I have attended Franklin Township planning board and supervisors’ meetings since 2022 on the proposed GetGo development on Route 422 and Eagle Mill Road.

There was a 2018 ordinance forbidding a business selling gasoline from building within 1,000 feet of another gasoline station. Because GetGo was interested in purchasing two lots within 1,000 feet of S&S Market, supervisors elected to change this ordinance to allow a station to be within 1,000 feet of an existing station as long as it was diagonal, or catty-corner, to another station and at an intersection.

There is only one intersection in Franklin Township and one property that is catty-corner to the existing station. Supervisors would have us believe that the GetGo was not given special consideration.

A traffic study was performed in January 2022 to determine if traffic would be impacted by this high-volume business, potentially creating grave safety concerns.

The community was outraged that this study was done in the winter instead of summer, which sees traffic from events such as the Big Butler Fair and people traveling to Moraine State Park.

The county planning commission requested this study and a traffic flow plan from the township on two occasions, but the township did not respond. The township never provided its own planning commission with these documents. When asked if another traffic study could be performed this summer, the supervisors denied the request, stating they had to approve this project by March 20.

For safety reasons, the county commission recommended the entrance/exit to Route 422 be designed to be right-in and right-out only. GetGo would only agree to restrict left turns out of the business. Supervisors were not convinced anything else was warranted.

Fran Swidzinski, Franklin Township