Monday, July 23, 2001
No changes will be made until they are advertised and a public hearing is held.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
PULASKI, Pa. -- Township officials are tightening up zoning laws.
Township consultant Maurice Waltz said numerous amendments to township zoning laws are being considered by township planners and supervisors.
The work is an effort to address problems with the current zoning laws, which were adopted in 1997.
"Primarily what they are doing is dressing up areas of the zoning ordinance that have not been consistent or created problems since it was enacted," Waltz said.
Whenever township officials ran into a zoning problem they made notes or comments about it and are now going back to fix all of those problems, he said.
Silent issues: Certain issues were not addressed in the original zoning law such as pony or horse stables in areas not zoned for agricultural use, he said.
"Issues that were not previously addressed in the zoning ordinance are considered silent. When something is silent, that requires an arbitrary decision," he said.
Waltz said the most of the current zoning will remain the same, but there will be some additional uses added for conditional and primary uses in areas of the township and some other changes.
The process: Supervisor Terry Sander said the township planning commission is just now considering the proposed changes. The Lawrence County Planning Commission reviewed the new zoning laws and sent comments back to the township this week.
No changes will be made until they have been advertised and township residents are given a chance to comment at a public hearing, Sander said. A date for a public hearing has not yet been set.