History of the Benderson Development's "Secret Shopping Center"

History of the Benderson Development
"Secret Shopping Center"

Part 1: 2005

The following represents what I have been able to determine from documents in the public files that the Township maintains, from public notices in the Ephrata Review, and meeting minutes prepared by the Township and my own recordings of the public meetings.

[Note: all Ephrata Review notices used with the permission of the Publisher.]

Part 2: 2006

January 4, 2006
First public notice involving project:

[Boy, that sure says "Half-million square foot
shopping center" to me!!!! This is the Township's idea
of proper public notice on this issue.]

January 9, 2006
Another pre-planning meeting with the Township, Authority and the Developers. Below is the attendance list for this meeting:

Interesting points from the 1-9-2006 meeting minutes:

In a 1-10-2006 memo to the Board of Supervisors and the
Township Authority concerning the meeting the previous day,
Karen Koncle, the Township Manager reported from her meeting notes:

January 12, 2006
At the "special" workshop meeting of the Board of Supervisors the Board voted to expend tax dollars on rewriting the draft zoning ordinance on shopping centers prepared by the Benderson Development's attorney. Here is how that vote was reported in the minutes of that meeting:

According to the official minutes from that meeting, there were no visitors present at that meeting, only the Supervisors and others employed or hired by the Township:

This meeting, the first "public" one concerning the project, (it was legally advertised, but no one from the public attended). It is the only time it is recorded in any of the documents or records I have seen in which Brent Lied (whose mother owns about 90% of the property on which the shopping center is being built) appears to have been present when official actions were taken regarding the project.

Within less than an hour (6:14 PM, after a 4:00 meeting that had ended at 5:23), news of the Supervisors' authorization for RothPlan to work on "Zoning Matters" was sent in an email to Harry Roth of Roth Plan about that vote. 1-12-2006 email

My primary question for the Township is "Why was this so urgent that it couldn't have been done at a regular meeting where the public would have a chance to hear about it?" The next regular Supervisors meeting (January 18th) was only six days after the special meeting (January 12th).

February 13, 2006
The 1/10/2006 memo from the Township Manager also references the next pre-palnning meeting with Benderson representatives being scheduled for 2/13/2006. I don't have any details on this meeting.

April 5, 2006
Harry Roth gave a lengthy presentation to the Board of Supervisors on the draft revision of the Township's Zoning Ordinance concerning shopping centers. This was very briefly reported in the meeting minutes. Copies of the draft ordinance were not made available to the visitors, even though a request was made for a copy. Mr. Roth's presentation made many references to the "Developer" not liking the current provisions of the ordinance. In justifying the request for smaller parking spaces, Mr. Roth indicated (not his exact words) "that studies have shown that cars are getting smaller now."

I was at this meeting by chance. When I asked how big this shopping center was going to be, and referenced "possibly the size of a Wal-Mart Super Center?" the response came quickly from the Township Solicitor Thomas Goodman who indicated that it is not a Wal-Mart. Curious, since before that we had been told they didn't know what it was going to be.

This was the first time any members of the "public" had any opportunity to hear about the Benderson project (almost a full year after the Developer first contacted the Township about this project).

April 19, 2006
In the public comment section of the Supervisors meeting, Bob Roggenburg (the only other ordinary Township resident besides myself who routinely attends Supervisors meetings) expressed his opposition to the smaller parking spaces, suggesting that cars are not getting smaller as Mr. Roth would have you believe.

April 24, 2006
Harry Roth gave a presentation to the Planning Commission similar to the one he gave to the Supervisors on April 5th. The main difference in this presentation was the lack of any direct references to the wishes of the "Developer."

May 11, 2006
The East Cocalico Township Board of Supervisors all attended the East Cocalico Township Authority Meeting (see page 5 of the minutes) to discuss the use of private wells within the "Urban Growth Boundary" (where the Benderson project is located). Although Benderson was not specifically mentioned (it was just stated that "Requests continue to be received from developers, both residential and non-residential"), it appears to be an attempt to get their request for the use of private wells approved. The minutes record "After lengthy discussion, both groups agreed that it is best to continue to deny drilling of wells within the UGB."

May 17, 2006
The Board of Supervisor approved a motion to refer the Benderson rezoning petitions (one to change the text of the Zoning Ordinance, the other to rezone adjacent parcels to C-2) to the County and Township Planning Commissions for review and comment.

May 22, 2006
A special Planning Commission workshop meeting (6:30 PM) was held one hour before the regular Planning Commission meeting. It had been advertised, just as the special Supervisors meeting of 1/12/06. There were no members of the general public at this meeting (as before). According to the minutes, there was a detailed discussion of the issues, and a long list of changes to the ordinance are listed in the minutes. Minutes of the Planning Commission were not posted to the Township's web site until March 2007, and the minutes from this meeting have still (as of 4/8/07) not been posted there.

Question: Couldn't this wait an hour so the discussions could take place in "Public?"

May 22, 2006
A regular Planning Commission meeting was held at the regular time (7:30 PM), directly following the special workshop meeting. The Benderson rezoning petitions were discussed at this meeting.

June 7, 2006
The Board of Supervisors approved a motion to forward the proposed amendment to the 2003 Regional Comprehensive Plan to the other municipalities. This was to bring it in line with the proposed zoning map changes.

June 26, 2006
At an East Cocalico Township Planning Commission meeting the Commission recommended to the Board of Supervisors that they approve the proposed Zoning Ordinance amendment and the rezoning of adjacent parcels. There was a significant discussion on the smaller parking spaces, and a separate vote was taken on that issue. The vote in favor of the smaller parking spaces was 4-3, and the motion was approved.

