Planning Commission scrutinizes county, township comprehensive plans

At Tuesday’s hybrid meeting, the Milford Township Planning Commission discussed comments and concerns about two separate but concurrent comprehensive plans: one for Milford Township and one for Pike County.

The Imagine Pike County 2035 Comprehensive Plan is currently in a 45-day public comment period, and Planning Commission attorney Thomas Farley urged the public to look at the plan and offer comments. Comments can be made online, via email to Pike County Planning Director Mike Mrozinski at mmrozinski@pikepa.org or by sending written comments to the Pike County Planning and Mapping office at 506 Broad St. in Milford.

“The bottom line with a comprehensive plan is that it spearheads local economic growth,” Planning Commission Chair Kevin Stroyan said. “So I don’t have any real issue with the core intent. The problem is they’re making decisions for the development of the township without any input from the township.”

The county’s comprehensive plan mentions property reassessment, which multiple members of the planning commission opposed.

Milford Township Supervisor Rachel Hendricks said the goal of reassessment is inconsistent with the county’s goals of helping senior citizens remain in their homes. On one hand, Hendricks said, the county hopes to help seniors retrofit their homes for handicap accessibility and weatherization. On the other hand, those who have lived in their homes the longest — usually seniors — and kept them well maintained would be “hit the hardest” by reassessment, Hendricks added.

“Those two goals don’t move in the same direction,” she said.

Stroyan raised an additional concern about bolstering economic development and getting “more people on the same amount of ground” without a plan in place to improve the road system. He said this concern has gone unaddressed because roads have previously been pushed aside as a “state issue,” but a conversation must be had with legislators and those in a position to secure funds.

“If we’re not having a conversation with them or with anybody else, then when is the state going to move forward?” Stroyan said.

Township plan

The Milford Township Comprehensive Plan, the second of the two plans on the agenda at Tuesday’s meeting, received comments from the county. The commission discussed their response to some of these comments with Jayson Wood of Woodland Design Associates, who attended virtually.

Wood heard input from the commission to address several of the county’s comments and recommendations, including whether Dingman Township should be used for comparison, the extent to which types of housing other than single-family homes should be discussed, and where a bikeway should be constructed.

The Act 537 sewage program was also a subject of discussion, and the meeting concluded with a discussion of the sewer group’s request that the properties along the corridor of the pipe be surveyed and who will bear the cost.

“There’s a cost associated with that, and the township wants to know if that’s going to be shared,” Stroyan said.