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Peters Township Council approves preliminary plan for 55-lot development

By Harry Funk Staff Writer Hfunk@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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plan for 55-lot development

The preliminary plan for a proposed residential development containing 55 single-family lots has received approval from Peters Township Council.

The township requires that Justabout Farms, to be built on 25.8 acres between Bower Hill and Justabout roads to the north of Snyder Road, sets aside 30 percent of the property as open space.

“The site right now is largely open. It’s meadow. We are limiting the development to those areas,” engineering consultant Grant Shiring, representing Justabout Development LLC, told council members at their Sept. 25 meeting. “There is a stream and woods in the rear of the property that we will be preserving and protecting.”

The township planning commission reviewed the preliminary plan in August and recommended council’s approval, subject to compliance with 12 conditions, many pertaining to seeing necessary approvals from various agencies.

Council added a further condition, requiring a raised intersection for Justabout Farms’ access to Bower Hill Road as a traffic-calming measure. Further traffic calming is planned for within the development, which also will link to Justabout Road.

Prior to the issuance of a building permit, payment of a traffic impact fee of $1,537 per lot is required.

According to information presented to the planning commission, Justabout Farms is targeting “empty nesters” and has an anticipated starting price of $500,000, with units ranging from 1,700 to 2,400 square feet, all having first-floor master suits. Amenities will include sidewalks along most of the length of the interior streets, an active recreation area with details to be determined, and pedestrian trail around the perimeter.

In other business at the Sept. 25 meeting:

• Council approved a $15,000 contract with South Side-based Lab 8 Designs Inc. for designing renovations to the Peters Township Fire Department following the relocation of the local Meals on Wheels program from the East McMurray Road building’s top floor.

“We are now in a position to begin the renovation of the fire station, to provide needed office space and training space in that upper area,” township manager Paul Lauer said about the approximate 4,000 square feet. “For us to be able to do this in some rational fashion, it’s going to take someone to actually design that space.”

Along with the possibility of using an outside contractor for the renovation project, the township’s public works department could join the fire department in completing some of the tasks, according to Lauer.

“So I don’t know what the ultimate cost of this is going to be,” he told council. “We won’t find out until we do the design.

• Council also approved a resolution for the submittal of an application for a Washington County Local Share Account grant to upgrade the township’s emergency services radio communications system, which connects the county’s 911 system.

The nearly 18-year-old Peters system uses parts that no longer are manufactured, and it relies on dedicated phone lines that have been subject to intermittent failures, according to the resolution.

The cost to upgrade is $294,000, with the township seeking $235,000 toward the project in the application.

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