June 26, 2006
At a Lancaster County Planning Commission meeting the Commission review the Township's proposed Zoning Ordinance amendments and the rezoning of adjacent parcels. In the official letters to the Township dated June 27, 2006 they do recommend the rezoning of the parcels, but recommended against the Zoning Ordinance amendments, in particular the removal of the "Riparian Buffer Zone" (designed to protect streams and wetlands).

July 5, 2006
At the Board of Supervisors meeting it was announced that the Township Solicitor would advertise for a public hearing on August 16th (at the regular Supervisors meeting) concerning the two Benderson rezoning petitions.

August 16, 2006
At the beginning of the public hearing on the Benderson rezoning petitions it was announced that there was a technical error (in the property descriptions) in the public notice of the hearing concerning the rezoning of the adjoining land. That hearing was postponed until a later date so that it could be readvertised properly.

Prior to this hearing I (Ken McCrea) had attempted to inform the public about this project. None of the notices that the Township published gave any real idea of what the hearing was about. Even the neighbors adjoining the proposed shopping center site didn't have any idea what was coming. No mention of a massive shopping center. The neighbors had only received a notice of the zoning hearing that informed them that parcels of land were being rezoned from C-1 (general commercial) to C-2 (planned commercial), and R-2 (high density residential) to C-2. On the day of the hearing, I spoke to one neighbor who thought it would be a small strip-mall, and some town houses. The site adjoins her property on both the side and the rear.

To counteract the lack of information being given to the public about this project, I managed to get two articles into the newspapers (Ephrata Review, 8/9/2006; Lancaster Sunday News, 8/6/2006), in addition to a "Letter to the Editor" in the Review (8/9/06). I also asked to put up notices in businesses in the area of the project. None of the business owners I spoke to knew anything about the project before I contacted them. All of these businesses will be in direct competition with the new shopping center. At the public hearing there were probably 50-60 people present in addition to a camera crew from a TV station.

At the end of the hearing the Supervisors voted to table the issue pending further review.

September 6, 2006
At the Supervisors meeting a motion was passed authorizing the referral of the revised Zoning
Ordinance and Petitions to the Lancaster County Planning Commission and the Township Planning
Commission for review and comment.

September 7, 2007
A "Special" East Cocalico Township Authority meeting included a discussion of the Benderson Hydrogeology (groundwater) report. Their own consultant concluded that the report had errors and that the proposed wells may have a potential impact on private wells and Authority Well 8A.

September 13, 2006
At the Planning Commission workshop meeting there was a discussion on the zoning map revisions.

September 14, 2006
At the East Cocalico Township Authority meeting the Authority voted to reject the request for the use of an on-site well for the Benderson project in the event that the Authority can not supply water to the project when it is needed.

September 25, 2006
At the Planning Commission meeting, they voted (again, after the technical corrections in the property descriptions) to recommend the Board of Supervisors approve the zoning map changes.

October 4, 2006
At the Board of Supervisors meeting I asked if they were planning to discuss the Benderson project at one of their workshop meetings. I was told they weren't going to discuss it there because there had already been a public hearing and "Public comment on the text part of the amendment was closed at the end of that hearing." They said they don't always discuss these things at the workshops.

My comment on this: They had just spent over an hour at two previous workshop meetings discussing the removal of a few trees for a minor subdivision (the Mitchell Tract, 7/20/06 8/17/06), so why can't then at least spend a little time in public discussing their opinions of the comments received at the public hearing. None of this discussion ever took place at a public meeting (other than the mention of the having both positive and negative comments at the 10/18/06 meeting).

October 18, 2006
At the Board of Supervisors meeting the Zoning Ordinance text amendments were approved after a lengthy public comment session. In the end Chairman Mackley explained that at the public hearing on August 16th there were people that spoke against the proposed ordinance, and there were some who spoke in favor of it, so therefore it balanced out. None of the changes suggested at the hearing, comments at the Supervisors meetings or the perceived problems with it were acted on. The new ordinance was approved without any revisions. Two of the three supervisors (Mackley and Fortna) voted in favor of it, and Supervisor Alan Fry voted against it.

October 19, 2006
At the Supervisors workshop meeting, the night after they approved the zoning ordinance text changes, the Transportation Engineer reported on the intersection improvement project at Col Howard Blvd. and Pepperidge Farm Blvd. [and US 222]. They are doing a new traffic count there to see if changing the timing of the traffic lights there can help with the already congested traffic at those intersections.

My comment: And now they are going to add a huge shopping center to that same area? What does that tell you about the traffic impact of the new shopping center?

November 1, 2006
At the Board of Supervisors meeting, it was noted that the Solicitor will advertise the public hearing at the December 6th Board of Supervisors meeting for the zoning map changes.

December 6, 2006
The public hearing on the zoning map changes was held at the regular Board of Supervisors meeting, held at the Reamstown Fire Hall. Public comments were taken on the rezoning, and afterwards the Board voted to make the changes as proposed. Meeting Notice.

December 13, 2006
At the Planning Commission workshop meeting the revisions to the Regional Comprehensive Plan were discussed. This is to adjust for the zoning map changes.

December 18, 2006
At the Planning Commission meeting the revisions to the Regional Comprehensive Plan were discussed. The Commission voted to recommend that the Board of Supervisors adopt the changes.

History of the "Secret Shopping Center," Part 3

Back