Paving Paradise in Pa & NJ

Our photograph was taken of our nearest comparable development at Garrett Mt on the Clifton/W.Paterson border.

We were impressed by the statement that the project will increase the area population by 70%.

Perry County Weekly Sunday, February 19
Housing Projects Worry Residents
Citizen concerns over large-scale housing developments in eastern Perry County are on the agenda for a meeting Wednesday of a task force representing 13 Perry municipalities and four Cumberland County townships. A Penn Township resident’s comments on traffic congestion that might result from a concept plan to build about 910 housing units on a mountain above Perdix is among the planned discussion points, she says. If built, the development would increase housing units by 72 percent in Penn Township. That’s on the heels of a plan to build about 300 mountainside homes in Marysville borough, which now has about 1,200 homes, just a few miles south of Perdix on Route 11-15. Traffic on Route 11-15, which is two narrow lanes through Perdix, is a concern expressed by Penn Township residents.
Presentation of the concept for 910 homes for Penn Township drew a standing-room-only crowd recently to the township building, where New Jersey-based developer David Meiskin of Windsor Cos. spoke at a supervisors meeting, says township Secretary Helen Klinepeter. Meiskin outlined what developers would like to do with the 1,155-acre J. Nevin White tract and asked, “What would you like to see?” Klinepeter says. On the advice of the township solicitor, supervisors weren’t saying, she adds. Windsor Cos. of Freehold, N.J., “is committed to developing environmentally sensitive and visually attractive high-end projects,”
its website states. Windsor has built more than 20 housing developments totaling more than 7,000 units and has developed more than 5 million square feet of commercial space in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut, the website states.
Zoned mostly forest conservation with some high-density residential areas and possibly one or two low-density residential lots, the section of Cove Mountain is slated for a minimum of 4-acre lots, Klinepeter says. But the concept plan calls for cluster development of single-family houses, condominiums and townhouses that would leave a portion of the tract open, she says. The White land lies in the eastern part of the township in an area of approximately 500-foot hills below the 1,300-foot ridge line that carries the Appalachian Trail from Cumberland County across to Duncannon.
Any development would “have to deal with steep slope issues,” Klinepeter says. “They’d have to comply with zoning, subdivision land development ordinance and storm water ordinance plus whatever the county conservation office and DEP (the state Department of Environmental Protection) comes up with.” Perry County Planner Jason Finnerty also is waiting to comment until a formal plan hits his desk in New Bloomfield. But “a mountain slope does command a certain level of attention. Penn Township recognizes that and they have a steep slope conservation overlay district in their zoning ordinances,” Finnerty says. Other considerations planners routinely deal with are wetlands, flood plains, state permits and transportation, he says.
Transportation issues are in the forefront of action on the approximately 300-unit Marysville development planned by Yingst Homes of Harrisburg. PennDOT is reviewing amendments to a traffic study needed for a highway occupancy permit, says Kelley, who also is Marysville manager.
The development also has township officials excited about commercial development that would most likely follow the addition of new residents, although an eight-year build-out is projected. “There’ll be a need for a drycleaner, pharmacy” and the development may push business owners to look at further developing strip malls on Route 11-15, Kelley says.