Group seeks to preserve rural Adams
ADAMS TWP — About 20 residents attended the first Saving Rural Adams meeting on Thursday night, where they agreed that township officials should more carefully consider residential development.
The meeting was held at the Mars Public Library.
Rob Crouthamel formed the group after attending township planning commission and supervisors meetings for the past six months.
Crouthamel said one goal of the township’s 1994 comprehensive plan was to preserve the rural character and open spaces of the township while managing the inevitable growth that was spreading eastward from Cranberry Township.
He said in recent months, developments that do not follow the comprehensive plan’s goals have been increasing in the township.
“It feels like it’s coming at us like a freight train,” Crouthamel told those at the meeting.
One problem Crouthamel sees is that planned residential developments, or PRDs, were introduced into the township’s rural-conservation zoning district.
According to the township code, the definition of a PRD is “An area of land, controlled by a landowner, to be developed as a single entity for a number of dwelling units, or combination of residential and nonresidential uses, the development plan for which does not correspond in lot size, bulk, type of dwelling, or use, density, or intensity, lot coverage and required open space to the regulations established in any one district created, from time to time, under the provisions of this chapter (on zoning).”
He said formerly rural roads like Mars-Evans City, Hutchman and Three Degree are seeing developments with lots of less than 1 acre, and duplexes are now permitted in the R-C zone.
“It looks like the southern part of the township,” Crouthamel said.
Tammy Crouthamel, Rob’s wife, said she feels the township officials have allowed developers to drive growth and do not consider PRDs correctly.
“It’s not malicious,” Rob Crouthamel said.
Also in attendance at the meeting was attorney Patrick Auth of Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services.
Auth said his firm could represent the group and suggest legal and practical methods to combat the rapid development of PRDs in the township.
The residents at the meeting, almost all of whom are being affected by a PRD or one that is being considered by the supervisors, signed a petition stating their concern about maintaining the rural character and opposition to “the sudden increase in large, high-density residential developments in the rural-conservation district.”
Crouthamel urged the residents to attend planning commission and supervisors meetings to demonstrate that a group of citizens is disappointed with their current actions.
