An 88-unit townhouse and one single-family house on a 48.5-acre northern slope of South Mountain has been approved.

Tuskes Homes is developer of Vistas at South Mountain along East Emmaus Avenue in the vicinity of Gaskill Avenue and Honeysuckle Road.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners voted 3-1, with one commissioner absent at the Sept. 11 meeting, for a resolution approving the preliminary-final plan with waivers and deferrals for Vistas at South Mountain, 1030 E. Emmaus Ave., 1108 E. Emmaus Ave. and 1210 E. Emmaus Ave.

Voting for the Vistas plan were Commissioners Heather Lipkin and Alok Patnaik and board of commissioners President Debra J. Brinton.

Voting against the plan was board of commissioners Vice President Rodney Conn.

Commissioner Alex Karol was absent at the meeting.

On voice phone, Karol said, “Safety is the No. 1 concern as is meeting all the requirements [for Vistas]. If I was there, I would have voted ‘Yes’ [to approve the Vistas’ plan].”

Conn made the motion, seconded by Patnaik, to bring the resolution to a vote.

The Salisbury Township Planning Commission voted 3-2, with two members absent at the April 23 meeting, to recommend approval to commissioners of Vistas at South Mountain.

The resolution has 10 waiver and two deferral requests, the approval of which was recommended by the township planning commission.

A copy of the resolution is on the township website.

Township commissioners tabled the Vistas plan three times, at July 10, June 26 and Aug. 14 meetings. Residents, as many as an estimated 45, nearly filled the municipal building meeting room at each of the three commissioners’ meetings. Approximately 20 residents attended the Sept. 11 commissioners’ meeting.

“The Vistas at South Mountain Development Update” was posted on the township website Aug. 29 “to address ongoing misinformation and confusion surrounding the proposed Vistas Townhouse Development,” according to the website statement.

Commissioners voted 4-0 at the Sept. 11 meeting for a resolution approving the township official sewage facilities planning module for Vistas at South Mountain, 1109 E. Emmaus Ave. A copy of the resolution is on the township website. Lipkin made the motion, seconded by Patnaik, to bring the resolution to a vote.

Commissioners voted 4-0 at the Sept. 11 meeting for a motion to authorize the township secretary to execute Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s highway occupancy permit documents for the Vistas at South Mountain development. Patnaik made the motion, seconded by Lipkin, to bring the motion to a vote.

PennDOT did not approve a traffic light for the Gaskill Avenue and East Emmaus Avenue intersection.

PennDOT has a warrant system that must be met before a traffic light is approved for a state road. East Emmaus Avenue is a state-jurisdiction highway.

Nor will a proposed median strip be built at the Gaskill Avenue and East Emmaus Avenue intersection.

A sidewalk along Gaskill Avenue will be extended toward a pedestrian crosswalk at East Emmaus. An automatically-triggered signal to alert vehicle drivers of pedestrians, will be placed at the crosswalk.

The impact of traffic to and from the townhouse development on the safety of Salisbury Township School District students at the Gaskill Avenue and East Emmaus Avenue intersection was raised by township planners. Salisbury Elementary School is at 1400 S. Gaskill Ave. Several planners at the Jan. 22 meeting said they favored a traffic light at Gaskill Avenue and East Emmaus Avenue.

Before the votes at the Sept. 11 meeting, Attorney Jason A. Ulrich, partner, Gross McGinley, LLP, township solicitor firm, said, “We [township officials] had a meeting with PennDOT.”

Township officials met with PennDOT officials Aug. 26 in the township municipal building.

“We once again asked [at the Aug. 26 meeting] for a traffic light. They [PennDOT officials] said we [Salisbury Township] did not meet the warrants and they do not make exceptions,” Ulrich said.

“PennDOT said that they believed that a pedestrian crosswalk would be supported,” Ulrich said.

Salisbury Township Chief of Police Donald Sabo said before the Sept. 11 votes, concerning East Emmaus Avenue traffic safety:

“There are two options. One is a speed reduction zone for East Emmaus Avenue. Or, we could propose a school zone,” Sabo said.

“We have a proposed crosswalk at Dauphin [Street and East Emmaus Avenue, in the vicinity of Salisbury High School],” Sabo added.

A stipulation in the approval of the Vistas project was the cutting of hedges on the northeast side of the Gaskill Avenue and East Emmaus Avenue intersection. The hedges have been cut.

“We are going to look at having them [the hedges] trimmed back even more,” Stan G. Wojciechowski, department head, Municipal Engineering Services, Barry Isett & Associates, Inc., township consulting engineering firm, said.

The discussion and vote concerning Vistas took approximately 10 minutes at the Sept. 11 meeting, at the start of which a moment of silence was asked by Brinton to honor victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Before the votes on Vistas, Brinton did not allow residents to speak about the development plan.

Approximately eight residents spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting after the vote.

Norma Cusick, a former township official, objected to Brinton not allowing residents to speak before the votes took place.

Vistas at South Mountain must be approved by the Lehigh County Planning Commission, Lehigh County Conservation District and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

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

The overall size of the project 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.

Salisbury Township School District sold the property for $1.45 million to Tuskes Homes on Oct. 25, 2023.

The property was taken by eminent domain by Salisbury Township School District in 1967 as a site for a senior high school.

Salisbury Township officials considered purchasing the property in 2008 to connect it to Franko Farm Park.

A project for 70 to 90 homes for those age 55-plus for the property fell through in 2005.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners is scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Sept. 25 in the meeting room of the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

The 7 p.m. Sept. 24 Salisbury Township Planning Commission meeting is canceled