CLEARFIELD – A hearing for a proposed zoning change in Lawrence Township brought a full house and a load of questions on Tuesday night.
The proposed change was petitioned by Jim Rischel. The proposal would change the current zoning in an area between Turnpike Avenue and US Route 219 from Krebs Storage to Action graphics from village to commerical highway. Skip Koerber, speaking on behalf of Rischel, noted that they feel the change would better reflect how the area has changed. Koerber noted the number of businesses that exist in the district due to being “grandfathere” in. He noted that Rischel did not have that option with his property. He stated that there are about 17 residential buildings in the area covered in the proposed zone change.
“We believe commercial highway is more appropriate for what exists there now,” said Koerber. He stated that Rischel was contemplating placing a retail commercial building on his property.
Mark Tibbens stated that while he wasn’t against the proposed change, he questioned how it would affect their taxes. Township Solicitor Jim Naddeo said that taxes would remain the same unless the county performed reassessed property taxes.
Norman Violet questioned asked if the rezoning went through and something happened to their existing home, did they have to rebuild within a year. Naddeo said that any non-conforming use cannot be zoned out of existance. He stated that the township’s ordinance has a provision that existing non-conforming uses must be rebuilt within a year.
“It’s advisory, not mandatory,” said Naddeo. He further explained that the supervisors would not disalow someone to rebuild after a year in instances in which a disaster occurred and the person spent time in litigation with their insurance company trying to get their due. Violet later proposed what would happen if a person received their money form their insurance company, and built their home somewhere other than the original site. Would that person be able to go back later, after the year or more it took them to recoup their insurance, and build a home on the site. Naddoe said it would not be possible to rebuild the non-conforming structure in that instance, since the time limit would have elapsed and the home not initially rebuilt on the old site.
Carol Little noted that Rischel and Koerber did not take into account the homeowners on the other side of Turnpike Avenue the rezoning would affect.
“They make it sound as though there are only 16 homes involved,” said Little.
“How is Turnpike Avenue going to hanlde commerical highway traffic,” asked Ken McGarvey.
John Inlow questioned how this might affect his intent to build on property he owns in the proposed rezoning area. He asked if the zoning passes, would he be permitted to build a home on his property. Naddeo indicated he would not be able to.
Once the hearing was finished, the supervisors moved into their regular meeting, where they tabled a decision on the petition until a later time. Supervisor Chairman Bill Lawhead said there were a number of questions he wanted to get the answers to before moving forward with a vote.
