The plan for a home for the elderly to be built off Lehigh Street has been recommended for approval to the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners.

The Salisbury Township Planning Commission voted 5-0 to recommend approval of the preliminary-final land development plan for Legacy Place, 2051 Bevin Drive.

The plan for two one-story buildings for approximately 32 residents was first presented at the March planners' meeting. Extensions for the plan approval were granted several times.

Planners reviewed the plan again Oct. 8 because of a change in the plan for the stormwater runoff system.

Previously, a new technique, that of injection wells, was proposed. The new stormwater system uses a more traditional sprinkler system.

The system uses a holding tank, in which the water is stored and then released on the site's lawn using a timed-release sprinker system.

In response to a question by Mike Luciano, whose home and property is near the site for the facility, Walter J. Mugavin, of Aqua-Mist Irrigation, said the sound volume would be that of a typical lawn sprinkler.

Mugavin said the sprinklers would be placed 60 to 65 feet from Luciano's property. Each sprinkler has a 30-foot width spraying area. The sprinklers would operate 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The developer, Posh Properties, is to build a personal care home and assisted living memory care facility on a 2.45-acre vacant tract at Bevin Drive and Regent Court in the C1 Office-Laboratory zoning district.

Jeffrey J. Ott, of Ott Consulting, Inc., representing Posh, told a reporter from The Press a spring groundbreaking is anticipated with a one-year construction timeline. Ott did not have an estimate of the project cost.

Township consulting engineer David J. Tettemer, of Keystone Consulting Engineers, read from his Oct. 2 review letter, which he said contained 12 general items, six of which needed to be discussed by planners.

Tettemer said planners needed to review the plan again because the injection wells system of stormwater management was replaced with spray irrigation.

"The injection wells the main issue have been removed [from the plan]," Tettemer said. A request to withdraw the injection wells was contained in a May 20 letter to the township.

Also, Tettemer said a retaining wall has been removed. "Now there are flatter slopes," Tettemer said.

In his advisory letter to planners, Tettemer said he would have no engineering objection to combining the preliminary and final plans; two-to-one slopes with plantings, and three-to-one slopes elsewhere on the site; a retaining basin slope of zero percent; a deferral for requiring sidewalks along an approximate 150-foot section of Bevin Drive (this was granted at the April planners' meeting), and a partial deferral to street trees to comply with site triangles for driver sight lines for traffic safety.

Planners voted 5-0, with two planners absent, on the deferral and each of the waivers.

Stormwater runoff will be collected in an 8,000-cubic-foot holding tank under the facility's parking lot. Tettemer said the system meets Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection requirements.

"DEP is limiting [water] release to half-an-inch per day," Tettemer said, noting he has met with DEP officials about the project.

It would take six days to discharge the water in the holding tank, Ott said.

"The way this is intended to work is that they're going to capture all the stormwater on-site," Tettemer said.

"The intent is to keep this amount of water to an absolute minimum on Regent Court," Tettemer said.

"It's much less than what runs off now," Tettemer said."So, it should help the neighbors. It's certainly preferable to what was there before."

At previous meetings, neighbors complained of run-off problems from the vacant lot.