History of the Benderson Development
"Secret Shopping Center"
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 3: 2007
February 12, 2007
The Lancaster County Planning Commission reviewed the changes
to the Regional Comprehensive plan (to adjust for the changes to the Zoning
Map). The minutes are not yet on their web site (4/8/07).
February 20, 2007
At a Board of Supervisors meeting
(held on a Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday meeting night, due to the
usual meeting day being Ash Wednesday) the Board voted to amend the Cocalico
Regional Strategic Comprehensive Plan to reflect the changes made in the zoning
map for the Benderson project. I was at this meeting and expressed
concerns that there were errors in the property description (deja vu...) in the
public notice published in the newspaper for this meeting. They errors
were dismissed as not significant by the Township Solicitor, Thomas Goodman.
My comment on this: The Board of Supervisors never mentioned this meeting date in any of their public meetings (regular or workshop). For both of the previous hearings on this they voted to advertise the meeting in the newspaper during an earlier meeting. They never voted on that in public for this meeting. The Solicitor explained that by the Municipal Planning Code does not require it. They also scheduled this meeting for a meeting held on a different day of the week than usual. Maybe it is just a coincidence, but the moved the meeting to the night when I (the main opposition to their methods used for the approval process for this project) have another meeting that I need to attend (and they do know, that since one of them has attended the same meeting).
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The story continues... The details on the project have still not been released by Benderson or the Township. I wouldn't expect to see any activity on this project until after the May 15th Primary Election. The next step may be for Benderson to submit a official plan for the remaining review process by the Township. However, these steps are just "tweaking," since they have had the Township's Zoning Ordinances rewritten just for their project.
© 2007 Ken McCrea