Residents to get say on proposed housing development Jan. 8

By Gina Morton
The Daily Item

December 05, 2008 12:22 am

— RIVERSIDE -- More than 50 Rush Township residents attended a meeting Thursday night to discuss their concerns and thoughts about a housing development proposed for the Cherokee Golf Course, but they were denied the opportunity to speak for the third session in a row.
Alice Wagner, a resident of the township for 30 years, said she was upset, but just wants officials to hear the information. "I don't care," she said, "just so they don't go through with it."
Supervisors Don Beagle, Leon Woodruff and Orville Schultz said the next hearing has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 8 in the municipal building, 2181 Snydertown Road. The other meetings, including Thursday's, were held in the basement of Danville Mennonite Church, off Route 54.
Residents were told they will be given the opportunity to voice their opinions at the January hearing.
The Cherokee-Rush Association, a partnership between the golf course owners and Realtor-developer Timothy Karr, of Riverside, is requesting passage of an amendment to the zoning law that would permit the construction of up to 77 single-family homes on one-acre lots.
Most of the two-hour hearing, the third on the proposal, focused on Tina Fackler, a land use planner hired by the township. She discussed her findings after studying soil, population and housing ideas in the township and Northumberland County.
Fackler said that according to the 2005 county comprehensive plan, growth areas were indicated as Mount Carmel, Coal Township, Shamokin Township, Upper Augusta Township and Point Township.
"The county didn't consider Rush Township as an area where future growth would occur?" asked Paula Leicht, an attorney representing the township. Fackler said no. She said she believes the township has enough housing to meet the demand.
In a letter to the township supervisors, Wagner, her husband, Jeffrey Wagner Sr., and their neighbors, Kirsten and Jesse Moyer, said water shortages from extra wells and septic systems at the development and an increase in traffic are two big concerns.
"I am sure that the 7,144 acres of complying property (for building houses) in Rush Township is not all in the same spot," the residents wrote, "so if we use this land for home building purposes, all the traffic will be dispersed throughout the township."
According to the letter, the residents believe the township would save money through not having to maintain roads, as they would be the property owner's responsibility, there would be no traffic congestion and farmland would be preserved.
The letter says it is a win-win situation.

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