{"id":3394,"date":"2011-05-26T16:01:35","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T20:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=3394"},"modified":"2011-05-26T16:01:35","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T20:01:35","slug":"twp-officials-fire-back-on-high-school-height-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=3394","title":{"rendered":"Twp. officials fire back on high school height dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

E. Marlborough says Unionville schools trying to \u2018flat-out distort\u2019 language in HS auditorium appeal<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The nearly completed auditorum for Unionville High School is the center of a dispute between school and township officials over the height ofthe building.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The township has issued a formal response to claims by the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District that an enforcement notice citing Unionville High School\u2019s new auditorium as being higher than township ordinance allows is entirely valid \u2014 and it pulls no punches, suggesting that the district is attempting \u201cshift the blame\u201d for the issue onto the township when it was aware of height restrictions and that the district is attempting to \u201cput the English language on its head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written by township solicitor Fronefield Crawford, the memorandum attempts to discredit claims earlier this week in an appeal filed by the school district that a township notice of enforcement was defective and should be withdrawn. The district claims, among other issues, that the township ordinance for Educational, Scientific and Institutional District (ESI) would allow a building limited to either three stories or 35 feet in height, while the township contends that the meaning of the ordinance is clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis component of the District\u2019s Memorandum is just a flat-out distortion of the English language,\u201d the hearing memorandum to the townships\u2019 Zoning Hearing Board states.\u00a0 \u201cSection 1103.H specifies that \u201cno building \u2026 shall exceed three (3) stories or thirty-five (35) feet in height.\u201d\u00a0 The building cannot exceed either one of the two requirements.\u00a0 In fact, the District\u2019s own land development plan focused on the 35-foot height limitation, stating that it would not be exceeded.\u00a0 Clearly, the District understood that it would be required to meet both the three-story limitation and the 35-foot limitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The township also took issue with district claims that East Marlborough officials were aware of the height of the building early in the design process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is beyond cavil that the Township was well aware, early on, of what the project would look like and, particularly, the height of the auditorium.\u201d said the school district\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

Crawford, writing for the township, makes it clear officials in East Marlborough do not agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Township strongly disputes this statement,\u201d the memo states. \u201cTo the contrary, there were two formal processes by which the District submitted plans for Township review.\u00a0 The first was the land development plan approval process, in which the District\u2019s engineer asserted that the building would not exceed 35 feet in height; the second was the Zoning Hearing Board application and Order, which was silent with regard to the height or vertical component of the District\u2019s plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The township does admit that the district did file plans in June, 2010, noting the height of the building, but that was only in seeking a building permit and whether the structure met building code, not whether it complied with zoning ordinances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe District later submitted a set of building plans to the Township Building Inspector, Eddie Caudill (Caudill also serves as a Township Supervisor),\u201d the memo states. \u201cThe plans were submitted and reviewed in the context of an application for a building permit, and Mr. Caudill reviewed the plans in that context alone.\u00a0 In hindsight, the plans revealed that the height of the auditorium component of the building would be approximately 60 feet.\u00a0 Consequently, it is a fair statement that the District, although never raising the height issue with the Township Engineer, the Township Planning Commission, the Board of Supervisors or the Zoning Hearing Board in the context of land development approval or zoning relief, did not attempt to hide the size of the building from the Building Inspector.\u00a0 A building permit was issued for construction of the building, based upon Mr. Caudill\u2019s review of the Building Code attributes of the plans.\u00a0 At no time prior to the issuance of the building permit did the Township Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors (or individual members of the Board other Mr. Caudill as Building Inspector) review the building plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the township makes it clear that it is not seeking to have the district tear down or modify the building, but rather file for a variance with the Zoning Hearing Board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Township does not seek as a remedy the removal of the portion of the building above 35 feet,\u201d the memo states. \u201cThat said, the purpose of the Enforcement Notice is not simply to \u201ccompel the District to go through\u201d a useless exercise.\u00a0 To the contrary, now that the Township is aware of the violation of the Zoning Ordinance, it cannot issue an occupancy permit until the zoning violation has been remedied by the grant of relief by the Zoning Hearing Board. The Zoning Hearing Board is the body that has the authority to resolve the issues and, of course, that is the Board\u2019s function.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Zoning Hearing Board is scheduled to resume its hearing on the matter, July 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E. Marlborough says Unionville schools trying to \u2018flat-out distort\u2019 language in HS auditorium appeal By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The township has issued a formal response to claims by the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District that an enforcement notice citing Unionville High School\u2019s new auditorium as being higher than township ordinance allows is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[333,38,33,44,24],"class_list":["post-3394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-building-height","tag-east-marlborough","tag-high-school","tag-school-board","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394","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=3394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}