The West Rockhill Board of Supervisors Wednesday, September 17 authorized a resolution in support of a new housing development on Camp Rockhill Road.
The six-lot single-family-home development will be located at 204 Camp Rockhill Road, with initial plans for three shared driveways. The proposal was reduced from 13 lots following feedback from the Planning Commission, which has recommended conditional preliminary and final approval.
During the board’s discussion, chairman Jay Keyser expressed vehement opposition to the inclusion of shared driveways, arguing that they instigate neighbor disputes over maintenance, trespassing and other issues. He asked property owner Tim Snyder to instead construct separate driveways.
Snyder, while conceding that separate driveways are feasible, responded that shared driveways were proposed to reduce impervious coverage and that separate driveways would be a mere 10 feet apart. He further questioned Keyser’s concerns given the increasing prevalence of high-density housing developments with shared entrances and driveways.
“When you’re putting clusters everywhere so you can keep open space, you’re forcing people to live closer together,” said Snyder. “But now you’re saying when you’re on 4-, 7-, 11-, 14-acre lots, you can’t share the same driveway? It doesn’t seem to make sense. It seems like an arbitrary line being drawn.”
“My position is trying to protect the people who purchase these lots and not having people coming in here complaining, ‘My neighbor did this; my neighbor did that,’” Keyser replied. “When you have individual driveways, you don’t have that problem. Make individual driveways so there can be no fighting.”
After some discussion, the board agreed to authorize a resolution in support of the housing development, conditioned upon the inclusion of separate driveways. The resolution will appear on the board’s next meeting agenda. Snyder, for his part, remained noncommittal to separate driveways.
PRPD budget increase
The board warned the public of a possible “substantial” tax hike due to an estimated 17-20% increase in the Pennridge Regional Police Department budget. Board members and Chief Paul Dickinson attributed the budget increase to rising health insurance costs, raises, the hiring of a new full-time officer and the purchasing of a new vehicle. The increase would follow a 12% PRPD budget increase approved last year.
Keyser stressed that the numbers are still being finalized but requested public input on potential solutions.
Community members responded by expressing support for the budget increase, while inquiring if revenue generated from new development could help offset the tax increase.
“We’ve seen a steady stream of development,” said Planning Commission member John Sweriduk. “I don’t know how many new residents it takes to pay for a police officer, but there has to be some correlation between the taxpayers coming in from these new residences and the amount of money you can pay out in police department costs.”
In response, Keyser said that the township cannot generate enough revenue to cover the budget increase, noting that it would result in a 30% increase over two years.
After some discussion, council agreed to table any action until next month’s meeting when more concrete budget numbers will be available.
The next West Rockhill Board of Supervisors meeting is on October 15 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit westrockhilltownship.org.
