A five-lot subdivision at 886 Flexer Ave. was approved unanimously 5-0 by the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners at a special July 28 online Zoom meeting.

Plot 886 LLC had been recommended to commissioners for approval of waivers by a 7-0 unanimous vote of the Salisbury Township Planning Commission at its June 9 meeting at Western Salisbury Fire Department Eisenhower Station.

Township commissioners have been using the Zoom virtual meeting platform because of the COVID-19 pandemic and social-distancing guidelines.

The planning commission met in June at Eisenhower Station, also because of coronavirus protocol.

Commissioners, in addition to approving the subdivision, granted several waivers for it, including considering the preliminary-final plan as the final plan.

Before the votes, board of commissioners President Debra Brinton asked Salisbury Township Manager Cathy Bonaskiewich and Salisbury Township Consulting Engineer David J. Tettemer of Keystone Consulting Engineers, Inc., if all conditions for the subdivision had been met.

Tettemer said the subdivision’s sewer planning module had been finalized and submitted and will be submitted to Lehigh County Authority.

Board of commissioners Vice President Rodney Conn made the motion, seconded by Commissioner Heather Lipkin, in the 5-0 vote to consider the preliminary-final plan as the final plan.

Before the vote on the final plan, Salisbury Township Solicitor Atty. John W. Ashley said, “We already approved the preliminary plan. We are not making them come back because it would basically be the same plan.”

Commissioner James Seagreaves made the motion, seconded by Lipkin, in the 5-0 vote to grant conditional final approval of the Plot 886 LLC Major Subdivision Plan.

Commissioner Alok Patnaik made the motion, seconded by Conn, in the 5-0 vote to amend Salisbury Township’s Act 537 Sewer Plan to include the Plot 886 LLC Major Subdivision.

Before the vote, Patnaik asked for the reason for amending Act 537. The act was amended to make provision for the five plots.

There were 17 participants listed for the July 28 Zoom meeting, according to information shown on the screen.

The 886 subdivision plan will divide the lot into five new parcels: 29,473-square-feet, 28,018-square-feet, 27,922-square-feet, 34,504-square-feet and 26,984-square-feet.

Each parcel is to be developed with a single-family, detached residence.

Plot 886 LLC, with Dave East as a partner, is proposing the subdivision on a 4.2372-acre property at 886 Flexer Ave., a property originally owned by Dr. John A. and Jane Altobelli.

The site, listed at 904 Flexer Ave. and 2282 East Texas Blvd., also known as Mosser Drive, has been under review for more than two years.

The plan was tabled by a 5-0 vote at the May 14, 2019 township planning commission meeting, when Tettemer reported in detail about his review of the plan.

The site, which is vacant land, is in the township’s Rural Residential Zoning District R-3, which is referenced as medium low density residential dwellings.

Five lots with a cul-de-sac are shown on the plan. The number of lots was reduced from nine.

The subdivision was submitted as a sketch plan at the March 12, 2019 planners’ meeting.

Public sanitary sewer, provided by South Whitehall Township, requires an inter-municipality sewer agreement.

Ashley contacted South Whitehall Township officials about the intergovernmental agreement for sanitary sewer service to the subdivision.

The township zoning hearing board voted 3-0 at its March 6, 2018 meeting to remove a restriction on the site that would have limited the number of lots to three on the approximate 4-acre property.

The restriction of three houses on the lot was put in place Aug. 7, 2001, by township zoning officials.

Maria Diaz-Joves, of a423, a Hellertown-based architecture and design firm, said at the March 6, 2018, hearing an agreement of sale for the property was contingent on obtaining township, county and state approvals for the plan.

“We build modern, sustainable homes. They are more energy-efficient and greener than the normal home,” Diaz-Joves said.

It was stated then the proposed 2,500-square-foot homes might sell for $350,000 to $400,000.

A significant, agreed- upon change for the project was to move stormwater infiltration basins underground, which is intended to prevent standing water.

Another item considered by planners concerned location of street trees.

“They have the right amount of trees, but they’re not evenly spaced out,” Tettemer had said of the subdivision plan.

The street trees are required to be about 40 feet apart, but the plan depicted street trees to be 15 to 20 feet apart.

Placement of trees has to do with location of driveways and underground utilities.

A recreation fee of $1,500 per dwelling unit is to be paid at the time of the development agreement.