An unusually high number of about 30 Penn Township residents came to the monthly township meeting on July 24, expressing fears that a rural open space area was in danger of having its zoning changed.  

Environmental scientist Dennis Newbold requested time during the meeting to make comments, and he spoke from a prepared statement about his fears of that potential zoning change.

Referring to the township’s 1991 comprehensive plan and those that followed, he pleaded that the northern tract of 730 acres bounded roughly by Route 796 and Ewing and Phillips Mill Road be kept rural and free of sewage deposits as it is now with its Institutional Open Space classification.

The danger, he said, is that a land parcel there is owned by the Catholic Archdiocese and is up for sale.

His fear, he said, is that the township supervisors will yield to the church, change the zoning and make the property available for residential development.

Newbold first spoke of the benefits of open space and the dangers of development. His two major points were the loss of farming and the reduction in the purity of the water caused by development.

He also emphasized that if changes were made in the zoning to permit  even residential two-acre home properties, the township would lose its rural character and become “suburban.”

Newbold spoke of rumors or suspicions that the township, under pressure from the Archdiocese, would be tempted to press for altering the zoning to attract housing. He said that idea could be “Implicit, implied, made up or even a ‘benign consideration.’”

To combat that, he emphasized that the supervisors contact area and county conservation groups to strengthen his case.

To that, attorney Winnie Sebastian, who clarified legalities, replied, “We already have.”

Newbold concluded, “The best they (the supervisors) can do is take no action on the zoning ordinance

“I urge you to have faith in your own ordinance and not to be pressured into changing it,” he said.

Victor Mantegna, the chair of the Penn Township Board of Supervisors,  and his fellow board members each said they had no intention to change the zoning.

However, in the half an hour of resident comment after Newbold’s words, a string of comments included various people expressing the desire to keep the township rural, and the desire to invite farmers to buy the land —excluding mushroom growers—at $30,000 an acre.

Sebastian answered the mushroom farm questions saying that State Law 38 (ACRE) law classifies mushroom growing as agriculture, and it is permitted protection from certain restrictions that would violate state law, just like other farming.

Mantegna was questioned if there was truth to the rumor that the township was exploring zoning options for the land.

He said it was necessary.

In spite of questions of doubt and suspicion from the residents, Mantegna said it was necessary for him to understand the exact details of the IOS land, so as not to allow residential development, but to answer questions of potential buyers.