By SALLY BELL
Staff writer
Frustration mounted at a Cranberry supervisors meeting Thursday over the township’s lagging comprehensive plan.
“We’re behind schedule on this,” said Fred Buckholtz, the supervisors’ chairman, who attended the meeting along with Harold Best, vice chairman, and Supervisor Jerry Brosius.
Parties on both sides of the aisle agreed that the township’s comprehensive plan has languished in draft form long enough.
“I ask that we could move forward,” said Koah Pentz, Cranberry Township coding enforcement and zoning officer, in an opening statement to the supervisors. “I think (the comprehensive plan) is a fine product.”
Barrie Brancato, a steering committee member who helped draft parts of the plan, said that it has been two years since the community was first polled in a survey about subjects to be included in the plan.
Brosius said that a “big issue” remaining is language pertaining to land use in the draft plan.
“It’s not clear to me,” he said. “The intent is to maintain that residential area from Sheetz to Horsecreek Road residential,” he said.
Buckholtz and Best agreed, and a motion was made and passed to make language changes pertaining to land use in the draft comp plan and to post those changes on the township’s website, cranberrytwp.org.
“I’m disappointed that we can’t make a recommendation today,” Pentz went on to say, adding that numerous work hours and a significant amount of township money have been spent in the creation of the plan. “The resistance has been a minority,” he said.
That comment drew ire from a few residents who remarked that the “minority” live in the residential area in question.
Resident Andy Sentgeorge went on to say that 38 percent of Cranberry residents returned the survey, and 80 percent of those respondents said that they wanted to see commercial development in that area. The end result is not a majority of all residents weighed in, he said.
“I’d like to get this completed so we can move on. We’re not going to be able to please everybody,” Buckholtz said. “I’m hoping that when we get these changes, we can approve this.”
Other items
Cranberry Township sold nine zoning permits last month for a total cost of $176,286 in construction. One of those permits was for a new home.
Supervisors also approved a $500 sponsorship donation toward Applefest.
Residents Sentgeorge, Marilyn Brandon and Gordon Bickel weighed in during the public comment period of the meeting. Sentgeorge said that he wanted to see more specificity in the minutes of township meetings. Brandon expressed importance in maintaining the mall. Bickel said that a trailer park on Route 322 should be turned into modular homes for senior citizens.
The supervisors will meet next at 7 p.m. May 25.
