The Vistas at South Mountain is recommended for approval.

The Salisbury Township Planning Commission voted 3-2, with two members absent at the April 23 meeting, to recommend approval of The Vistas at South Mountain, 88 town houses and one single home at 1030 E. Emmaus Ave., 1108 E. Emmaus Avenue and 1210 E. Emmaus Ave. on the township’s east side.

The planning commission recommendation for approval now goes to the township board of commissioners for an up-or-down vote at an upcoming meeting.

A motion to recommend not approving the Vistas project was made by planning commission member Holly Weiss, who said, “I do not recommend approval.”

The motion by Weiss did not receive a second.

“That motion failed because it did not receive a second,” Attorney John F. “Jack” Gross, managing partner at Gross McGinley, LLP, solicitor firm for Salisbury Township said.

“The township is legally required to take another vote,” Gross said.

Planning commission Secretary Frank Frankenfield made the motion, seconded by John Barbaz, to recommend approval of the Vistas project.

Voting in favor of the motion were Frankenfield, planner Richard Hassick and planner Chair Richard Schreiter.

Voting against the motion were Weiss and Barbaz.

Absent was planner James “Jimmy” Brown and planner Vice Chair Jessica Klocek.

Per a township regulation, a $2,000 per unit parks and recreation fee will be charged the developer, Vistas at South Mountain Holdings, LLC, which would put $172,000 into township coffers. Salisbury Township Planning and Zoning Officer Kerry Rabold said the fee total is based on 86 units.

There were 10 residents at the April 23 planning commission meeting, some of whom spoke in opposition to the town house project.

Before the vote, Robert L. Hoffman, regional manager, Traffic Planning and Design, Inc. said, “When we were here in January [Jan. 22 planning commission meeting], the board wanted us to push PennDOT [Pennsylvania Department of Transportation] and see about getting a traffic light at Gaskill and Emmaus avenues.

“We made a submission to PennDOT. They [PennDOT] will not issue a permit for a signal. PennDOT determined there were not enough warrants [for a traffic light],” Hoffman said.

“The [Salisbury Township] School District must sell right of way and provide easement for a sidewalk on the north side [of East Emmaus Avenue]. They [the school district] will not be bringing students into the development,” Hoffman said, adding, “It’s just a general policy.

“We recommended a pull-aside [area for school buses]. They [the school district] said they don’t want to do that,” Hoffman said.

“So, they’re going to pick up students and the bus is going to drive the students around the school district and the school [Salisbury Elementary School] is only 700 feet from the intersection,” Schreiter asked?

“Tuskes [Homes] will be taking down those bushes [at the northeast corner of Gaskill Avenue and East Emmaus Avenue]. So that will improve the sight lines at the intersection,” Phillip C. Malitsch, director of land development, Tuskes Homes said.

Proposed for the intersection is a mast-arm mounted flashing warning device and a pole-mounted flashing warning device, which would be an automatic activated system with the mast arm out over the road. Diagrams of the device were projected on video screens at the Jan. 22 planners’ meeting.

“We’ve taken as much precaution as we can,” Stan G. Wojciechowski, department head, Municipal Engineering Services, Barry Isett & Associates, Inc., consulting engineering firm for Salisbury, said of the Gaskill Avenue and East Emmaus Avenue intersection.

Wojciechowski said of a PennDOT official, “He said there is no way they will approve it [a traffic signal].”

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners voted 4-0, with one commissioner absent at the March 27 meeting, to accept a time extension to July 31 for the Vistas at South Mountain Preliminary-Final Land Development Plan.

Vistas at South Mountain Holdings, LLC proposes to consolidate three lots into two lots and develop 88 town homes on Lot No. 1 and a single-family detached dwelling on Lot No. 2 along with all required infrastructure and site improvements.

The overall lot size is 48.5197 acres. Lot No. 1 is 46.7965 acres with frontage along East Emmaus Avenue. Lot No. 2 is 1.1903 acres with frontage along Honeysuckle Road.

There will be 0.1421 acre dedicated as right of way along Honeysuckle Road and 0.3909 acre will be dedicated as right of way along East Emmaus Avenue.

The property, in the R3, Medium Low Density Residential and the CR, Conservation-Residential zoning district, is vacant land. All dwelling units will be within the R3 zoning district boundaries.