, and you can only hear every other word, something is wrong. Jones tells me it is operator error, and plans to send Planning Commission members a memo indiucating they need to hold the button while speaking.

26 comments:

  1. Elliot is Walker's worst nightmare - an attorney who knows what he is doing. To sit there and say we just had a 500 year storm is moronic. PE's have big heads and big mouths. Fortunately, the rest of the commission members were not at boneheaded as Walker.

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  2. Good to see Mr. Elliott before the township, again. Very knowledgeable about municipal and environmental law, as well as previous attempts to develop Green Pond. That said, this tract has always been a tug of war between the property rights of the owners to develop as zoned vs. various concerns of its impact. The Twp had previously secured, when Mr. Elliott was Solicitor, that the golf course will be preserved as open space indefinitely. However, the twp has also always been hamstrung by the legality that you can't sterilize the entire tract, and take away development rights, essentially eliminating its property value. Personally, storm water impact and traffic at Farmersville, and Church, Roads were always the biggest concerns with prior proposals. However, there were/are limits to what the twp could/can extract, as again you can not deny the rights of the property owners to "develop as zoned". While some previous plans met with approvals, what always seemed to doom previous projects was the ultimate costs of what could be required, or extracted, both on and off site re storm water and traffic. Keep in mind, the "developer" needs to be able to pay for all aspects of development and still make a sufficient profit, or its not worthwhile. That has always driven the density of units for all proposals in order to sell enough units to still end up profitable. I appreciate that the environmental impact has galvanized the political and public opinion spotlight this time around, and could very well succeed. No doubt some approve. However, there are likely also Planners and Commissioners who privately hope the opposition does succeed-- whether for the traffic,storm water, and/or environmental reasons-- while still grudgingly needing to vote for approvals because of the law while keeping the bar raised as high as they legally can. This is the first time, that I can recall, that money has actually been spent to actively oppose development. How far is the opposition, and the developer and property owners, willing to match/push back?

    Re Hope Road, and the Boat Club, at the end of the post: they have been washed out before by storms prior to St. Luke's and still farmland, so that is an unfair red herring to blame them. I did have to laugh, and agree, with Mr. Elliott's comment elsewhere re "500 year storms."

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  3. Years ago, I used to run from there nearly every day. I am well aware of the damage storm eaters have inflicted, and recall at least one previous occasion when that road washed out. And you are right. There was no St. Luke's then. So it may be unfair to blame it.

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  4. Yes, the road washed out before, that is true. But last week I videotaped the raging torrents of water running down the bank from St. Luke's plateau into the gully beside Hope Road. THAT never happened before. Closer to Freemansburg Ave, water was sheeting off the developed land onto the fallow farmland across Hope Road and into the huge river of swirling mud that pooled at the St. Luke's Conference Center gate before being sucked downstream into the drain-way. The drain way overflowed before the second cascade of water coming off the slope, so it boiled into a real mess just before the two tunnels drainage tunnels built by St. Luke's on the west side of Hope Road. The culvert was not flooded. The road was though. Once past the culvert, the water flowed out onto Hope Rioad and across it one more time before being channeled through the historic stone underpass. The water this time destroyed the stone wall on the eastern side of the road leading to the underpass which perviously survived Hurricanes Floyd and Irene and any massive storm in the past 170 years. Now that the wall is compromised, how much will the next storms damage the soil abutment of the stone overpass? That is different from years ago. St' Lukes IS making a negative impact.

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  5. Bernie,
    Why is this guy so aggressive. Traditions is funded by millions of spending dollars, why this little tract of land? Something we don't know.

    "Principal David Biddison has been fairly aggressive..."

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  6. Anonymous Anonymous said...
    Yes, the road washed out before, that is true. But last week I videotaped the raging torrents of water running down the bank from St. Luke's plateau into the gully beside Hope Road. THAT never happened before. Closer to Freemansburg Ave, water was sheeting off the developed land onto the fallow farmland across Hope Road and into the huge river of swirling mud that pooled at the St. Luke's Conference Center gate before being sucked downstream into the drain-way. The drain way overflowed before the second cascade of water coming off the slope, so it boiled into a real mess just before the two tunnels drainage tunnels built by St. Luke's on the west side of Hope Road. The culvert was not flooded. The road was though. Once past the culvert, the water flowed out onto Hope Rioad and across it one more time before being channeled through the historic stone underpass. The water this time destroyed the stone wall on the eastern side of the road leading to the underpass which perviously survived Hurricanes Floyd and Irene and any massive storm in the past 170 years. Now that the wall is compromised, how much will the next storms damage the soil abutment of the stone overpass? That is different from years ago. St' Lukes IS making a negative impact.

    6:47

    Someone gets out of their car to escape these rushing waters and sadly they may drown.

