Lower Mac – Agenda Preview 1/21/16

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Link to agenda with detail.

Last meeting video –1/4/16 – reorganization. 

Announcements & Presentations:
Dr. Harry R. Carter – Lower Macungie Twp. fire study. The study will be previewed tonight by the consultant.  Having had the chance to read through it once, I wanted to share one paragraph. While the study identifies a number of growth related concerns – specifically unplanned growth west of Rt. 100 – The opening paragraph is something all residents should be extremely proud of:

Screen Shot 2016-01-21 at 3.55.50 PMA power point summary of the study including an outline of concerns with growth is here on agenda detail link.

Hearings & Approvals: 
Mack Truck parking lot expansion – Specifically this plan is pretty basic. So I want to talk more in general.

The township is very proud to have the primary manufacturing facility for Mack Trucks. Although the news recently has been of layoffs, those who follow Mack closely (I have relatives who have worked for Mack over the years including my dad) know that the business has always been cyclical. The good news is this parking lot expansion signals continued investment in the Macungie Plant. And a renewed commitment to the Lehigh Valley.  The layoffs are disappointing for many in the short term but investments in the facility are a great long term indicator. Hope is when the rebound comes and history tells us it will – the employment numbers will reach new record highs at the Macungie plant.

 

Ordinance amendment for East Texas – I posted this on my FB page earlier this week: “The question I’ve gotten the most is about the smooth-on parking lot. First understand today the parking lot is zoned for development under the current ordinance. Smooth on however doesn’t want to development the max # of units they are allowed to today. (that is a good thing!).

There is a sketch plan the township has seen. The plan proposes under 20 units + a daycare. That is less than what they could develop today ‘by-right”. Their intention isn’t to shoe-horn as many units as they could. Smooth-on is very conscientious as to what made sense for the neighborhood.

The other big benefit right now is that today the parking lot is over 70% impermeable surface. The plan actually reduces impermeable surface to under 35%. The reason is that the units would mostly be clustered around and facing a very large central green area.

The other part folks should understand is why Smooth-on wants to do this. The parking lot (and tunnel under Lower Mac Rd.) was built for Daytimers when it had 1000 employees working 3 shifts. At the time they needed all the new parking. Smooth-on today only has about 200 employees. And they don’t plan to grow much larger.

So Smooth-on wants to build some units but only for their employees only. The idea is that folks have the option of living right across the street from where they work. This actually reduces daily car trips into East Texas if employees lived out of town. And it will always be far less than what daytimers was at peak. Or what if could have been again if another larger company bought the property.

In my opinion smooth on has a neat old company town mentality. If anyone has any questions or would like to see the sketch plan let me know.”

Aside from ensuring any parking lot development is township serving, this exercise is primarily about preserving the character of the Village.  We want to protect the villages unique sense of place. This is the oldest neighborhood in the township aside from maybe Wescosville.

Here is an article from the morning call 

Here is a portion of the letter we rec’d from the LVPC. We also got positive letters from all our municipal neighbors who responded.

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Rt. 100 study- Another critical presentation tonight is under the Engineers report. A few months ago we authorized a study of the Rt. 100 corridor. This is so we can better prepare for – and deal with past deviations from the comprehensive plan that occurred by the prior board – and also plan for future build or no build scenarios on certain sites. This demonstrates in alot of ways the costs of certain types of sprawling development. It also reinforces the need to targeted preservation whenever possible.

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List of State Roads in Lower Mac

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Below is a list of state roads within Lower Macungie Twp. Roads not on this list are township roads. 

As always please let us know about issues on TOWNSHIP roads. Especially during the snow events in the winter. To report issues on TOWNSHIP roads call Lower Macungie at 610-966-4343.

Many roads within the township however are state owned and the responsibility of PennDOT. In which case for faster responses about concerns on state roads you should contact PennDOT directly using the information below. Or if your not satisfied with the response you can contact the office of our area State Representative at 610-965-9933

The following roads run within Lower Macungie Township but are STATE ROADS. Contact PennDOT about issues on these roads. 

Alburtis Road
Brookdale Road
Brookside Road
Buckeye Road
Butz Road
Cedarbrook Road
Cedar Crest Boulevard
Chestnut Road (Between Hensingersville Rd and Alburtis Boro)
East Texas Road (Between Brookside & Lower Macungie Rd)
Hamilton Boulevard (Route 6222)
Hensingersville Road (Btween Chestnut and Mountain)
Hill Top Road Indian Creek Road
Lehigh Street
Little Spur
Long Swamp Road
Lower Macungie Road
Mertztown Road
Minesite Road
Mountain Road
Riverbend Road (Between Cedar Crest and Little Spur)
Route 100
Schantz Road
Spring Creek Road
Trexlertown Road
Walnut Street (Between Brookside and the Boro of Macungie)
Weilers Road (Between Spring Creek and Brookdale)
Willow Lane

Please visit these additional links for more snow information!
FOR SNOW EMERGENCY INFORMATION VISIT THE TOWNSHIP WEBSITE. www.lowermac.com

LMT SNOW GUIDE

WEATHER EMERGENCY RULES

#‎planswl‬ – Thoughts on 2 day charette

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How has Southwest Lehigh County (SWELCO) changed in the last 10 years? What will Southwest Lehigh County look like 25 years from now? Where should new development occur?What kind of development should it be? What will happen to existing neighborhoods and local character?

