0) | 9 8 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, February 28, 1996 am i H Back Mountain zoning stacks up Municipality Population* Area One-family Two-family Multi-family Trailer park Agricultural Neighborhood bus. Comm. bus. Hwy. bus. General bus. Industrial Conservation Mining Shoreline ‘Dallas Borough 2608 2.3 10,000 4,400-10,000 7,500 N/A N/A 5,000 N/A 10,000 N/A 15,000 2 acres N/A N/A ‘Dallas Twp. 7675 18.5:20,000 20,000 6,000 None 1 acre None None None None None 2 acres None N/A ‘Franklin Twp. 1480 12.9 1.5 acres 1 acre N/A 20 acres 2 acres 2 acres N/A N/A N/A 2 ‘acres 3 acres N/A N/A ‘Harveys Lake 2900 5.3:6,000-15.000 N/A N/A None N/A 10,000 N/A 15.000 20.000 100 ft. wide N/A N/A 125/50'wide Jackson Twp. 5513 13.31 acre at least .5 acre 8,000/unit N/A 1 acre ~~ 11,250-20,000 N/A N/A N/A N/A 1-3 acres 10 ac N/A Kingston Twp. 7280 13.6.15,000 15,000 7,200/unit None 2.5 acres. 6,000 - N/A N/A 6,000 None 2.5 acres. None N/A 3108 21.7 12,500-20,00012,500-20,00012,500-20,000 Nore 2.5 ac./unit25,000 £25,000 N/A N/A 1-2 acres 3 acres N/A N/A Lehman Twp. * All populations are based on the U. S. Census Bureau's 1994 estimates. Area is square miles. Minimums are in square feet, or acres. One acre is approx. 40,000 square feet. All municipalities except for Dallas Borough allow trailer parks but don't stipulate a minimum size. Not all of the municipalities have all of the listed zones. Many minimum lot sizes in residential areas are determined by the availability of public water and sewers. ‘Maximum building heights and setbacks from property lines are also strictly regulated. Zoning (continued from page 1) the roadsides. Roughly a third of the township is zoned conservation (C-1). “These things are the reasons people move here and we mean to keep them that way,” said super- visor David Sutton. Franklin Township, which has the smallest population in the Back Mountain, is still refining the fine points of its zoning ordi- nance, adopted in December, 1995. Like Lehman Township, the primary goals of Franklin Township's ordinance are to pre- serve the township's rural char- acter, community historical siles and environmental resources and protect its residents from pollu- tion. It contains only one business district and no mining zone or multi-family housing district and is nearly 70 percent agricultural. + Franklin Township is also the only area municipality to regulate the minimum size of trailer parks, which are found in all municipali- ties but Dallas Borough and Jack- son Township. "With the Back Mountain's smallest size but highest overall population density, Dallas Bor- ough updated its zoning ordinance in 1992, basically to bring it into compliance with state codes. “We tried to keep the new zones similar to the original ones and make them as uniform as pos- sible.” said councilman William Peiffer, who worked on the ordi- nance. “The original districts were sel up by lot size. Our main con- cern was spot zoning - locating large businesses in the middle of residential districts, for example.” The massive undertaking, which categorized the residential areas according to their respec- tive lot sizes, dwelling units and population densities, included checking properties against the tax maps. It's the only municipality with a special zone for planned residen- tial developments (PRD). such as the Newberry Estate, although Lehman and Kingston townships also make provisions for them in other districts. Dallas Borough also is one of two municipalities containing a - reservoir, having no agricultural (A-1) district and very little room for development to expand. Its largest districts are single-family residential (R-1) and conserva- tion (C-1), located along the borough's western border where it meets the Huntsville Reservoir. Harveys Lake is the only area municipality to have a publicly accessible large body of water within its borders. Strict regula- tions control the development of its shoreline district, according to planning commission member Keith Harry. “We don’t want to group things too closely around the lake front,” he said. A minimum lot width of 25 feet is required for a dock, while boat- houses require at least a 50-foot lot and must be connected to the sewer. Itis the only other area munici- pality which doesn't have an agri- cultural district. Its largest dis- tricts are residential, with a size- able chunk of the borough still forest land. Commercial activity is clustered around the lake, mainly at Shawanese, Worden Place and Sandy Beach, while wetlands sur- round the Inlet, parts of the Out- let, Sandy Beach. and several streams which feed the lake. Kingston and Jackson town- ships have seen recent rapid de- velopment, especially in upscale housing subdivisions. While Kingston Township has businesses clustered along Route 309, Jackson Township, with a third of its land zoned agricul- tural and a third zoned conserva- tion, has very few. The conserva- tion district, mainly located along the mountainsides, strictly limits construction, with no buildings at all allowed on land where the slope is more than 25 percent. Although it isn’t located on a zoning map, Jackson Township is also home to the area’s first his- torical district, nearly a dozen homes clustered in a square mile around the Huntsville Reservoir. Jackson Township also has a mining district, along Chase Road, and a special area with no desig- King's Flea Mart seeks items Members of the flea market committee are now planning for the 22nd Annual King's College Alumni Flea Market and Craft Sale set for March 30 and 31 in the Scandlon Gymnasium, North Main Street, Wilkes-Barre. According to Frank Burkhardt, event chairperson, more than 100 dealers on two floors will feature antique jewelry, vintage clothing, old linens, paintings, picture