Rumors have been flying through the BelAire Estates development in Antis Township and concerned citizens shared their worries with Township supervisors last night at the monthly meeting.
\nSarah Miller, spokeswoman for BelAire Estates residents, read a statement prepared about the group\u2019s concerns.
\nSeveral of the homes in the development have been visited by a man claiming to represent an anonymous developer.
\nMiller said a man approached her at home and wanted to know what kind of commercial development she would like to see in the area near her home.
\nBelAire Estates residents have been working with Wal-Mart officials to keep some type of buffer area around their homes, once the super center goes in.
\nWal-Mart\u2019s original plan allowed for a 50 foot buffer zone around the development that would remain untouched. Residents were in agreement with the buffer but wanted to increase the distance to 250 feet. There were even talks earlier in the year of residents having the opportunity to purchase some of the land behind their homes to increase the distance between the development and the new Wal-Mart.
\nMiller said she and her husband did put a bid in with Wal-Mart for land, but have yet to hear back from them.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not against Wal-Mart or any other development of Antis Township, we have worked with them to help protect our quality of life,\u201d said Miller.
\nAccording to Miller, the rumors included stores such as Cabela\u2019s or Gander Mountain building in the area. This raised several other concerns such as having guns available so close to a residential neighborhood. Also, talk of someone buying several houses in the neighborhood in order to tear them down and make room for an access road to the new store was discussed.
\n\u201cI just don\u2019t want to wake up one morning and see bulldozers outside my house,\u201d said Miller. She said residents just wanted to be involved in the development process.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want to stop growth in Antis Township, we just don\u2019t want it right next to our homes,\u201d said Miller.
\nAccording to township solicitor, Patrick Fanelli, \u201cIn any of these scenarios you\u2019ve talked about tonight, nothing can happen without something (plans, requests) coming through the board of supervisors. So, you\u2019re not going to wake up and see something happening without prior knowledge.\u201d
\nSome of the supervisors had heard similar rumors, while others were hearing them for the first time.
\nBoard Chairman, Ray Amato, said he heard months ago that Cabela\u2019s was looking to build in the township but that plan was abandoned because it just wasn\u2019t feasible, due to the size of the stores.
\nMiller told the board it was critical to have their support on this issue.
\nShe asked the board to speak with Wal-Mart officials and asked them to either accept the residents offer to buy the land or to extend the buffer from 50 feet to 250 feet.
\nAmato agreed to call Wal-Mart officials with the residents\u2019 concerns.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re in no position to force Wal-Mart to sell land,\u201d said supervisor Ken Hostler, \u201cbut we can certainly talk with them about it.\u201d
\nAnother issue brought up was the request to post \u201cno outlet\u201d signs in the development so people know they will not be able to access the new super center through the neighborhood.
\nAnother concerned BelAire resident asked the board about zoning.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve tried three different times,\u201d said Amato, \u201cbut residents didn\u2019t want zoning.\u201d
\nSupervisor Robert Smith offered his opinion saying, \u201cThis guy (that visited homes) sounds kind of shadowy, perhaps he\u2019s trying to cause neighborhood flight.\u201d
\nSmith said it could be a plan to cause worry among the residents. Then homes could be bought and resold.
\nHostler said the point is, \u201cWe can\u2019t do anything about a rumor.\u201d
\nAs of right now, all of the rumors circulating are just that, rumors. According to the supervisors, nothing has been submitted to the township regarding the land in question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rumors have been flying through the BelAire Estates development in Antis Township and concerned citizens shared their worries with Township supervisors last night at the monthly meeting. Sarah Miller, spokeswoman for BelAire Estates residents, read a statement prepared about the group\u2019s concerns. Several of the homes in the development have been visited by a man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}