Warriors Mark Township supervisors will be considering amending their Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance at their next regular meeting in November.
Chairman L. Stewart Neff said most of the changes have to do with conforming to the township’s zoning ordinance. He said the last major work done of the subdivision/land use ordinance was about seven years ago. He also said there had been some minor changes to the ordinance in 2000.
Earlier this year, by a unanimous vote, supervisors approved a zoning ordinance. The move brought zoning for the first time to the Huntingdon County township of about 1,600 residents.
The zoning ordinance was in the works for at least two years before supervisors made a final decision in early March.
At the time, Neff said, “These decisions were not made easily. Times are changing, and if we don’t do something now, we’re going to be in a situation where we won’t be able to stop out-of-control growth. That’s our goal here: To develop some sort of system to control unwanted growth.”
According to a previous Daily Herald article by Rob Carolus, township solicitor Larry Clapper spoke about another aspect of bringing zoning to Warriors Mark during comments he made at a March 1, 2005 meeting.
“In the past, I’ve heard people speak about adult bookstores,” he said at the meeting. “Did you know, the way things stand right now, one could open up right next to your house and there’s nothing that can be done about it? Your neighbor could open one right out of his basement, and if it’s done before a zoning ordinance is passed, that business will stay open, even after zoning is in place. Those businesses are grandfathered, which means the law does not apply to a business already in operation prior to the passage of an ordinance.”
Clapper added, “With zoning, this type of thing can be controlled. This is just one example of the types of things this board is trying to address.”
The final Warriors Mark zoning map features a predominance of (green) agricultural zones that are designed primarily for agricultural land preservation.
The map also includes an industrial zone in the far west part of the township, close to the county line, near Route 453.
The final version of the zoning map included yellow regions to indicate rural residential zones.
According to a previous Daily Herald article those areas are much more sparse than in previous versions of the map.
A red “village zone,” centered on the main town area of Warriors Mark, remained virtually unchanged during the process.
The township published a notice regarding the proposed update to the subdivision/land use ordinance in The Daily Herald on Oct. 11. Warriors Mark supervisors are expected to considering the amendments to the ordinance now on the books at the Nov. 1 regular meeting. According to the recent legal notice, the supervisors could adopt the updated ordinance at the same meeting.
Chairman Neff said the board is also still in the process of hiring a zoning officer. They have been working to hire the Half Moon Township zoning officer to take on the duties in Warriors Mark.
At the October regular meeting, solicitor Clapper was in receipt of an agreement that he needed to review before recommending the final decision to hire the zoning officer. A special meeting was to be scheduled to vote on the issue.
In a phone interview this morning, Neff said the special meeting had yet to be scheduled, but he hoped one would be scheduled prior to the end of the month.
Clapper had previously indicated supervisors wanted to move as quickly as possible on the issue since zoning had already been in place for several months and no one had yet filled the position.
