Before
THE TOBYHANNA TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
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In Re: Ordinance Amendment No. 460
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Tobyhanna Township Government Center Building
State Avenue
Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania 18350
Monday, May 14, 2007 beginning at 6:40 p.m.
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PRESENT: JOHN E. KERRICK, Chairperson
HEIDI A. PICKARD, Vice-Chairperson
ANNE SINCAVAGE, Board Member
EMANUEL KAPELSOHN, ESQUIRE, Solicitor
ALSO PRESENT: PHYLLIS HAASE, Zoning Officer
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PANKO REPORTING
537 Sarah Street, 2nd Floor
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania 18360
(570) 421-3620
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1 MR. KAPELSOHN: All right. I'd
2 like to call to order the public hearing on
3 proposed Ordinance No. 460 entitled an Ordinance
4 of Tobyhanna Township, Monroe County
5 Pennsylvania, Amending Chapter 135, Subdivision
6 and Land Development of the Code of the Township
7 of Tobyhanna to Provide for Reimbursement of
8 Professional Consultants' Fees.
9 This has been advertised and
10 noticed for hearing tonight. The proposed
11 ordinance would amend Chapter 135, Article 3,
12 Sections 135-12G and 135-13E of the code as
13 follows. I'm not going to read it in detail,
14 but the first revision to Article 135-12 would
15 provide for professional consultants' review of
16 preliminary plans submitted for review by the
17 township engineer and such other professional
18 consultants as that term is defined in Section
19 107 of the Municipalities' Planning Code, to
20 determine the suitability of the project and its
21 compatibility with engineering design standards
22 and the ordinance criteria currently required by
23 the township.
24 It provides that when those items
25 are submitted to the township engineer for
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1 review the engineer will, within 12 days, submit
2 a report back unless there's further data that's
3 needed. The other section, which is a revision
4 to 135-13 of Article 3, has to do with final
5 plans submission and application procedures. So
6 the first has to do with preliminary plan
7 submission and the second with final plan
8 submission.
9 And basically both of them provide
10 that the township can seek and obtain
11 reimbursement from applicants, from developers,
12 for the professional fees expended by the
13 township. Not only the township engineer's
14 fees, which are currently the case, but this
15 would include if the township engages an outside
16 engineer other than the township engineer as a
17 consulting engineer; for instance, that's the
18 case with Pocono Manor Investors right now. It
19 would apply to township attorney review of some
20 of these legal documents. It would apply to
21 some other types of professional consultants
22 that the township might engage from time to
23 time.
24 To explain basically the purpose
25 of this, it is that as more development goes on
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1 in the township, we have larger and larger
2 projects in some cases and there are cases in
3 which the township is currently expending
4 thousands of dollars of what would be taxpayer
5 money for engineering review, legal review and
6 other kinds of consulting reviews of developers'
7 projects.
8 And it seems appropriate that a
9 developer, who stands to make money on a
10 development, should cover the cost of the
11 engineering and legal review and other things
12 that the township has to expend rather than
13 having the taxpayers, who don't stand to profit
14 directly from that development, pay those fees.
15 So that's the purpose, as I would
16 characterize it, of this proposed ordinance. I
17 would ask whether there is anyone, member of the
18 public, has anything they'd like to ask or say
19 with regard to the proposal. Proposed effective
20 date, I believe, would probably be five days
21 after the date of enactment.
22 Anyone on the board have anything
23 they'd like to state or ask?
24 MS. PICKARD: No.
25 MS. SINCAVAGE: No.
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1 MR. KAPELSOHN: Going once, going
2 twice?
3 There being no public comment,
4 we'll close the hearing at this point. Public
5 meeting is scheduled to start at seven, so I
6 guess we need to wait until seven.
7 MR. KERRICK: Did we advertise
8 immediately following or --
9 MS. SINCAVAGE: Is it in there?
10 MR. KERRICK: It was.
11 MS. SINCAVAGE: Should I go look
12 and see?
13 MR. KERRICK: If you don't mind.
14 MR. KAPELSOHN: It says will
15 consider it at 7 p.m. It doesn't say
16 immediately following. So we need to wait ten
17 minutes.
18 MR. KERRICK: Okay.
19 (Meeting concluded at 6:45 p.m.)
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7 I hereby certify that the
8 proceedings and evidence are contained fully and
9 accurately in the notes taken by me at the
10 hearing in the above matter; and that the
11 foregoing is a true and correct transcript of
12 the same.
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16 EVILYS E. BRATHWAITE
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