Group Aims to Protect Adams Fruit Belt

Sunday, April 30, 2006 by Sean Hillard, Evening Sun Reporter

Charles Borowsky, president of Save Our Rural Heritage, brought home the purpose of Tuesday night's meeting and his group's purpose of preserving the historic fruit belt in Adams County.

"Now you see the blossoms, but they may not be here forever," he said, referring to increasing development pressures.

In 2004, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court overturned a previous court decision that barred developer Caco Three from moving forward with a 275-unit trailer park on 140 acres between Route 94 and Idaville-York Springs Road two miles outside of York Springs, said Amy Worden, vice president of Save Our Rural Heritage. The Huntington Township Board of Supervisors were forced to approve the developer's preliminary plan because the township was without zoning in 1999, when the plan was originally submitted.

Save Our Rural Heritage is concerned the trailer park will overcrowd schools, lead to higher taxes, congest traffic and encroach wetlands.

The last concern, about environmental harm from the trailer park's sewage system that would have to be put in, especially worried residents at the meeting. Crystal Newcomer, water program manager for the Department of Environmental Protection, was there to respond to that concern and to others the more than 50 people present at the meeting had.

She said there are still at least two more periods when citizens can air concerns and possibly cause the development's approval to be revoked. The two periods are after the permit application is received by the DEP and after the sewage treatment plant plan is received, Newcomer said.

Worden brought up an additional point that Save Our Rural Heritage has found: a law that says developers must take damaging historic properties into account. The group says the fruit belt is a historic property.

Richard Schmoyer, director of the Adams County planning department, also spoke at the meeting. Schmoyer said he's concerned with the distances residents in the trailer park would have to travel to do things like work and shop.

"York Springs is a charming, little borough, but it doesn't have the industry of a community like Dillsburg," he said.

Rep. Steven Nickol, R-Hanover, also noted the area's scenic quality.

"I've traveled the globe extensively and I haven't seen an area more beautiful than northern Adams County," he said.

Nickol attended the meeting and said he is concerned that a decision on the trailer park has already gone beyond local government. He felt he needed to step in.

Nickol added that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives approved two bills Monday that say local governments can legally condemn property when it is potentially part of a problematic issue like a bad sewage system.

"I've seen this work in the past," he said, adding that York Springs Municipal Authority could condemn land adjacent to the development and kill the whole plan.

However, Nickol also said that Gov. Ed Rendell still has to sign the bill, but he didn't expect Rendell to veto it.

One of the main points of both Save Our Rural Heritage and the speakers at the meeting constantly brought home was the need for the residents to voice their concerns to their local representatives, even representatives at the municipal level.

Jeff King, a resident who owns land adjacent to the planned development, stressed this himself.

"We just have to be very, very vigilant," he said.

Contact Sean Hilliard at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .