The continuation of the Cross Roads Church appeal is expected to be heard by the Salisbury Township Planning Commission, 7 p.m. Sept. 14, in the meeting room at the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

The appeal was tabled because sheds, used for dining, were placed on the church property by Bolete restaurant, 1740 Seidersville Road, across the street from Cross Roads Church, 1860 E. Emmaus Avenue.

The sheds were to have been removed by Aug. 9 from the church property, according to township officials.

As of 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9, nine sheds placed by Bolete on the church property remained. An additional 10 sheds were on the Bolete parking lot.

The church’s appeal to construct a 2,023-square-foot addition was approved but tabled at the July 13 planning commission meeting. The appeal was not on the agenda of the Aug. 10 planning commission meeting.

The sheds were allowed by an amendment township officials enacted one year ago to the Salisbury Township Zoning Ordinance in response to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus pandemic emergency declaration.

“The township commissioners with the COVID restrictions wanted to help businesses. We made a zoning ordinance that in these kinds of emergency declarations allowed businesses to operate in ways that would not be permitted under zoning,” Salisbury Township Assistant Township Assistant Manager Sandy Nicolo said in an Aug. 8 phone interview with a reporter for The Press.

Nicolo added Salisbury Township Director of Planning and Zoning Officer Kerry Rabold would review the continued placement of the sheds on the church property.

Rabold was unavailable for comment as of the deadline for this article. A response from Rabold’s email for an update about the sheds, sent Aug. 5 by a reporter for The Press, stated Rabold would be back in her office Aug. 10.

Rabold said at the July 13 planning meeting Bolete must remove the sheds from the church property. She reiterated that to The Press.

“All sheds can continue to operate until Monday, Aug. 9. After that they must stop all operations within the shed unless they are granted a variance from the Zoning Hearing Board (but they have not applied for one yet),” Rabold stated in a July 19 email in response to questions from a reporter for The Press.

The Bolete restaurant website states, in part, as of Aug. 8: “We will be closed after July 31 through the month of August for renovations in our kitchen and dining room. We are planning to reopen in September for indoor dining.”

Rabold said she had contacted Bolete owners and church officials concerning the Aug. 9 deadline, according to her July 19 email to The Press.

“If the sheds remain on Monday, Aug. 9, I will send a violation letter for each property. At that point, they will have to cease operating out of the sheds and they will have 30 days to remove them,” Rabold stated in the email to The Press.

“If the sheds are not removed (and- or they continue using them), they will be fined up to $500 per day as regulated by our zoning ordinance and the State Municipalities Planning Code [MPC]. The fine could be from the day the violation letter was sent (Aug. 9),” Rabold stated in the email to The Press.

“The township will send the violations to the restaurant since they own the sheds but ultimately, the underlying property owner is responsible. Again, this is per our zoning ordinance and the state MPC,” Rabold stated in the email to The Press.

Rabold could file a complaint with a district magistrate to put the fine process into motion.

The church addition is to include a stage and seating for 123. There is now seating for 90 in the sanctuary.

“Unfortunately, they have the sheds on your property. It’s a multiple-use,” Salisbury Township Consulting Engineer David J. Tettemer said at the July 13 planners’ meeting.

“Technically, we can’t approve your plan because your property is in violation,” Rabold said at the planners’ meeting.

“Bolete has sheds, but now they must be removed. This plan [the church addition] does not get approved until this is done,” Rabold said.

“My intent was to bless our neighbors,” Cross Roads Church Pastor Gary Becker said at the July 13 meeting of allowing Bolete to place sheds on the church property.

Planners, while approving the church officials’ requests for variances and deferrals for the expansion, voted 5-0 to table the plan until the sheds were removed.

Bolete was required to get a zoning permit for the sheds and have the sheds undergo a building inspection.

According to a township official, this did not happen until months after the ordinance was approved in August 2020.

Additionally, the zoning permit wasn’t paid for until this past spring, almost one year into the process, the township official said.

The zoning permit fee was paid after a warning the township would close the restaurant, according to the official.

Bolete was shut down by a township official for a few days in spring, after which the building inspection of the sheds took place and the restaurant was allowed to reopen, the official said.

Barry Isett & Associates, Inc. is contracted to handle building inspections for Salisbury.

Several Bolete sheds display advertising signs.

According to a township official, a zoning permit, and possibly a building permit, is required for the signs, but have not been obtained by Bolete owners, who were informed about the permit requirement.

Each shed, with a table and chairs, allowed socially-distancing dining during the pandemic.

The amendment to the township zoning ordinance, enacted Aug. 13, 2020, by township officials, states, in part: “In the event of an Emergency Declaration by the United States Federal Government, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or the Township of Salisbury, temporary tents, structures, and uses needed to adhere to regulations set by the Emergency Declaration, shall not be regulated by this Chapter provided that such temporary tents, structures, and uses, are removed and the property is restored to its original state within 30 days after the Emergency Declaration has been lifted.”

The Pennsylvania Senate and General Assembly voted June 10 to permanently end Wolf’s COVID-19 emergency declaration, which the governor enacted March 6, 2020. Wolf signed several declaration renewals, the most recent May 20. Wolf brought a formal end to the declaration June 15.

With the commonwealth emergency declaration lifted, the township emergency declaration was ended by a consensus vote at the July 8 board of commissioners’ meeting, thereby triggering the portion of the amendment to the ordinance requiring the sheds to be removed.