FRANKLIN TWP — Supervisors voted Monday to repeal and replace ordinances on zoning, subdivisions and construction with little resistance from residents.

Between the new Ordinances 97 and 98, the overhaul took about one and a half years to complete, according to Supervisor Bob Thompson.

“We shattered (the old ordinance) and we took most of the old stuff and updated it,” Thompson said. “Basically we cleaned up our zoning and made it consistent with other townships in the area.”

There was an emphasis on the Route 422 corridor and streamlining the zoning, according Kyle Bidler, project manager of the civil engineering firm Herbert, Rowland & Grubic.

“Some of the old zones were what they call split-lot zones,” Bidler said. “Generally this is very bad practice.”

Split-lot zones have one lot under two different zones, each with different standards.

Thompson said under the old ordinance lots along Route 422 were zoned commercial in the front and agricultural farther back from the road.

He said zoning them all commercial now makes it less stressful for any potential businesses eyeing the locations.

Some residents had questions, but only two residents asked the supervisors to make changes to the ordinance, which they did.

Evelyn Minteer said one of her farms on Unionville Road would have been changed to residential when it was previously zoned both residential and agricultural. She wanted her old zoning back.

“There's different restrictions under the different categories,” she said, “All of my farms are agriculture residential, so I wanted this one to be under agricultural residential.”

Minteer said she had no issues with the overall changes being made, only to her property.

“The rest of it, I understand,” she said.

Nancy Shields owns property off North Road. She said she also wanted her property under its old zoning, also agricultural-residential.

“They changed it. It was done, and I didn't know anything about it,” Shields said.

Shields said there were a lot of changes happening at once.

“I'm used to the old school. Some changes are necessary, but all at once, for some people, it's a little much to handle,” she said. “I'm anxious to stay where I'm at.”

Bidler said a complete update such as this needed to be done in one large action.

“It actually would have been harder to piecemeal it,” he said.

Thompson said a complete reform was needed because the former ordinance hadn't been improved upon since the 1970s, and there wasn't much room for reform either.

“We've amended it as much as we could amend it,” Thompson said. “I'm glad that we have the new ordinance. It benefits the township now and in the future.”