SWELCO includes Emmaus, Lower Macungie, Macungie, Alburtis & Upper and Lower Milford. Together we are beginning a process to determine the answers to these questions and more with the development of a new comprehensive Plan.

I attended 3 small groups yesterday and caught the end of another today. Here are (just a few of many!) key takeaways from my perspective:

1. Always interesting to hear from the farmers who were well represented. Its important to not only preserve the soil (an irreplaceable natural resource) but also ensure we give farmers the tools they need to keep farming market viable. Critical for a place like Lower Mac where large scale farming is probably no longer in the cards. However, smaller scale and different types definitely still are. This means CSA’s, vegetable production, agri-entertainment, etc. There is a future for farming in Lower Mac. It just won’t look exactly the same as it has in the past. It’s a change for sure. But in my opinion an exciting one. Huge topic over the next year.

2. Density. There are still some who snap-back against density. For the most part however folks acknowledge that targeted density is OK in appropriate (key appropriate!) locations. In Lower Macungie Twp. that is Hamilton Blvd corridor. A place where taxpayers already made significant key and costly investments in infrastructure. Density is how we cash in on those investments. Density in other poor locations like for example west of Rt. 100 will cost taxpayers over the long run.

3. We (the SWELCO region) have to better consider cost of municipal services. Meaning, when a zoning area or land development is proposed we must #dothemath to truly quantify if a particular plan or change makes financial sense for a resilient tax base. I worry that the township has lost some balance with our % of warehouses. We are more than shouldering a fair share. We now need to quantify the liabilities and work towards counteracting by attracting more productive, high quality and property located development to “balance the books” so to speak. It’s not enough to chase economic development. We have to instead foster productive economic development. We need an economic gardening mindset on the Boulevard. An incremental approach.

4. Transportation. One of the most popular sessions both days. For obvious reasons. Our problems are well defined. Sprawl has led to what I call a system of “traffic sewers” or a hierarchy of roads that funnel all traffic our volume to the highest classification roads as opposed to a more efficient grid system. Now, this is in some ways the nature of the beast in suburbia. The problem is (or opportunity rather) is not to double down on your typical “solutions” mostly dealing with band-aid fixes and endless capacity increases. (which actually induce more traffic) This is both inneffective and also vey expensive.

Lastly, Freight of course is now our new reality. And focus of much intense discussion. Not something easy to encapsulate. Of all items talked about the toughest to solve.

Are you interested in these issues? Do you want to have a voice in the conservation?  Please consider attending and contributing your ideas at the January 14th public meeting for plan south west Lehigh.Screen Shot 2016-01-06 at 11.09.56 AM!

Lower Mac Christmas Tree Pickup

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FYI: Christmas trees will be picked up by Waste Management on your normal trash collection day (by separate truck) for 2 weeks beginning January 4th through January 15th, 2016.

Trees will not be accepted if they are in plastic bags, bound with twine and/or have any ornamentation on them, including lights. If you wish to remove your tree before or after the scheduled collection, it can be taken to the Yard Waste Recycling Center at 5536 Indian Creek Road. The same rules regarding ornamentation apply. Wreaths should be placed in with your trash, they cannot be recycled due to the wire.

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LMT Community center & residents support neighbors

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Our fantastic community center staff and the generosity of our residents is an ongoing point of pride here in Lower Mac. It’s demonstrated year round. Here are two examples I wanted to share that are recent:


THANK YOU COMMUNITY CENTER STAFF & RESIDENTS!!!!!

Pajamas & Books.
This year the pajama program accepted donations of 328 pairs of new pajamas and 304 books. The donations are collected on behalf of the County Office for Children and Youth Services. PJ’s and books will be distributed to local children’s shelters many of whom are waiting to be adopted.

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Lower Macungie Troop Support Program
Pictured below are soldiers stationed overseas who received items from this years program. This is the 7th year. Residents made the donations at the community center and the township paid for shipping. Over the years the township has sent 578 boxes to 81 solders. 
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State lawmaker spending for East Penn area

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Couple thoughts:
I am glad PA has a professional legislature but size of house should be reduced. In theory a professional legislature makes sense for a state the size of Pennsylvania. However, the size of the house needs to be reduced. Currently in the Senate the average district handles about 250,000 residents. In the house it’s 60,000. I think that number can be increased to about 100,000 residents per district in the house.

