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Cecil supervisors mull rezoning request

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A request to designate a cluster of residential properties off Millers Run Road in Cecil Township as commercial drew objections from nearby residents who questioned what would happen to the properties and complained about existing activity there.

Roughly 20 people attended a hearing Thursday on a proposal to rezone eight parcels totaling 6.7 acres on Slatemore Drive near the line with Mt. Pleasant Township.

DFJH Properties LP asked the township to make the properties, which are in the township’s village residential district now, general commercial.

The limited partnership is tied to businessman Donald Fuchs, a prominent local businessman who founded Carnegie-based Weavertown Environmental Group. The new zoning designation would broaden the types of establishments that could be built on the land.

About half a dozen neighbors asked questions about and voiced opposition to the rezoning proposal, with several people who live nearby complaining about disruptions from equipment and vehicles running there.

Andrew Harmison said he hoped supervisors wouldn’t grant the request and asked what plans Fuchs had for the property.

“I mean, it’s bad enough we’re eating dirt and everything else, hearing boxes off the trucks, clanging, dumpsters …” Harmison said. “I’m not knocking the man. I’m just saying, ‘What’s going on here?'”

Supervisor Ronald Fleeher said Fuchs “has no plans for the property yet.”

“He has to see what it’s going to end up being zoned before he can plan what he’s going to do,” he added.

Carolyn Yagle of Environmental Planning and Design – a Pittsburgh-based firm that prepared the rezoning application – said consultants asked the same question and were told their client didn’t have specific plans.

Several people said they’d seen Fleeher, who has a contracting business, operating equipment on the property.

“Mr. Fleeher and Mr. Fuchs made numerous trips into (nearby) Blakemore Drive,” said Kimberly Harmison, Andrew’s wife. “Making their presence known, standing around pointing, having it surveyed, putting markers all through our yard, telling us they have plans, this is what’s going to be done.”

Fleeher denied having a conflict of interest: “I have no interest in that property. I have no financial, money in that property. Nothing.”

Solicitor Gretchen Moore said Thursday’s hearing wasn’t for voting.

“Whether or not Mr. Fleeher votes at a future date will be determined before that vote takes place,” Moore said. “Tonight is just a hearing to hear the testimony, get it on the record, and then the board of supervisors will consider it at a future meeting.”

Papers outlining the rezoning request said all but one of the parcels “are currently vacant and have, in part, previously hosted nonresidential land use activity.”

Resident Kimberly Rash said the old gas station on one of the properties hasn’t been open in at least 60 years. She also questioned what kind of businesses would be attracted to the neighborhood, which isn’t served by public sewerage.

“(Sewerage) hasn’t even been brought to our area, or discussed about coming to our area,” Rash said. “Prior to saying, ‘This is a great idea. Let’s bring more businesses into an area that honestly is just barely within the township limits,’ improve the area. Do something to make it better without making more of a problem.”

Supervisors Eric Sivavec and Thomas Casciola also attended the meeting. Their colleagues Frank Egizio and Cindy Fisher were absent.

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