LANCASTER TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION
1240 Maple Avenue
Lancaster PA 17603
MEETING MINUTES – September 20, 2011
CALL TO ORDER
Melissa Kelly, Chair, called to order the regular meeting of the Lancaster Township Planning Commission at 7:00 p.m. on September 20, 2011 in the Lancaster Township Municipal Building. The following members were present: Bob Desmarais, Glenn Ebersole, Melanie LeFevre, and Angela Sowers. Richard Hendricks and Gordon Reed were excused. Also present: Tom Daniels, Zoning Officer, Rebecca French, Zoning Assistant, Ben Webber, Rettew Engineer and Kathy Wasong, Township Board of Supervisors. Erin Hoffman of RLPS, Harry N Snavely of SDOL, and Steve Gergely of Harbor Engineering were also present.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: August 16, 2011
The August 16, 2011 meeting minutes were approved as submitted.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION/COMMENTS: None
SUBDIVISION/LAND DEVELOPMENT PLAN:
LTPC 239: Sketch Plan Submission for applicant School District of Lancaster (SDL) for Martin Elementary School, 1900 Wabank Rd. SDL intends to construct a new facility to accommodate students for grades Kindergarten through 8th grade. The existing school will remain in operation until the new school is completed. Steve Gergely, of Harbor Engineering Inc presented the project sketch plan, which showed an overview of the proposed school and the newly designed parking lot. He stated that Martin Elementary School currently enrolls students in Kindergarten through the 5th grade and the new school will enroll students in Kindergarten through the 8th grade.
Mr. Gergely reviewed the concept plan with the LTPC and the following discussion ensued:
• The new school will also be ADA compliant.
• The driveway currently on Millersville Pike will be eliminated per Penn Dot
• The parking lot for the new school will be accessed via Wabank Rd
• Schultz Transportation buses will enter the school parking lot from Wabank Road and will have a designated drop off area and parking lot
• The ‘parent-student’ drop off area will not go through the bus drop off area
• The concept plan has traffic exiting the parking lot only being allowed to turn right onto Wabank Rd
• The concept plan for the parking lot has a lot of internal circulation areas with multiple landscaped areas
• Concerns about the parking lot were expressed:
o Parking lot seems to be inefficient
o Parking lot may be difficult to pave for snow plows
o Could be difficult to see around landscaped areas?
o Why can’t the cars exiting the school parking lot turn left onto Wabank Rd?
o Traffic may become a problem with cars waiting to turn right onto Wabank Rd.
• Could an emergency lane off of Rt. 741 be accessed for emergency vehicles only?
• What about delivery trucks?
• How will traffic be managed during the construction? Parking during construction?
• Was a storm water management plan developed?
Mr. Gergely stated that the Martin school is not in a FEMA flood area
Mr. Webber requested that a sketch plan be presented to the emergency medical transportation department for their feedback.
The Martin Elementary School review process is informal at this phase.
OLD BUSINESS
Zoning Ordinance Update:
Rettew completed the revision process of the Zoning Ordinance and provided binders for each of the LTPC to review and edit.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. The next scheduled LTPC meeting will be on October 18 canceled November 22, 2011 at 7 p.m.
Sincerely,
Bob Desmarais
LTPC Secretary