LANCASTER TWP — A proposed self-storage facility was vocally opposed by at least one neighbor during a July 14 public hearing, leading the Board of Supervisors to postpone its decision on both a conditional use and land development application.

The Lancaster board on July 14 chose to continue the hearing until Aug. 16, and supervisors Monday opted to table a motion to grant preliminary and final land development approval for Andrew Metarko to turn his current excavating business on Route 19 into a self-storage facility.

During the hearing, Metarko's attorney, Donald Graham, of Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham, went through the criteria necessary for Lancaster to grant Metarko's request to consolidate four properties, construct new buildings and operate a roughly 15,000-square-foot self storage facility along Perry Highway, saying the proposed facility met each criterion.

Project manager Brad Simmons, of the engineering firm Sheffler & Co., testified the property would meet the minimum lot size, frontage to main road and minimal traffic impact requirements among a litany of other criteria for the property to receive conditional use approval.

But the minimum requirements were not enough for Heidi Vandrak Rettig and Robert Rettig, who live on the property south and west of the proposed storage site. Heidi Vandrak Rettig is the registered owner of the property.

Emily Mueller, an attorney representing the two, questioned whether self-storage businesses are safe locations for neighboring properties, given the ability of those renting units to come and go at any time and a general lack of supervision of the units.

Graham pushed back on Mueller's questioning, saying she hadn't presented any evidence to show such units are unsafe and asserting it isn't Metarko's duty to present evidence that crime doesn't occur in a facility that doesn't currently exist — an assertion with which interim township solicitor Neva Stotler agreed, urging Mueller to move on with her questioning.

That didn't deter Robert Rettig, however, who, after Mueller's questioning of Metarko and Simmons, adamantly voiced his opposition to the facility. While not citing any specific evidence, Robert Rettig claimed such businesses are hot spots for crime and raised the possibility of unit renters mistaking the business' proposed driveway for his and coming onto his property in the dead of night.

Metarko rebutted the neighbors' claims, saying the business would utilize key codes issued when individuals rent a unit and terminated when the rental ends to prevent unauthorized access.

Rather than issuing a decision July 14, the board opted to hear additional testimony in mid-August and issue its decision at that time or later.