FORWARD TWP — Supervisors unanimously approved a revised sewage treatment facility plan for the Cashdollar Sports Complex during a meeting on Thursday, Oct. 10.
The package contains forms and supporting documentation to amend the township’s Act 537 Plan and paves the way for the installation of a 6,800 gallon per day package sewage treatment plant for the complex on Watters Station Road.
An Act 537 plan requires municipalities to continually update plans for sewage disposal needs.
A few months earlier, the township approved a similar plan. However, the complex’s consulting engineer mistakenly submitted modules for a small-flow water treatment facility that was only 2,000 gallons a day, when what they needed was more than triple that size.
The state’s Department of Environmental Protection rejected that proposal, and the engineer had to again submit supporting documents for the sewer treatment plant.
“This is just a resolution almost identical — if not identical — to what you previously approved for a package treatment plant to serve the facilities being proposed at the complex,” township manager Tom Hartwig told the supervisors before the resolution was passed.
Zoning Update
While no official action was taken on the issue of zoning in the township, supervisors discussed possible next steps, including outlining a possible timeline for when the planning commission could finish its review of the subdivision and land development ordinance.
While there isn’t a law requiring that happens before a decision is made on future zoning, it is the route the township would prefer to take.
“It doesn’t have to be, but that’s the process that we’re going to use,” said vice chairperson Susan Oliver-Stough. “Our process is to first take a look at the subdivision and land development ordinance, make sure it says what we want it to say, update and fix any holes and clarify definitions within the parameters that the state allows a township to do without zoning.”
Supervisors have set a tentative goal to finish that review by May of 2025 before determining next steps.