I think Reps & Senators should only make the average median income of the district they represent. I wrote about this couple years ago.  Today, the average salaries for our elected officials in PA are the 2nd highest in the nation for professional state legislators.

Clearly, we still need some reform of expenses in both chambers. The Senate is heading in the right direction. At least this past year having reduced expenses 14%. Still, the discrepancies in both chambers between the high spenders and the low spenders remain far too great. And in a lot of cases hard to justify.

This isn’t a partisan problem. We have big spenders and frugal spenders on both sides of the aisle. 

Lastly, I think the Morning Call does a pretty good job pulling together this information each year. Great work by our local newspaper.

HOUSE
Each House district represents an average of 60,498 residents. Pay is an average of 78,000

Gary Day – 68,915.41 (rank 9th highest out of 203)
Ryan Mackenzie – 50,563.09 (rank 124 out of 203)
Justin Simmons – 38,016.89 (rank 176 out of 203)

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SENATE
Each state Senate district represents an average population of 254,047 residents. Pay is an average of 85,000

Looks like for Senators office lease totals are reported as yearly and for the house it’s monthly. Note: Some Senators maintain multiple district offices. For example Lisa Boscola maintains 3. Bethlehem, Whitehall and Easton. Personally, I think that’s a justified service to constituents since Senatorial districts are so large.

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#pabudget fiasco

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Latest on the fiasco that is the #pabudget. Looks like thanks to some procedural maneuvering the Senate “budget framework” is back on the table.

What that means for liquor privatization and pension reform? Who knows. What we do know is the “framework” for spending was moved forward apparently instead of an 11 month stop gap budget. The spending plan will now require an additional 700 million in new revenue. That will be tackled in the coming days. But hey, vote for the spending package first – handle that pesky little detail about how you pay for it later. Makes sense? Right?

Speculation is that it could happen on Christmas Eve. Here come higher tax increases – Merry Christmas!??

There are lots of better sources for evaluation of what this all means. What I like to do here is post how our local LV delegation voted FYI since it’s not always easy to figure it out.

On a vote that essentially positions the 30.8B framework for consideration – as opposed for a stop gap – The original Senate Bill was sponsored by Pat Browne (R)
Voting no (you can only assume in support of a 11 month stop gap?)
Ryan Mackenzie (R)
Justin Simmons (R)
Gary Day (R)
Julie Harhart (R)

Voting yes – (in favor of a return to framework as opposed to stop gap)
Mike Schlossberg (D)
Pete Schweyer (D)
Dan McNeill (D)

I’ll say this. Whole process has been frustration. Pension reform, severance tax and liquor store privatization – all items that majority of Pennsylvanians support based on polling. And yet here we are 150+ days into a deadlock and its possible we have no action on any. Tax increases with no structural reform is total loss for Republicans who hold the majority of the general assembly.

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Why? We have two parties silo’d and slotted into heavily gerrymandered districts. So each one answers to special interest masters.

In PA’s gerrymandered mess voters don’t choose politicians. Politicians choose voters. I sincerely believe that is at the core of this stalemate and the result is a lack of action on most all critical issues. I don’t blame individuals. I blame the system.

Related: HELP SLAY THE GERRYMANDERER! Support SB 484

The 134th - "Contiguous and Compact"......?

Last iteration 134th  – “Contiguous and Compact”……?

The 134th today - "Compact and Contiguous"?

The 134th today – “Compact and Contiguous”?

Leonard Pools Legacy

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Good article in the Morning Call over the weekend. Lehigh Valley Hospital charitable giving questioned. In light of this I wanted to write again about the Farr Tract. Here were my initial thoughts. 

In the article LVHN CEO Brian Nester talks about the legacy of Leonard Pool. Pool of course was the founder of Air Products and provided the initial funding for LVHN’s flagship LVH-Cedar Crest campus.

Of Pools many legacies one is that of environmental stewardship. At the center of which is the 77.5-acre Pool Wildlife Sanctuary. Pool, bequeathed the sanctuary to Wildlands Conservancy in 1975.

Today, Mr. Pool’s ideals live on. You would think in light of his legacy of giving back to the community that he would be concerned with the manner LVHN is seemingly ignoring a very fair offer from the Wildlands Conservancy. One can only guess that LVHN’s submittal of a very impactful “shoe horn” development plan on such a constrained piece of land is an effort to drive up price.

I hope that at some point our community-oriented hospital network decides to get out of the land development business, hear township concerns and reconsider the offer to preserve this land.

This would still allow substantial benefit to be recognized by the network, do no harm to it’s neighbors and honor Mr. Pools legacy in his vision for the Pool Wildlife Sanctuary.