In late 2019, striving to make it easier for smaller property owners to make improvements while maintaining its commitment to groundwater protection, Tinicum Township amended its zoning ordinance to provide revised standards within its Critical Recharge Overlay District.
There are many types of map overlays throughout Tinicum Township. The township’s overlay districts provide for additional regulation to that offered by its zoning districts among categories such as residential, commercial and planned industrial.
Via a tiered scale, the 2019 revision, Ordinance 247, recognized protecting smaller properties from undue burden from regulation that was designed to assure water draw from larger properties that are typically more likely to be candidates for subdivision development.
The planning commission is now requesting an amendment to 2019’s ordinance, one that would pertain only to existing lots and only as of the new amendment date. The purpose would be to provide relief to established smaller properties, where they deem impervious surface (preventing or impeding the infiltration of stormwater into the soil) rules are too tight. Currently, zoning relief can be applied for, but it must be approved at great cost to the landowner, which some deem an outsized burden.
Solicitor Stephen Harris, at the township supervisors’ Sept. 20 meeting, raised a cautious note. “Before we put any revised ordinance in place, an amendment process will be needed here. We do not want to incentivise subdivisions by larger landowners to capitalize on small parcel relief. Reducing parcel sizes is not the intent of this ordinance.”
Chairman Richard Rosamilia felt the ordinance should be kept the way it currently stands. “Variances for smaller lots are mostly approved, if expensive for the owners.”
Vice Chair James Helms requested more time to review these concerns and the board sent the request back to the planning commission to further work through the issues discussed.
In other business, Manager Teri Lewis announced that she received an email from the Bucks County Planning Commission regarding a ‘PennDOT Connects’ bicycle resurfacing program along Creamery and Geigel Hill roads. The commission wants to improve the standards of Tinicum’s roads for cyclists, to make them more bike friendly by raising Bucks County cyclist safety ratings for roads, speed, roadside conditions and traffic by one level.
PennDOT has proposed placing thermoplastic “sharrows” along the approximately six mile stretch of roadways, every 250 feet in both directions. Sharrows are large road markings in the form of two inverted V-shapes above a bicycle graphic. They are meant to indicate which part of a road should be used by cyclists with the intent of widening the berth between cyclists and automobiles.
With two lanes, Jim Helms said the township has challenging roads and not an easily bikeable route. There is concern they invite less experienced bikers who are unsuited to trafficked roads.
The community seems to agree the use of “rumble strips,” a road safety feature to audibly alert drivers of lane changing danger, are inappropriate for Tinicum’s roadways.
There is some concern that the use of sharrows will negatively encumber the natural look and feel of the township’s rural roads. Member Breslin questioned the true level of bicycle traffic based upon what she has seen on the roads. “They may be deemed popular routes as noted on the widely-used Strava App, which provides athletes with selected routes, but I question whether there is a larger PennDOT strategic plan connecting the township’s roads to a wider bike-friendly network throughout the county.”
Resident Luke Sorenson is an avid biker and he encouraged improving Tinicum’s roads for bikers. “This is an asset to our community. There is a serious misunderstanding of the automobile and cyclist relationship on the road. He suggested the township consider other ways in which we might utilize signage to better reinforce knowledge of the rules.
In Public Comments, it was noted there were 28 remote Zoom participants at this meeting. Cindi Gasparre requested the speedy establishment of a policy for archiving the video-recorded meetings. “It is important that those residents who have missed a meeting can access these recordings.” Lewis stated she is currently working out options in this regard but has no answers as yet.
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