Birmingham Township supervisors Monday night honored Police Chief Tom Nelling and voted to advertise the 2025 budget. That budget does contain a tax increase. Supervisors also plan to have a hearing for a zoning amendment, though the date for that is uncertain.
Nellng has been involved with the township in multiple capacities since he moved into Birmingham in 1984 and has been the police chief since 1992.
Supervisors’ Chairman Scott Boorse said Nelling has “served the township in pretty much every capacity from roadmaster to sign guy, trimming trees, and chief of police for a long time…We’re extremely lucky to have a person like Tom who has pretty much dedicated his life to the township.”
The proclamation Boorse read makes Nov. 4 the “Chief Tom Nelling Day.”
The proposed zoning amendment, if it passes, would change the amount of impervious coverage allowed. Boorse said the current situation is “inconsistent,” with maximum allowable impervious coverage fluctuating throughout the township.
He said Birmingham checked with its five adjoining townships and found them to be consistent with a maximum of 20 percent impervious and 80 percent pervious.
There is still the concern of stormwater running off one property and onto another, so property owners would need to find ways of keeping excess water on their own properties, in the sense of recharging their own groundwater.
There’s no specific date for a hearing on the amendment, but Boorse said it would likely be sometime during the first quarter of 2025. Supervisors’ recommendations will first go to the township Planning Commission, and then to the county Planning Department. The hearing would follow recommendations from those entities.
The budget
According to Township Manager Quina Nelling, the 2025 budget estimates revenue at $3.517 million, and expenses at almost $3.4 million. There is also a carryover of about $500,000.
The millage increase on property taxes is 0.3 mils, from 1.6 to 1.9 mils. Nelling said that the increase would result in a dollar increase of about $100 for the average property. She added it's the first tax increase since 2010. (A mil is a tax of $1 for every dollar of assessed property value.)
Supervisors will vote on the budget in December.

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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