YorksPast

The present Market Street and Mount Zion corridor zoning is shown on this Zoning Map from the Springettsbury Township Internet site. A Springettsbury Township Planning Commission meeting will be held Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 6:00 P.M. “to hear and/or act upon a potential rezoning of properties located along the Market Street and Mount Zion Corridor” (see full notice, as published in York Daily Record, at the end of this post, which states “All interested persons are invited to appear and be heard.”).

Fourteen people contacted me about the newspaper notice. This is a considerable increase from six contacts about the cryptic notice during Round 2 of this rezoning. This indicates more residents are reading these notices; a good thing! One of the new contacts provided a possible solution; which I found intriguing. Lets look at the Springettsbury Township Zoning Districts key on the Zoning Map from the Springettsbury Township Internet Site. If you are reading this on the Ydr.com site, click on this LINK for a Full View of the illustrations in this post on the original YorkBlog site; since the ydr.com site will occasionally cut off important details in the cropping of illustrations.

Here is the part of Tom’s e-mail with a possible rezoning solution:

I understand the primary reason by the township for this rezoning is not to allow high density residential on northeast corner properties at Market and Mount Zion and for any such rezoning not to appreciably increase traffic at the intersection. They’d also like reduced entry points along the roads and to allow reuse of historic properties, although not sure how many in the township actually want to reuse buildings.

How about a one-way road through the properties in question, entering near the Market Street entrance to the Springetts Manor apartments and have it go west, behind the Market Street properties, then turning north behind all the Mount Zion Road properties emptying onto Industrial Highway. With this new one-way road, all these properties along the main roads then have a safer back way out via a signaled light at Industrial Highway and Mount Zion Road.

About half-dozen medium lot single-family residences could be built in the fields to the east of the one-way road. They would also enter and exit their properties via the one-way road. Having the road one-way, in the direction indicated, should cut down on the use of this new road through the properties as a short cut for non-local traffic.

Now the rezoning suggestion, with this one-way road through the properties, keep Neighborhood Commercial along Mount Zion Road, rezone the fields where about half-dozen residences would be built to Medium Lot Single-Family Residential, and rezone the properties along Market Street to Neighborhood Commercial/Historic.

I’d like to thank Tom for a creative suggestion. He will be presenting this at the meeting on Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 6:00 P.M. and allowed me to post it before hand, in hopes of inspiring more solutions to come forth from township residents.  Also thanks to Tom for pointing out the Neighborhood Commercial/Historic zoning district; I do not know why I did not look into it sooner, especially since it appears right at the top of the Zoning Districts key on the Zoning Map.

Quoting the Springettsbury Township Zoning Ordinance, Article XII, Neighborhood Commercial Districts, Section 325-29.B:

Neighborhood Commercial/Historic (N-C/H): It is the further purpose of this district to provide for the reuse of historic structures along East Market Street by restricting uses to those that have limited parking needs and are compatible with the immediately adjacent historic residential neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Commercial/Historic is the zoning presently in place for the properties along East Market Street in Old East York; i.e. at the western end of Market Street within Springettsbury Township. Here is the copy of the meeting notice that appeared in the November 3, 2016, issue of the York Daily Record:

Summarizing: A Springettsbury Township Planning Commission meeting will be held Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 6:00 P.M. “to hear and/or act upon a potential rezoning of properties located along the Market Street and Mount Zion Corridor” and stating that “All interested persons are invited to appear and be heard.”

Links to related posts include:

• Rezoning Effort continues along Market Street and Mount Zion Corridor

Reading the Headlines: A Quick Index to All YorksPast Posts