A public hearing was held on December 30, at the Sadsbury Township Building to review the preliminary plan for Lake View Terrace, (formerly known as Wesbury Village).

Township Supervisors Roy Whaley, Kevin VanHonk and Don Ellis, Sr., were all present as were Township Secretary Rose Mumau and Solicitor R. Charles Thomas.

Developer Jeff Davenport and Engineer Ashley Porter made the presentation as several citizens listened and viewed the plans, which were on display in the front of the room.

Several changes had been made since the last hearing, which was for conditional use. The conditional use had been granted at the meeting immediately following that hearing on December 8.

A slight refresher: Lake View Terrace will encompass approximately 7 acres and will include apartments, a retail center, which will house a pharmacy, and a twostory office region. It will be located near the intersection of Routes 322 and 18 just east of Conneaut Lake.

Davenport began by clearing up some questions that had come up during the first hearing and meeting. Evidently, there was a question about the entry level, in terms of age, concerning the residents for the apartment portion of the development.

He said that the ages would be 55 plus. Also, there had been some concern about the length of time that visitors might stay with a resident. Davenport said they would be allowed to stay for a period of 2 weeks. More discussion about this took place further along during the hearing as well with Supervisor Whaley wanting more details about what that meant exactly, the bottom line being Whaley wanted more information when it comes time to approve the preliminary plan.

That wasn't the only question being bantered about as some folks had expressed concerns about the traffic flow into and out of the facility. There had also been a question or two about an access road for emergency vehicles. The roadway is located on the property and is called Cemetery Road.

Since the first plans had been presented, some changes were made to address the issues in the best way possible, according to Porter, Davenport and even Whaley when he expressed his views to a resident in attendance.

He, Whaley, told the resident that he thought this plan was the best they could do under the circumstances. There will be an etrance to the facility along the side road and there will be unrestricted access along the Route 322 area. Porter imparted that with the whole development being moved back, it could help to clear up any issues with traffic.

He also said that pertaining to the retail portion of the complex, the main thrust of traffic would, more than likely, be for the use of the pharmacy. They took measures to have the drive-through part in an area that will hopefully reduce congestion.

Porter also said that it isn't like a restaurant or something where people are all driving in at a certain time for a dinner rush, for example.

He talked briefly about the office section and said that it would be low volume compared to something like a Walmart or other retail facility.

Another resident said he didn't see any problems with the plan and said that if people would simply follow the speed limit, or if the speed limit could be reduced in the area of Miller's Food Factory, for instance, it would help out a great deal.

A change to the development was made also in terms of the garage region. The garages will now be located under the apartments rather than in another area of the parking lot. Porter, Davenport and others expressed that this alone should help with some traffic flow within the complex itself.

Whaley requested to see some things in writing such as the maintenance, “the definition of use of Cemetery Road...We need to see the language about maintaining a tax base and there's a lot of stuff we haven't seen yet in writing...It's just what the final plan has to contain for approval.”

Porter said they would need to be very specific about exactly what they needed to know. He then said the ordinance has a lengthly list of items that are required for the final plan and they would certainly provide that as the law states that they must.

This is when a major topic arose because Porter addressed the tax issue that Whaley had mentioned earlier. He said that if the supervisors wanted evidence that it would not be a tax free property, at the preliminary review they could say something like, “conditioned upon evidence of it not being a tax free property. Then when we come for final review, we have to provide something that's satisfactory to that or your option is to approve or deny. You could table it if we provide you a document that wasn't satisfactory and you wanted something additional, we could table it until we got it correct...” he imparted.

He concluded that portion by stating that the idea was for supervisors to provide them with a list of what they want and then they could move forward with getting the particulars in order.

The request on behalf of Davenport and Porter was for supervisors to approve the preliminary plan at the January 4 meeting, contingent upon providing the list of items. “Then at the final phase, we have to bring that list of items to you,” Porter said.

Whaley said the supervisors would have to come up with a list of items prior to the January 4 meeting and asked if R. Charles had to write something up or what. R. Charles said he would have to but, would need the details, of course.

Porter said it isn't totally necessary to have the letter in order by then. “(In) My experience with the municipal process, that letter will be drafted and it will get back to you so you can make sure it's what you wanted to say...”

He said as far as the tax issue goes, he would need to have that on the list so it could be addressed in an appropriate manner.

R. Charles spoke up and said he wasn't totally certain that the taxable or tax free issue was really anything that could be controlled by the township. He said it would go through some sort of assessment and that he wasn't sure that it had anything to do with the proceedings at hand.

Whaley then said that there was a disagreement in terms of information being presented to township supervisors. He went on to explain that under the regional development, in which they've been involved for years, “they are saying that out of the five or six municipalities that are all working together under the ordinances, that Meadville and Vernon are designated as the major areas that receive the tax exempt activities. And us, out in this area, because we are regionally working together, we can remain—the properties can remain, for the most part, as taxable properties...” He continued to say that the medical field, for example, would be directed to Meadville or Vernon.

Porter explained that the Comprehensive Plan, of which Whaley spoke, was not enforceable and was simply something that is a guidance document that can be used to adopt such a zoning ordinance, if so desired.

“However, as it currently stands, that doesn't or isn't an enforceable tool...your ordinance currently has no provision that allows you to mandate properties be exempt or not. I don't believe there's any current provision in any of your ordinances that allows you to mandate whether a property be approved based on tax status,” Porter said.

Whaley said it was going to come down to a yes or no situation for him and pointed out that they had assured him it would be a taxable property.

Aresident in attendance backed Whaley up on that as well. She said she had been told at the first hearing that it would be taxable. Davenport said she was correct in that.

Porter said that was the reason for needing the list so that they could then address it in an appropriate manner. Porter said he was not saying that it was going to be tax exempt at all, he just needed the items to be listed since he is the engineer and does not handle that end of things.

In essence, Porter and Davenport needed the list so that the correct language, forms etc., could all be addressed appropriately. They did not say that the property would be tax exempt.

Whaley said that language was “critical because if we are going to make this all tax exempt then forget it. In my opinion. Because I'm not going to get into a position like Meadville and Vernon Township is with their tax exempt properties.”

Davenport said he understood and to put it on the list and it would be addressed. Whaley said he just wanted to be certain of the language since something like this project before them could grow. “I just want to make sure we are doing due diligence.” Davenport asked if he was saying that he felt this particular project was going to be very successful thereby, sparking more interest in others like it. Whaley said in his opinion it was a stepping stone for such activities.

He did praise both Porter and Davenport for bringing all of the items up front rather than waiting.

He went on to say that the whole area of Route 322 could really boom in the future and could cause issues like Peach Street in Erie. He said he was concerned about the future of that highway in general and had gone on the record with letters to PennDOT expressing some displeasure about the handling of entrances, exits, etc., of many businesses along the roadway.

Porter reiterated by saying that he is a middle man right now since he's an engineer. He said he was not trying to avoid the question at all and just wanted the list so they could move forward.

Whaley hit on the amount of time people could visit again and asked that more information be provided to the supervisors in detail. That was another issue on the list of things to be done, so to speak.

More of this will be discussed at the meeting on January 4, at 10 AM. Since it's the reorganization meeting, it is taking place earlier in the day with the regular meeting to follow.

All area residents are encouraged to attend. The meeting will take place at the Sadsbury Township Building on State Highway 285, Conneaut Lake.