Press Coverage

To say that Courtney Lomax's article in the Express-Times regarding last night's meeting was a disappointment would be a HUGE understatement. If you did not attend the meeting, and you relied on this article for a solid recap, you would be greatly disappointed. None of the points made by Attorney Gary Asteak were included in this article. Why not? None of the comments from the citizens who spoke out were included in her story. Why not? None of the specific figures and facts provided by our expert traffic engineer were included in the story. Why not?

Though we wish that the story filed by the Morning Call's Joe Nixon was more comprehensive, it was much better than the offering submitted by Ms. Lomax. A few points about Mr. Nixon's article.

1. As for this comment-The developer's attorney, James Preston, said making the comparisons was indicative of an approach where we're ''trying to cook the books, so to speak.'' Let's be honest. Our traffic expert offered tremendous evidence as to why building this "Big Box"/Grocery Store would bring catastrophic traffic congestion to Sullivan Trail. That is not cooking the books, that's stating reality. SamCar Realty/Weis Markets hired their own expert to present a traffic study which supports their application. This doesn't make it gospel.
2. The developers may meet their obligations for the site but, as our expert testified, the improvements will be geared towards the "Big Box"/Grocery Store and not necessarily Sullivan Trail, Uhler Road and/or Braden Boulevard. Consider this analogy. If you pitch the drainage on your house to push water away from your home, and it ends up on a neighbor's property, have you mitigated the water problem or have you solved just your own issue? If these improvements are done, they may indeed address the needs of Weis Markets, but what about Sullivan Trail and the other roads?
3. As for the improvements, everyone should keep in mind that ultimately they are up to PennDot as Sullivan Trail is a state road. So if PennDot decides the improvements are not needed, or if they scale them down, the projection of 100 times more traffic, or a 10,000% increase of trips will end up being the best case scenario!

Since we already posted most of the key points in our last posting ("The decision should be obvious") we won't rehash them again, but here is some more food for thought.

• Are you ready for an anticipated 8+ minute wait time to enter/exit this supermarket?
• Our expert traffic engineer made it clear that this store would produce an "F" grade for traffic as proposed. Most likely you would not accept an "F" on your child's report card so why would you want an "F" for your major roadway?
• Shouldn't every precaution be taken regarding storm-water control? Do we really need to repeat the horror of the 3 significant floods in our township of the last 2 years to finally learn our lesson?
• What's the rush? Why is the township and the applicant pushing so hard for approval TODAY before all of these concerns and points are fully explored and answered? If Weis is permitted to build, once their lawyers, experts and advocates go home, you, and all the citizens of Forks Township will be left dealing with the ramifications, financial and otherwise.
• This is a "conditional use" request. In other words the Board of Supervisors can stipulate virtually ANY conditions (traffic, storm water, public safety, etc.) that they want in order for this application to be approved.

As worried as we are about traffic, storm-water control and safety, we remain focused on also pursuing our challenge to the zoning ordinance (#298) that made this possible as we believe this still constitutes spot zoning.

Though you can't speak out at the February 15th Board of Supervisors meeting on this matter, you can call your elected representatives before the meeting and urge them to vote NO on this conditional use request. There is too much at stake and too much to lose if we get this wrong. Please call them today.

David Hoff, Chairman
610-252-0785 x203

Don Miller, Vice Chairman
484-239-0277

C. David Howell, Secretary/Treasurer
610-252-0785 x 202

John Ackerman, Supervisor
484-239-1783

Bonnie L. Nicholas, Supervisor
610-252-0785 x204