"An Overlay District" on Route 51? (April 20 Whitehall Borough Meeting Notes)

“An Overlay District”

Ruthann L. Omer, engineer, invited Greg Jones to give a presentation to the borough council on Wednesday night.

Jones, the recently appointed director of , has been working with officials from the Brentwood, , Whitehall and Pleasant Hills boroughs on ways to make improvements to the Route 51 corridor.

“This came about from the three or four plans that have been done over the last 10 years,” Jones said. “They’ve all been pretty consistent about the types of things they want to see along the 51 corridor.”

These things have included landscaping, sidewalks, steps, shared parking and drainage.

“What the recommendation has been,” Jones said, “is, ‘Let’s do an overlay district. Let’s try to create some level of consistency between the municipalities so that, when we’re trying to attract a potential developer in, we can actually have a codified standard of what things are going to look like.’”

Jones recommended that a “few people from (Whitehall’s) planning commission and a few people from the (Whitehall) council” review the borough’s zoning regulations “issue by issue” along with a consultant funded by a $40,000 grant currently available. Jones said that EDS is looking for a “bare-minimum level of agreement between the municipalities.”

“The only catch with the grant,” Jones added, “is you have to adopt whatever comes out of it. But it’s really not a risky thing for the municipality because you’re making a decision on what the overlay district will be.”

“This needs to get over the finish line,” Omer urged the council.

“You mean money?” asked council member Robert McKown.

“Yes,” Omer replied.

 Council member Philip Lahr had some reservations about agreeing to the grant, saying that he was “not too sure we understand this thoroughly enough” and that he wanted to “sit down and take a closer look.”

Omer and Jones, however, stressed that the grant is a limited-time offer.

“This is quite an opportunity for the borough,” Omer said.

“This grant is not being held for us,” Jones said.

Whitehall Mayor James F. Nowalk voiced his recognition of the value of an overlay district, saying that developers should not have to deal with different municipalities’ ordinances along Route 51.

“It should be one ordinance,” Nowalk said. “There should be clarity of consensus, no matter where you locate.”

Jones explained that the benefit of having a consultant involved is that, after the communities have identified what they want, the consultant prepares all of the paperwork.

Due to Lahr’s reservations, Omer suggested that several council members and Borough Manager James E. Leventry get together to iron out the details.

Check back with the Baldwin-Whitehall Patch for updates.

New Fire Station Gets Approved

Another guest presenter at Wednesday night’s borough meeting was architect Mark Edelmann. Supported by several members of the in attendance, Edelmann presented the bid process undertaken this month for the construction of .

Edelmann reported that, on April 7, the borough received 24 legitimate bids on four separate contracts related to the new building, including general construction, plumbing, fire protection and electrical work. After selections, follow-up calls were made to the winning bidders to make sure that they understood the contracts.

“We’re finding a lot of bidders that don’t have a bid backlog,” Edelmann said, “so that’s good for us.”

More good news was that the winning bidders came in “about $133,000 under estimate,” according to Edelmann.

Council member Kathleen N. DePuy paid Edelmann a compliment, saying that she was “impressed the bids came in very close, which suggested that there was good information going out.”

Council’s ultimate approval to award the bids was met with applause by the firefighters in attendance.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with the bank in anticipation of this vote,” Leventry said, cautioning that the money for construction would not be available until June 21. “Do you want to break ground without any money in hand?”

“Yes,” said one fireman quietly.

Keeping Trash Under Control

During public-comments time, Chris A. Mooney of 4411 E. Lawnview Drive said that he has noticed an increase in trash being put out on Whitehall curbs for pickup.

“I know that trash should not be put out until after 3 p.m. the day before the pickup,” Mooney said, “and that it has to be picked up by 5 p.m. the day of and that the trash should be placed within five feet of the curb. But it seems like people are putting stuff out early, and the distance from the curb seems to be plus or minus some.”

Mooney said that he has noticed this happening “a few times this spring” and just wished to bring it to the council’s attention.

DePuy Elected to Statewide Leadership

Council President Linda J. Book announced that DePuy had recently earned election as Second Vice President of the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs. The election was held during the PSAB’s 100th Annual Conference & Exhibition in Hershey, PA, where hundreds of municipal leaders from around the commonwealth gathered to deliberate on a wide variety of community policy issues.

DePuy’s term as Second Vice President will formally begin on May 1, this year, and she will ultimately be inaugurated as association President in May 2013.