Susquehanna Twp. commissioners reject Triple Crown developent plan

SUSQUEHANNA TOWNSHIP — With six no votes Thursday night, Susquehanna Township commissioners rejected a developer's second shot at developing a rugged tract on Ionoff Road.

About 15 residents of Sienna Woods, the adjoining development, applauded the vote that halts, at least for now, construction by Lower Paxton Township-based Triple Crown Corp. of seven new houses on 4 acres.

In April, residents also applauded as commissioners voted 8-1 against Triple Crown's original plan, a request for denser residential zoning on the sloping tract. Rezoning would have allowed construction of seven houses, instead of the four currently allowed.

The reworked plan, introduced in October, called for seven smaller houses through use of a conservation design overlay that preserves open space by allowing home construction in clusters.

Sienna Woods residents speaking against the new plan on Thursday said that use of the conservation overlay option wouldn't meet the township's intent. Resident Brian Moore warned against opening "a Pandora's box."

"If you take out the intended purpose, it can be applied anywhere," he said. "If you ignore that part of the code, it just doesn't make any sense. Every property will qualify for it."

"This plan may follow the letter of the law but in my opinion violates the spirit of the law." - Susquehanna Twp. Commissioner Justin Fleming

The plan also violated township ordinances by making existing slopes even steeper, said resident Charles Post.

"This is an obvious attempt to do an end run around a legitimate R-1 zoning," said Post. "Making a steep slope steeper into wetlands is not very conservation-minded."

Commissioners Jody Rebarchak, Michael Schubert, Mona Johnson, Tom Pyne, Fred Engle and Steven Napper voted against the plan. Engle said that the original seven houses proposed for the tract "just didn't seem like they fit, and now we're back with the same thing with smaller houses, smaller lots."

Board of Commissioners President Frank Lynch and Commissioners Sean Sanderson and Justin Fleming supported the plan.

Fleming said his reluctant yes vote adhered to state law requiring compelling legal reasons for rejecting development plans. He chided Triple Crown CEO Mark DiSanto for seeking "exactly what you wanted" after the first rejection, instead of compromising on construction of four or five homes on larger lots "that more closely matched the size of the homes that already exist in Sienna Woods."

"This plan may follow the letter of the law but in my opinion violates the spirit of the law," Fleming said.

DiSanto had no comment after the vote. Township solicitor Bruce Foreman said Triple Crown would have 30 days after receiving formal notice of the township's decision to appeal in Dauphin County Common Pleas Court.

Source: Central Penn Business Journal