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  7. Anonymous 6:49 As Bernie wrote previously,
    "The cheapest Traditions home I've seen is $254,000, with the highest going for $472,000. As a matter of simple math, the developer will gross between $65 and $120 million from home sales. In the final analysis, it's there to make money. Lots of money. Planners got upset with opponent Jack Glagola when he reminded them that Traditions' primary goal is to maximize profit, but that's the reality."

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  8. Who is John Galt

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  9. Antics? What antics? Maybe he is referring to the SaveGreenPond.org signs which he says he "sees everywhere and thinks are ridiculous". There haven't been any 'antics' from the Save Green Pond supporters. Since the beginning, they have been very respectful and continue to be. Considering the manner in which a few of the Bethlehem Township officials have been behaving, blindly supporting the developer in this project and many times disrespecting opponents to this development when they speak at the public meetings, they have no right to talk about other's supposed 'antics'.

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  10. Perhaps the word "aggressive" is too ...aggressive on my part. Persistent and ambitious are two you could substitute.

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  11. "Actually Grandinetti voted with Walker it was recorded incorrectly. He corrected the secretary and you may not have heard that."

    I did not. I have called the Planning Department (11:03 am) to confirm whether Grandinetti voted with Walker and will change mhy post if it is inaccurate. I do know that Grandinetti never publicly corrected the secretary and that should have happened if he did so the public actually knows how he voted.

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  12. "Antics? What antics?"

    I think Walker was disturbed last month at the suggestion that Biddison has a financial motive for what he does and says. He did say he hates the signs as well.

    This is America. It is a democratic republic, not some plutocracy in which only professional engineers may speak. Walker is supposedly a nice guy, so I will refrain from judging him. ... Yet.

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  13. "Who is John Galt "

    Ayn Rand is just not that good a writer, especially the preachy speeches her characters give. I loved Anthem and The Fountainhead, but her characters are way too dogmatic in Atlas Shrugged. So as a literary effort, I consider Atlas Shrugged wanting. Her political views are interesting, and she does effectively portray the power of individualism.

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  14. 6:47, Why not upload the video to Youtube or send to me and I'll upload. BOHare5948@aol.com. Don;t know how good the video will be bc it was dark and that area is poorly lit.

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  15. 11:22

    "I think Walker was disturbed last month at the suggestion that Biddison has a financial motive for what he does and says.

    Please enlighten us - what other motive does Biddison have??


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  16. I suggest he has no other interest. If he wanted to make the world a better place, he'd be in the Peace Corps or at least a bottom-feeding blogger. He is in business to make money, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But there is nothing wrong with reminding planners and other officials of that, from time to time.

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  17. Absolutely nothing wrong with being in business to make money. Planners and other officials responsibility is to the community they represent - not to the business that's trying to make money or to themselves.

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  18. Developers can make money, but they also have the responsibility to make sure that they are not harming the land or the ecosystem existing on the land or endangering the citizens of that community by providing proper storm water management systems. When you start to move forward with a plan that does not have storm water approval, no plan in place for protecting the wetlands while in construction mode or no landscaping plan as a screen for the wetlands you are not a sensitive or responsible builder. They seem to build sub-standard houses, pack as many houses as they can on the land as they can without any sensitivity what so ever.

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  19. Tom Elliott is arguably one of the best land us lawyers in the Valley. He is skilled, seasoned and extremely knowledgeable of how the development process works. He is the fellow that actually wrote the Planning process being followed in Bethlehem Township! Les Walker and others on that Board who were not there when Tom practiced should be very wary and careful in their actions. It is clear that the Green Pond faction is not playing game with this development and are watching closely how things are being done and the process being followed. Tom was the fellow appointed Solicitor right after a number of Township officials went to jail for development oriented corruption. Make no mistake about it that he is watching this carefully and knows every move that is taken, should be taken or is not taken.

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  20. Lee Snover should just STFU and leave the room instead of interjecting her 2cents!

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  21. You libs don't think twice when it comes to abort an unborn fetus, but God forbid you take away land for birds, ducks, geese. Disgusting!

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  22. Bethlehem Township is full of crackpots and transplants. The crackpots are blind to the fact that the transplants are turning the township into a Jersey exit.

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  23. Dear Louis Denaldo 8:14; usually people that have the decency to respect and protect gods feathered friends also respect all of gods creations. Its the nature lovers and protectors that are the best stewards and have the greatest respect for life.

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  24. 8:07. Thinkin the same thing.

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  25. Louie Denaldo, your statement has nothing to do with nothing. Some of my very conservative, members of "Our Lady" friends are against this project because they see no reason to ruin a beautiful area and at the same time add more traffic. What does this have to do with being a liberal or being pro-abortion? I will answer -- "nothing"!

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