Two projects were recommended for approval and one project was tabled at the Salisbury Township Planning Commission May 28 meeting.

Planners reviewed and voted unanimously 7-0 to approve the lot consolidation project at 2638 W. Rock Road and 2660 W. Rock Road submitted by Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, Inc.

The consolidation project is for the Girl Scouts’ Adventure Place at Mountain House on South Mountain in the Summit Lawn area, west of the I-78 exit.

Planning commission member Jimmy Brown made the motion, seconded by planning commission member Richard Hassick, to bring the project to a vote.

Planners voted 7-0 in a separate vote to recommend approval of waivers for curbs, sidewalks and street trees. Brown made the motion, seconded by planning commission member Jessica Klocek, to bring the waivers to a vote.

“The frontage of West Rock Road is wooded. There is not any need for shade trees out there,” Stan G. Wojciechowski, Department Head, Municipal Engineering Services, Barry Isett & Associates, Inc., consulting engineering firm for Salisbury, said before the vote on the waivers.

The planners’ votes are expected to place the project on the agenda of an upcoming meeting of the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners, which will vote on the planners’ recommendations.

The two parcels will be consolidated into one parcel.

The property at 2638 W. Rock Road is improved with a nonprofit, private, recreation facility.

The property at 2660 W. Rock Road is improved with a single-family, detached dwelling.

Zoning hearing board approval was granted April 16 to convert the existing single-family, detached dwelling into camp activity space and expand the nonprofit private recreation facility.

The combined property is 17.6503 acres. Land development will be considered under a separate application.

Each property is in the CR, Conservation Residential zoning district.

“It has to be consolidated for use of the house,” Salisbury Township Zoning Officer Kerry Rabold said before the vote on the consolidation.

“And for use of the entire site sewer [system], the lot has to be consolidated,” Wojciechowski said before the vote.

The Salisbury Township Zoning Hearing Board voted 5-0 at the March 12 hearing to approve a special exception approval to consolidate lots 2638 W. Rock Road and 2660 W. Rock Road and expand the existing special exception use by converting a single-family detached dwelling into a nonprofit private recreation area.

Township zoners voted five years ago to approve Adventure Place at Mountain House. The project has undergone a significant change. A new building will not be constructed. Instead, an existing house acquired will be renovated.

The township zoning hearing board reviewed and voted unanimously at the March 9, 2020, third and final hearing to approve the project. Township zoners also reviewed the project at Feb. 4 and Feb. 18, 2020, hearings. The project was first presented at the Salisbury Township Planning Commission Dec. 10, 2019, meeting. The zoning hearings were held before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

Township commissioners voted 5-0 at the July 25, 2024, township commissioners’ meeting to approve the original Adventure Place plan. Approval of the plan by commissioners was recommended by the township planning commission at the March 27, 2024 meeting.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approved the project’s sewage facilities planning module, required for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, confirmed in a Feb. 8, 2024, letter to township officials. The DEP required a drip-irrigation system. The same module will serve the revised Adventure Plan project.

The Girl Scouts acquired 2660 W. Rock Road, known as the Persing House, which is 3,238-square-feet, in 2021.

The Persing House property purchase was 40 acres, 38 acres of which the Girl Scouts sold to Wildlands Conservancy.

The existing Mountain Home building is to remain as is. None of the front portion of the property is to change. The footprint of the Persing House will not be altered.

Mountain House is a day camp with 30 to 40 Girl Scouts attending. Hours for the camp were originally set 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekly June to mid-August.

Persing House will be renovated for use as meeting rooms, with bathrooms added and a “Trading Post” for the sale of Girl Scouts’ items.

Staffing for Mountain House is six persons, mostly on a Tuesday and Wednesday.

In the previous plan, 27 trees were to be removed. In the new plan, one tree will be removed.

In the second project at the May 28 meeting, planners reviewed and voted 7-0 to approve the lot consolidation project at 446 Stoneridge Road and 450 Stoneridge Road, submitted by Kathleen F. Kline, which proposes to consolidate the two properties into one parcel.

Hassick made the motion, seconded by Klocek, to bring the project to a vote.

Planners voted 7-0 to approve deferrals for curbs, sidewalks and street trees. Klocek made the motion, seconded by Brown, to bring the deferrals to a vote.

Planners voted 7-0 to approve waivers for cartway width, right of way and the plan’s scale of drawing. Klocek made the motion, seconded by planner Holly Weiss, to bring the waivers to a vote.

The property at 446 Stoneridge Road is vacant land.

The property at 450 Stoneridge Road is improved with a single-family, detached dwelling.

The combined property is 17.6503-square-feet.

There is no development proposed as of the May 28 meeting.

Each property is in the R2, Low Density Residential zoning district.

In the third project reviewed at the May 28 meeting, planners voted 7-0 to table a minor subdivision project at 1763 Broadway submitted by Green Hammer Properties, LLC, which proposes to subdivide the property into three lots and develop a single-family, detached dwelling on Lot No. 1 and semidetached (twin) units on Lots 2 and 3, along with required infrastructure and site improvements.

Brown made the motion, seconded by Klocek, to bring the project to a vote.

Planners voted 7-0 to approve deferrals, including for sidewalks. Klocek made the motion, seconded by Brown, to bring the deferrals to a vote.

Planners voted 7-0 to approve waivers, including for cartway width.

Before the votes, planners discussed their concerns about the location of connections to public water and sewer and the placement of the stormwater system. The concerns pertain to proximity to a gas utility line.

“We can run this past [Salisbury Township Director, Public Works Department] Jim Levernier,” Wojciechowski said.

The overall lot size is 18,750-square-feet. Lot No. 1 is 8,750-square-feet. Lots No. 2 and 3 each contain 5,000-square-feet. All have frontage along Broadway.

The property is in the R4, Medium Density Residential zoning district and is vacant land.

The Salisbury Township Planning Commission is next scheduled to meet 7 p.m. June 25.

Other Salisbury Township meetings in the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave., include: 7 p.m. June 11, zoning hearing board; 7 p.m. June 12, board of commissioners; 7 p.m. June 18, environmental advisory council and 7 p.m. June 26, board of commissioners.