W. Penn plans to designate most of 309 corridor highway commercial

It won’t be long before the majority of the Route 309 corridor in West Penn Township is zoned highway commercial.

Township supervisors voted 2-1 last week to direct the township engineer and solicitor to make the entire corridor a highway commercial district up to the conservation district.

Supervisor Ted Bogosh voted against the move.

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 be located in a highway commercial district.

Board Chairman Tony Prudenti said he believes the move would help promote commercial businesses by being located on a main road.

“I think it would only enhance West Penn Township,” Prudenti said. “I look at it as a win-win.”

Supervisor Timothy Houser 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.

Resident Ted Rosen questioned why the board wanted the area to be highway commercial. Prudenti said the township has issues with water extraction trucks.

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