Peters Township pursues eminent domain for connector road

Peters Township is proceeding with acquisition by eminent domain of a small piece of private property on which to build a street to connect an in-progress residential development with a neighborhood that has had limited vehicular access for decades.
Township council authorized the process to take possession of .035 acres, or slightly more than 1,500 square feet, off Manor Way, a dead-end street in the Beacon Manor plan of lots April 27. The connection would be to the Juniper Woods development to the south and, by extension, to Thompsonville Road.
Currently, Manor Way and the intersecting Beacon Way are accessible only by traveling through neighboring Upper St. Clair Township. At previous council meetings, residents of the neighborhood have opposed the Juniper Woods link, citing concerns about traffic and other safety issues.
The owner of the property sought for acquisition is among those who prefer the status quo, according to township manager Paul Lauer.
“I think it’s a question of the connection,” he told council regarding the owner’s lack of interest in selling the land.
As a result, the township is pursuing its right to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation.
“I think we made it clear when that plan came in that we need to have that connection, so I don’t know what choice we have,” council member Frank Kosir Jr. said.
According to Lauer, the plan is to have township solicitor John Smith confer with the owner’s representative about proceeding with eminent domain.
“They can work together and do it in a way that keeps the cost down. So what I intend to do is to come back to council and let you know exactly the process that we intend to use,” he said. “To be able to do this, we’re going to have to get two appraisals, and then we’re going to have to employ the services of an attorney.”
From the municipal perspective, the township’s policy has been to promote interconnecting streets, a stance that is reinforced by the comprehensive land-use plan adopted in 2013, with the intent of improving access for the likes of snow-removal equipment, refuse-collection vehicles and emergency services.
Regarding Manor Way, Lauer said there has been some question about the township’s ownership of the street.
“The recorded right of way is actually in the middle of a creek. The road was never built there in the 1950s,” he told council. “These were private streets that the township took over, and we have maintained Manor Way for over 21 years in its current location.”
Lauer explained Smith’s legal opinion.
“Not only do we have ownership rights of a 33-foot right of way along the existing Manor Way, that we, in fact, have no ownership rights over where the original right of way was located, since we did nothing to place a road in that location,” he said.
Also related to Juniper Woods, council arrived at a solution for an issue regarding the width of streets in the development.
The property is located within a township Conservation Residential Overlay District, which calls for 20-foot-wide roadways abutted by three to five feet for a planting strip and five feet for sidewalks, according to Lauer. But the Juniper Woods roadways constructed so far, for reasons that remain unclear to him, are 24 feet wide.
To comply with regulations, future construction will be the prescribed width. Between the 24- and 20-foot-wide sections, about 75 feet of roadway 22 feet wide is to be constructed, “so it isn’t so dramatic,” Lauer said about the transition.
“The sidewalks aren’t in yet in the first part. So what we need to do is move the sidewalks throughout the entire plan so that they’re three feet off the road,” he explained. “That way, they’ll taper in with the road, and it will look right.”
While the Conservation Residential Overlay District calls for narrower streets in part as traffic-calming measures, as council member Jim Berquist pointed out, Lauer said other measures would be in place throughout the development.