Jackson, Cranberry townships unveil new boundary at joint meeting
CRANBERRY TWP — A proposed joint ordinance establishing a more defined municipal boundary at Cranberry Township’s northern border and Jackson Township’s southern border has been in the works for months.
At a joint meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 19, officials from both townships met at Cranberry Highlands Golf Course to present the new boundary lines that would establish a precise and up-to-date boundary.
A few dozen people also attended the meeting, many of them property owners along the boundary.
The ongoing legal process was sparked by a new residential development, Kobe Point, being constructed along the border of the townships.
Since neither township has access to their original municipal charters, confusion followed about the development’s address.
Property deeds, development plans and tax maps over time provided mixed information, according to Dan Santoro, Cranberry Township manager.
The proposed ordinance will be up for consideration at the townships’ board of supervisors meetings: Sept. 3 for Cranberry and Sept. 17 for Jackson.
During the public comments portion, property owners raised concerns about insufficient communication from the townships about the ongoing boundary drawing process, and about Wednesday’s joint meeting taking place.
Andrew Nedzel, president of the homeowners association, asked why construction for Kobe Point started before the boundary issue was resolved.
“If you don't know where the border is, how do you start so quickly?” he asked.
Some expressed worries about implications of the new boundary on the buffer zones for their properties, and concerns were also raised about construction work on Kobe Point as well.
Nedzel, among other others, also raised concern about tree cutting in the area for the planned development, and stormwater draining into a section of their properties. Some said they had incidents where individuals working on Kobe Point were near and on their properties, and without a notice from the townships, they were not sure what was going on.
The comments led to a lengthy back-and-forth, in which township officials addressed the concerns of residents.
Santoro said any potential trespassing from Kobe Point developers is not relevant to the new boundary line.
“If they have, for some reason, encroached across a property line into someone else's property line, that's an entirely different issue,” he said.
Anthony Cosgrove, Cranberry Township solicitor, said presence from Kobe Point construction workers was likely surveyors from HRG, and township officials had not been notified about the survey.
“They originally told us they didn’t need to do a survey,” he said. “They were going to use existing boundary lines. So we never knew they were gonna go out to do a survey.”
He added that the new boundary does not change anything in regard to established buffer lines.
“Nothing changes with regard to the buffer,” he said. “Your buffer is still intact and still required.”
As for communication, Santoro said both the townships have striven for transparency throughout the process. He noted that letters notifying residents about the meeting were send to HOAs, not individual owners, and that sending notices is not required by law.
“Those were an effort in transparency,” he said.
