{"id":10780,"date":"2012-07-31T14:41:42","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T18:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=10780"},"modified":"2012-07-31T17:17:56","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T21:17:56","slug":"end-to-whip-tavern-dispute-may-be-in-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=10780","title":{"rendered":"End to Whip Tavern dispute may be in sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Revised zoning ordinance would allow popular eatery to acquire nearby property for additional parking<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

After Monday night’s Board of Supervisors vote, the owners of The Whip Tavern in West Marlborough, now will have some options to acquire nearby property to add parking, and hopefully, end years of acrimony with neighbors over patrons’ car being left on the road and in front of nearby homes.<\/p><\/div>\n

WEST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 If it is not, as Winston Churchill once famously said, the beginning of the end, it is, perhaps, at least the end of the beginning of what has been a multi-year dispute surrounding the Whip Tavern.<\/p>\n

Neighbors, the township and the owners of the wildly popular English-style country pub may finally have a path forward to resolve the long-standing parking issues near the eatery, after the township\u2019s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an amendment Monday night to the township zoning ordinance that would allow a property to use an nearby property for an \u201cincidental\u201d uses such as parking, storage or office space.<\/p>\n

The board\u2019s action came on the heels of a ruling in the Court of Common Pleas rejecting an effort by a neighboring property owner to block the Whip from using a neighboring property for storage. It is unclear whether that decision will be appealed to Commonwealth Court \u2014 although the new amendment would appear to make such use legal.<\/p>\n

The change in zoning would allow the Whip\u2019s owner Casey Kulp to look for a neighboring property to construct a parking lot and, hopefully, end the issues of cars being parked along the road and in front of neighboring houses, once the Pub\u2019s cramped parking lot is full. The township would still require any new use to go through standard site plan and building permit approvals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge sense of relief,\u201d Kulp said. \u201cNow, we can look at neighboring properties. Previously, that wasn\u2019t an option. Now, we\u2019re looking forward to doing something to solve the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it was generally acknowledged that the change in ordinance was for the Whip \u2014 and came initially at Kulp\u2019s request \u2014 most of the local residents expressing concerns worried that it could lead to unintended consequences for the two tiny areas in the township covered by the Village Residential zone, Springdell, where the Whip is located as well as London Grove, another village area on the opposite side of the township. More than 90% of the township is zoned Agricultural Preservation \u2014 most property in the thinly populated township is used for horse farms and other agricultural uses.<\/p>\n

J. Dwight Yoder, the township solicitor, explained to the audience that the ordinance has been written very narrowly \u2014 far more narrowly, he said, than the original proposal \u2014 and with a lot of specific detail in an attempt to only permit the uses envisioned and not allow any essential change in character to the village areas.<\/p>\n

Although the township\u2019s Planning Commission voted 6-0 to recommend the ordinance amendment\u2019s adoption \u2014 one commission member, Jake Chalfin, said the court ruling removed the \u201cundue hardship\u201d for the Whip, and he no longer supported the ordinance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fair court decision,\u201d Yoder said in reaction. \u201cBut it\u2019s just one court\u2019s decision. It\u2019s not necessarily over,\u201d he said, alluding the possibility of an appeal in Commonwealth Court.<\/p>\n

Jeb Hannum, another Planning Commission member, said he was unable to attend the meeting and would have voted against the ordinance \u2014 and wanted it on the record that the support on the commission was not unanimous. Like many others, he said he was concerned about unintended consequences of changing the ordinance, changes he said he feared could lead to additional traffic, light and noise pollution in the area.<\/p>\n

While a number of residents echoed the concerns about changes to the township\u2019s essential character, one argued that his neighbors may have something of a short memory when it comes to previous establishments on the Whip\u2019s site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t stand in the way of progress,\u201d Bernie Langer said. \u201cThere\u2019s new businesses cropping up all of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to speak about some of the previous establishments on the same location, noting that at one point it housed something of a biker bar, which resulted in frequent calls to the State Police and even gunfire \u2014 even with the parking issues, The Whip Tavern represents a clear upgrade.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we have a high-class eating establishment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After more than an hour of questions and comments from residents, the three supervisors weighed in \u2014 and made it clear that the robust conversation had given them more confidence in the zoning ordinance amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve heard a great deal of things brought up and each of these questions and comments have been well answered,\u201d Supervisor Michael Ledyard said. \u201cI\u2019m coming away feeling much more confident in this amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

His colleagues, William Wylie and Hugh Lofting expressed similar sentiments \u2014 and the ordinance amendment was approved.<\/p>\n

While it still remains up to Kulp to make a deal for purchase or lease of adjoining property \u2014 under the revised ordinance, it must be within 150 feet of the primary property (up to 500 feet if a dedicated walkway is built between the properties) \u2014 he said it will allow him to get back to managing his business, which now, apparently includes\u00a0 plans for opening a second location in Malvern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revised zoning ordinance would allow popular eatery to acquire nearby property for additional parking By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times WEST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 If it is not, as Winston Churchill once famously said, the beginning of the end, it is, perhaps, at least the end of the beginning of what has been a multi-year dispute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[958,1693,1694,538,1692],"class_list":["post-10780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-ordinance","tag-parking","tag-springdell","tag-west-marlborough","tag-whip-tavern"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}