At the regular meeting of Hanover Township Sept. 7, township Manager Sandra Pudliner asked council to address applications for the upcoming zoning board hearing. There are three appeals.

One is by the township asking for a variance to install an eight-foot fence between residential townhouses in Chestnut Grove and the back of the Days Inn. The height of the fence is more than normally allowed.

A second appeal is for a U-Store-It location on Dauphin Road. The location was once considered for use as a townhouse development, but road construction nixed the economic potential.

Pudliner advised council that the application might be a good fit.

“Zoning allows for warehouse space, but what the zoning board needs to determine is if public storage spaces are considered warehousing,” she said.

The third appeal is contentious.

PowerSports leased a property on Schoenersville Road where it sells motorcycles. A “For Lease” sign and a vacant building indicate the business was not successful. The building is a neighbor to Feasta Restaurant and FL Smidth.

The appeal asks the township to allow used-car sales at the location. Car sales are permitted in the zoning district as a special exception, but only if the cars are in an enclosed area.

Council first considered an alternative to allow the special exception. Councilmen Bob Heimbecker and Curtis Wegfahrt revised council’s opinion after reviewing the size of the property and its location in the block.

“I don’t think having a used-car lot at the location is representative of the other businesses in the area,” Heimbecker said.

Wegfahrt and Heimbecker proposed that council send its attorney to the zoning hearing to voice the council’s objection.

“This is the first time in the three years I have been on council that we opposed a zoning change,” Heimbecker said.

Although the council is allowed to voice its opposition, the zoning hearing board is an independent body and can chart a separate course dependent on the arguments presented at the hearing. The zoning hearing board meets 7 p.m. Sept. 22 at the municipal building.

In other business, township Engineer Albert Kortze reported that the intersection of Airport Center Road and Irving Street will be reconfigured to a four-way stop intersection.

Presently, the intersection is a three-way stop that has been confusing enough to have been responsible for several accidents and numerous near misses.

“Traffic count has increased dramatically at the intersection since the mall opened,” Kortze said. Mall customers have discovered the back exit from Airport Center Mall eliminates a lot of waiting along Airport Road.

According to Kortze, traffic counts on the road were initially set around 200-300 cars when the mall opened, not enough to justify a four-way stop. New counts show traffic an average of 600 cars with peaks to 1,000.

Council authorized Kortze to move ahead with the project. Once the added stop sign is installed, a warning signal is installed to caution motorists that the new sign is operational.