A Rundown

Well, they did it.

Tonight at the Skippack Township Planning Commission meeting, the Commission voted to recommend approval of the conditional use permit requested by Audubon Land Development Corporation and Del Grippo Homes. This gives them the green light to move forward with the Mill Run development on the site of the Perkiomen Valley Airport, despite repeated pleas over a period of six months from nearly 500 residents that this not happen.

Now I'm annoyed. No, scratch that ... I'm pissed. On a stratospheric, biblical level. Pissed to the point of wishing for each of the Commission members genital boils, COVID, leprosy, and a full IRS audit.

The thing is, I'm not so much ticked off at the result -- although it does infuriate me to no end -- but to the complete and utter lack of respect for the residents, the casual dismissal of their concerns, and the use of various procedural stunts to try to derail us:

• The Board of Supervisors claimed that BoS meetings were not fora for Q&A or debate, merely for public comment, and that questions should be asked at the Planning Commission meetings ... only to have the Planning Commission tell us that their meetings were for public comment, not Q&A or debate. What was interesting is that questions the Board or the Commission liked were permissible; it was only when a question was asked that put them on the political hot seat (e. g. "Who does this benefit?") that they suddenly became very concerned with proper procedure.
• Similarly, most people were allowed to merely ask their questions or make their comments from their seats. It was only when we started questioning Mill Run that we were instructed to stand at the microphone and limited to three minutes.
• Township Manager Chris Heleniak announcing at the Planning Commission meeting of February 21 that the period for public comment was ending at 9:00 PM. This was announced at 8:54 PM, despite there being a long line of people waiting to speak. Many of these residents were not heard and were discouraged enough to not come back to the next meeting.
• Harry Greco smirking, rolling his eyes, whispering asides to the other members of the Board, and pretty much ignoring the residents entirely during the 2/21 meeting.
• Franco D'Angelo, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, announcing angrily that the Planning Commission "is our commission, not yours. They work for us."
• Eric Frye, the attorney for the Mill Run project, announcing that "this isn't a popularity contest. This is going to happen."

I could go on and on, but it would just be redundant.

The point is this: these people are supposed to represent the residents of Skippack Township. Apparently, in their eyes this means "represent the developers and the people who are going to line our pockets, then feed a wagonload of that for which the horse no longer has a use to the residents." We were hearing the following repeated ad infinitum:

"The Cluster Development Option (CDO) under which this development is being proposed actually increases the amount of open space and decreases impervious coverage." Apparently the 58 houses planned here create less impervious coverage than the 30 that would be there without the CDO. Of course, this is malarkey ... after all, 58 houses and driveways is more than 30, but gaslighting has become the new normal in politics.

"Under the CDO, the township gets 50% of the land back for free." Patently false. In the preliminary plan it states that, out of the 60 acres, 16 or so (roughly 27%) would be set aside for the township. The rest of the "open space" consists of stormwater retention basins. And the 50% threshold required by the CDO? Not met.

The problem here is not development. We are not opposed to development. We are opposed to unchecked development, and over development, and development that ignores the wishes of the nearly 500 people who all (with a few exceptions) live within a mile of the site and for whom the impacts are going to be felt directly.

The next Board of Supervisors meeting is Wednesday, May 11 at 7:30 PM at the Skippack Township Municipal Building at 4089 Heckler Road in Skippack, next door to Skippack Elementary. If you are opposed to overdevelopment, if you do not support local government being in the pockets of developers and builders, if you want to make it very plain that these people work for you, then it is important to attend this meeting and speak your piece.

We look forward to seeing you there.