Reiner stymies lot line change
Chadds Ford Township Supervisor Samantha Reiner effectively put a stop to a lot line request that she previously said made sense.
Reiner voted “no” on granting a request by Harrier LLC, a Grace family business entity, to change the lot lines on three adjoining parcels of land situated between Oakland Road, Route 202, and Brinton’s Bridge Road.
One of the parcels is in a residential district, while the other two are mostly in a PBC – planned business campus – district, but extend into the residential district.
The applicant wanted to redo the lot lines so that the parcels would conform to the zoning boundaries and then have the two PBC parcels joined into one parcel of seven acres. The larger parcel would then be sold off.
Reiner attended an August Planning Commission meeting and said at the time that changing the lines to match up with the zoning districts made sense.
Reiner’s vote came after she had seconded the motion made by Supervisors’ Chairman Frank Murphy to approve the change. With Supervisor George Thorpe not in attendance, the vote was 1-1, and the request was denied.
Attorney Mike Dignazio, representing the applicant, said after the meeting that he wasn’t certain whether Reiner’s actions – voting no after seconding the motion – was proper under parliamentary procedure.
The vote came during the board of supervisors’ Oct. 28 workshop. The matter had been scheduled for the Oct. 8 supervisors’ meeting, but Joe Grace granted the board an extension until the workshop.
During the Oct. 8 meeting, Reiner said she wanted the applicant to get an agreement from a future buyer to allow an easement so that there can be access to and from both Route 202 and Oakland Road from the future business and possible residences.
Reiner said during that meeting that the township wanted to help him, but that he would have to provide something – the easement – in return.
“What’s the reason for not being willing to work with the township to provide that [easement]?” Reiner said at the time.
Dignazio responded then that such an action would violate an agreement of sale and that getting the easement would be something the board would have to take up with a future owner when a land development plan would be submitted.
During the workshop, Murphy and solicitor Hugh Donaghue emphasized the question at hand was strictly the lot line changes and nothing to do with future land development plans.
However, Reiner defended her decision, saying she saw the application as involving two or possibly three parties –one of them being Ellen Lentz, who has a house on one of the parcels – but only one name was on the plan.
“There’s no signature from Mrs. Lentz,” Reiner said.
Dignazio said there was a letter from Lentz, which Reiner conceded, but said there was no signature from Lentz on the plan.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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