While the proposed 179-home Scenic Hills development in Lancaster Township would generate a significant amount of new tax revenue for the municipality, the township supervisors were right Monday in tabling the proposal and sending it back to the township planning commission for comment.

Residents of the current 16-home neighborhood that is targeted for the additional housing have a right to have their concerns fully considered. Meanwhile, at least two aspects of the proposal merit concern, despite the developer's contention that there is little or no basis for alarm.

Those two elements of the plan involve housing development traffic entering Route 19 and the impact of the development on the 16 existing homes' water wells.

A traffic engineer who has studied the housing plan's access to Route 19 has said the plan would not require a traffic light or a turning lane at the intersection of Route 19 and Southview Drive. The engineer said Route 19 would need to be graded to eliminate problems with sight distance at the intersection.

However, residents can be excused for being unconvinced, considering the volume of traffic that uses Route 19 and the belief that most of the traffic exiting the development would be trying to travel south, toward Pittsburgh, making it necessary to cross the busy northbound lanes. Current residents' argument that the volume of traffic exiting the development could at times result in a line of frustrated motorists unable to get onto north-south Route 19 quickly cannot be pooh-poohed.

Residents opposed to the development are, like with the Route 19 access issue, justified in being concerned about the safety of their water wells. The developer, while promising to test wells before work on the development would get under way, has no plans to connect the currently existing homes to public water and sewer service that would be provided to the new homes.

Opponents of the housing plan have other concerns and complaints, to which they are entitled. But for the development in question, it would seem that entry to Route 19 and the potential, however small, for contamination or interruption of the water supply of existing homes are the issues that seal the case for further discussion and/or study by township officials.

The time to resolve issues is before construction begins, not after those issues have become big, costly problems for township taxpayers.