Zelienople residents have concerns of their own over a proposed zoning amendment, two years after a developer balked about a proposed repeal of the planned residential development ordinance, which the new proposal would replace.

In a lengthy public hearing Monday, residents voiced their concerns to Zelienople Borough Council over the proposed Village Neighborhood zoning district, which would allow for housing developments more dense than those permitted in much of the borough.

Borough manager Don Pepe said the new proposal is, in essence, a way to protect the community's small-town feel compared with the now-repealed zoning section.

“The PRD that we replaced, we replaced because we felt it was flawed — it wasn't good enough, it wasn't strong enough and it certainly didn't have the protections that we thought it should, particularly with the density,” Pepe said. “We felt it was too dense. ... The new (proposal) has some significant changes that reduce density, increases lot size — all things that help to be able to make a development more amenable to the environment that they're in.”

In an email Tuesday, resident Les Gutzwiller expressed concern over the proposal, future developments that might stem from it, and a lack of answers to residents' questions Monday.The primary area where the Village Neighborhood ordinance could be utilized is a roughly 240-acre property owned by Glade Run Lutheran Services. Gutzwiller said a borough official estimated roughly 1,500 housing units could be built on 240 acres under the proposed ordinance.“The room exploded at the obvious truth: That this represents doubling of the population of the town, and then more questions were presented: What about water, sewage, traffic, etc.?” Gutzwiller wrote.Pepe on Tuesday said a primary reason for a lack of specific answers pertaining to the impact on water and sewage is that while a developer has expressed interest in a property, no proposal has been submitted. He added that once a proposal is submitted, the borough would get feedback from traffic engineers and the sewage authority, for instance.As for the 1,500-unit estimate, Pepe said that will not come to fruition.“A lot of the acreage is not buildable,” he said. “There's steep slopes and all that stuff. The ordinance allows for density as much as 6.3 single-family units per acre, but that's not going to happen because of the topography. It's going to be a lot less than that.“What the realistic number is, I don't know until there's a proposal,” Pepe said.Gutzwiller contested Pepe's argument, saying anybody “who has driven past the YMCA on Route 19 (in Cranberry) can immediately put that aside as wrong. Hills in the way of progress now are just removed.”Nevertheless, Pepe said, he was pleased by the turnout. The purpose of the public hearing — other than the basic legal requirement under state law to hold it — was to ask residents for their feedback. “The meeting (Monday) was meant to get comments, and we got them. We got a lot, so much so that we extended (the end time) from 7:30 to 8:30 (p.m.),” he said. In fact, the borough expects even more. “We will pick this up again on Aug. 30, which is the next council meeting, at 6:30 (p.m.) and do this again.”