W. Penn nixes making entire Route 309 corridor a highway commercial district

For the time being, West Penn Township has decided to shelve making the entire Route 309 corridor a highway commercial district.

The township’s board of supervisors on Tuesday unanimously agreed to put the rezoning of 309 on hold until the township’s comprehensive plan is completed.

Board Chairman Tony Prudenti recommended that supervisors not pursue the concept until they talk to Charles Schmehl of Urban Research Development.

Prudenti said that since the comprehensive plan is 23 years old, and that fact the township is looking at updating its zoning, he believes it makes sense to do it all at once.

“It makes sense to me we do the comprehensive plan while we do zoning,” Prudenti said.

Further, Prudenti said he believes that Supervisor Ted Bogosh was right in that the board look to do everything all at once.

Board solicitor Paul J. Datte then weighed in on the matter.

“Typically you do the comprehensive plan first and then zoning,” Datte said. “That should go first.”

The board’s decision comes one month after it agreed on a 2-1 vote, with Bogosh opposed, to direct the township engineer and solicitor to make the entire 309 corridor a highway commercial district up to the conservation district.

Currently, Municipal Road — the area in which the township’s administration building and the township police department are located — is not zoned highway commercial, supervisors said.

Under the new designation, Municipal Road, north to Mill Drive, and south to a little north of School Drive, would have been located in a highway commercial district.

Prudenti said at that time he believes the move would help promote commercial businesses by being located on a main road.

Supervisor Timothy Houser had said he believes the township has a lot of little mom-and-pop businesses that seem to be popping up in areas that they really shouldn’t be.

Houser previously said he would rather see those businesses established as arterial roads to get the heavy truck traffic off the rural roads.

There was also some discussion on zoning portions of routes 895 and 443 that are in the township’s jurisdiction.

Bogosh questioned what type of expenses the township would incur, and suggested the board look to do everything all at once.

But Houser had said he believes the board needs to look a little closer at 895 before it would make that decision.

In December, supervisors on a 2-1 vote, with Bogosh opposed, awarded the updating of its zoning ordinance to Urban Research & Development Corporation.

The township’s zoning ordinance is 30 years old, and needs to be brought up to date.

That came after the board in July met with Charlie Schmehl, vice president of Urban Research & Development Corporation, who provided a proposal for a comprehensive update of the zoning ordinance.

Schmehl, who wrote the township’s original zoning ordinance more than 30 years ago, discussed examples of issues to be addressed, provided a sample scope of services, and gave a potential project schedule.