MANCHESTER – Noting remarks during a recent Township Council meeting, members of the Manchester Environmental Commission discussed the status of a critical project during their most recent meeting.
Township Council President Sam Fusaro said, “We are doing what I feel is a great job on the master plan review. The entire team has been contributing to it and we will not only get a lot from not only the land use portion but a lot of the code in our code book cleaned up a little. It has been a long time since that has been reviewed and completed.”
A master plan is a document that re-envisions how land in the township will be used. It is used by township officials to set long range plans. Easily defined, it explains what the town leaders want to see in their town.
Councilman Robert Hudak said the master plan committee has been meeting and “we are continuing with our discussions about various land use ordinances and we are looking at changing and developing some of the uses and streamlining the land development ordinances so they are more user friendly.”
“It is still an ongoing process that will take a little more time but we will continue to meet,” Hudak said during the council meeting.
During the Environmental Commission meeting the subject of the master plan review was on the agenda. Commission Chairwoman Peggy Middaugh asked what the timeline was for the master plan draft.
Member Bill Foor said Councilman Hudak reported the master plan committee “was working on it right now and in conjunction with that they are also doing a major scrub of Code 245 the land use code so that will be realigned to the revised master plan. He didn’t give a timeline outside of saying they are actively working on it right now.”
“I’m just wondering how much time we have to get comments into them?” Middaugh asked.
Foor replied, “I don’t think they have a revised draft yet so I think we have some time if anyone had any comments, I think the right point of contact would be to Councilman Hudak he seems be leading that show.”
“Is that the same code (245) as the land use map?” Middaugh asked.
“No that is the actual code for the township that talks about that. That is all codified in that section. There are a lot of sections within that code that were very ambiguous. Most of it flowed down from the state statute and it has been modified over time so I think it is a good thing that the township is taking a look at that and clean it up as much as they can,” Foor added.
This is part of the Township Land Use Planning Act, according to Foor. Middaugh said that she would reach out to Councilman Hudak to clarify the timeline for public input from the commission. She asked the membership present if they had any comments about the master plan review.
She suggested “we follow the lead of Bill’s plan to look at section 245 of the land use code and also any other sections of the master plan before our next meeting.”
Commission member Bill Cook said Code 245 was “quite lengthy and includes all the zoning and if you are interested in something specific you could probably drill down to it but I don’t think you’ll be able to go through 245 entirely.”
Middaugh said she was interested in the part where the planning board interacts with the environmental commission. She was told that would probably be a sub section of that code.
Foor said, “I’m not sure where exactly it is. The code is several hundred pages long and it deals with everything. I really think we would be much better served of really taking a review of what is in the master plan itself and if there are any areas of the master plan that you felt needed to be addressed.”
“Let that drive the process as we codify this and as we look at updating 245. In all honesty you have to be a lawyer to do it,” Foor added.
“Good suggestion. Is the master plan on the township website?” Middaugh asked.
Foor said it was and was located in a couple of places. “It is under the planning division and it may be under the town clerk as well.”
Middaugh recommended adding a link of the current master plan to the commission’s website as well. “Then when we are talking about it to people in the public, we can suggest they go to our website to get a copy of it.”
“There is also a link to Code 245,” Commission Secretary Lauren Frazee said. It is under the township clerk section of the Manchester Township website.
