ADAMS TWP — The board of supervisors approved an ordinance during its meeting Monday night, Feb. 23, that could potentially open the door for a sports facility or convention center to come to the township.

On paper, the ordinance provides definitions for two types of land use: an “indoor/outdoor recreation complex” and an “arena/convention center.”

The ordinance, as approved Monday, defines the former as a “facility designed for recreation, sports exhibition and practice that may contain indoor or outdoor fields, with fixed seating capacity less than or equal to 1,000 spectators at any given time across the entire parcel.”

An arena or convention center, as defined in the ordinance, differs in that it is entirely enclosed, offers seating for more than 1,000, and is “designed to accommodate sporting, entertainment, tourism, convention, and assembly events.”

Code enforcement officer Joe Julian said at least one proposal for either a sports arena or a convention center has come before the township and is in the sketch plan stage.

The ordinance also specifies the zoning districts of the township where these facilities can be built. Both types of land use are permitted as a conditional use in only the industrial district and Route 228 overlay district.

“As opposed to a permitted use, a conditional use always has to have a public hearing if somebody would come in with one of these proposals in front of the board of supervisors,” said township solicitor Michael Gallagher.

Gallagher said the importance of having the ordinance in place was to define what these land uses are and where they could and could not be built before developers decide.

“When you don’t define a specific use in your zoning ordinance, the developer who wants to bring in something has the right to put it anywhere,” Gallagher said. “Basically, by doing this, we have a little more control of where it’s going to be.”

The ordinance was initially brought before the public in November, but supervisors voted to table its adoption and kick it back to the planning commission for further review.

Ultimately, the planning commission made two changes to the initial draft of the ordinance. In its original form, “indoor/outdoor recreation complexes” would have been permitted as a conditional use in the personal services overlay zoning district, which is mainly intended for commercial businesses such as general retail or small restaurants along Route 228.

That section was struck from the newer version of the ordinance. Gallagher said the change was in response to a comment during the November public hearing from a resident who expressed concern about the possibility of a large sports complex being built in a mismatched zoning district.

In addition, a section was added requiring developers proposing one of these land uses to conduct a traffic study.

The township also approved a zoning amendment to permit townhomes as a conditional use within the Route 228 overlay district.

Prior to this, townhomes were permitted only in the R-3, or residential multifamily, and RAM, or residential agricultural moderate-density, districts.

The ordinance also comes with a set of requirements and restrictions on density and buffering on any townhome developments in the overlay district. These include a stipulation that no townhome structure be built directly adjacent to the right of way of Route 228, as well as a maximum of eight dwelling units per gross acre.