frames, stained glass, furniture, hand-painted china and glass- ware, Victorian crafts, Christmas items, old toys and dolls, wooden crafts, books and general flea market items, as well as home- . made Easter candy, home-baked goods and refreshments. Teu our advertisers you saw them in The Post. They'll be glad you did, and so will we. You can have # dry basement! * Installed Any Season! ® No Outside Excavation! e FREE Estimates FOR FINISHED OR UNFINISHED BASEMENTS. * PLUMBING REX i * AIR CONDITIONING 44 Years Of Service ¢ Kingston, PA 287-6883 ¢ 1-800-REX-2212 Authorized Installer Basement De-Watering systems ©1993 BDW. Inc. The flea market has raised more than $80,000 for the Robert J. Ell Scholarship Fund at King's. Hours are Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. with an admission charge of $2 for adults. Children under 12 are free. Palm Sunday hours are 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. with free ad- mission. Free parking in campus lots adjacent to the college. To donate items or to arrange for pickup, call the King's College Alumni Office at 826-5879. Brian Corbett nated minimum lot size housing the State Correctional Institution at Dallas. Zoning boundaries don't always cross municipal lines and there is little uniformity in minimum lot sizes. In an effort to encourage offi- cials to begin thinking regionally instead of only of their respective municipalities, the Back Moun- tain Citizens’ Council compiled a zoning map of the entire Back Mountain in early 1993. But offi- cials say there's no cooperation with neighboring municipalities and the Back Mountain still re- mains a patchwork quilt of differ- ent zoning requirements. Although all proposed zoning ordinances and theiramendments must go to the Luzerne County Planning Commission before their respective municipal governments can approve them, the county has very little enforcement power. “Basically we make sure the ordinances follow all state and federal regulations and don't con- tain any exclusionary zoning," said chairman Adrian Merolli. “For example, if an ordinance doesn't comply with the federal Ameri- cans With Disabilities Act or doesn't allow group homes, it can affect the municipality's eligibility for state and federal grants. But the ordinance must be very harsh to be out of compliance to do that.” Local zoning ordinances must also comply with a plethora of state and federal laws regarding protection of flood plains and wet - lands, he said. For example, federal laws re- quire the foundations of homes built on flood plains to have spe- cial louvers which allow flood water to enter and drain out, ac- cording to planning consultant Jack Varaly, who has revised the zoning for several municipalities. New homes built on flood plains may also not have any living space on any floors which have been previously (looded. Only one municipality in the county, not in the Back Moun- tain, hasn't complied with ADA requirements, Merollisaid. All but 19 municipalities in the county have their own zoning ordinances, he said. Those which don't must follow the county's regulations. “There is no magic number for the amount of different types of zones a town can have,” he said. “The state basically tells towns to decide how they want to be and create the ordinance along those lines. It's very flexible. In order to control certain types of zoning, a town must have good reasons why they must restrict things. It must be able to prove in court why it's excluding certain things, usually for environmental reasons — pro- tecting wells [rom pollution from septic units, [or example.” Township will tackle zoning changes - again By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP - The planning commission discussed a list of proposed revisions to the zoning ordinance which will be the subject of a public hearing March 6. Chairman Hank Psolka, Mark Millington and Red Brace were absent. Supervisor Martin Murray served as temporary secretary. Concerned about the develop- ment of commercial livestock feed lots, the commission voted to sug- gest to the supervisors that these operations be made a special ex- ception use on at least five acres in agricultural (A-1), conserva- tion (C-1) and one-family (R-1) residential zones only. The origi- nal suggested change was to al- low commercial livestock enter- prises on 25-acre lots in the same zones. Other suggested changes in- clude enlarging the minimum lot sizes in agricultural (A-1) areas from two to three acres, in one- family residential (R-1) areas from Improve Your Drive! Strengthen your: » Body » Control $s Ernie S Fitness Club Route 309, Dallas (next to Treat Ice Cream) 674-2420 © 1.5 to two acres and in conserva- tion (C-1) areas from three to four areas. Under the proposed changes, the zoning hearing board will have the authority torequire applicants for special exception uses to sub- mit an impact analysis with their applications. The supervisors may also request an impact analysis prior to approval of a conditional use. An impact analysis is a report detailing the prospective use'’s ef- fect on neighboring properties, traffic, utilities, community facili- ties, the environment or the public's health, safety and wel- fare. The applicant must pay for the impact analysis and also reim- burse the township for all engi- neering or consulting fees incurred for the review of the study. The public hearing will be held March 6 at 6 p.m. at the fire hall on Orange Road. The supervisors plan to adopt the changes at their regular meeting at 7 p.m. the same night. * Driving Ability * Flexibility Eliminate Back Pain 1 WEEK FREE! | Visit our facility and receive )] | a Gift Certificate for a Weel A of Fitness. Don't E forget to bring RNIE s i EB friend! 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