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| Supervisor George Washburn |
The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors represents the interests of 1,455 townships in the commonwealth, which comprise 95 percent of Pennsylvania’s land area and are home to more than 5.5 million citizens — 44 percent of the state’s population. It has decided to intervene in the NIZ litigation started by Hanover and Bethlehem Townships.
Township resident Joe Schiller told the Board to keep the pressure on Allentown Mayor Edwin Pawlowski. "Maybe he'll make the developers pay for this instead of the Townships," Schiller argued.
I was very impressed by the Williams Township board, by the way. It relies heavily on volunteers who report on different aspects of Township government. There's separate Advisory Committees for the Budget, Sewer, Landfill and Land Preservation. A representative from each of these advisory committees provides an oral report at each meeting. As a result, there were 33 people in the meeting room, engaged in open and accountable government.
The Township, incidentally, is considering a repeal or amendment of three "conservation by design" ordinances adopted in 2007. They're known as 50-50 ordinances, which restricts development by a property owner with ten acres or more to either keeping 50% as open space or planning on 3 acres per house.
Halden Ballek, a fourth-generation farmer who has challenged these ordinances in Northampton County Court, told Supervisors this legislative scheme is :"discriminatory towards farmers, whose occupation requires large tracts of land to earn a living." He complained these ordinances "quietly erode people's property rights."
Resident Bob Lilley was a little more frank. "Conservation by design is simply stealing," he asserted.
Supervisor Vince Foglia is ready to pull the plug on "conservation by design," but George Washburn and Sally Hixson are leaning towards making it a voluntary scheme.
They're asking owners directly impacted by this legislation to come to their June meeting and share their experiences.
