NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING Monday, August 6, 7:00 P.M Center Highway, North Huntingdon, PA 15642

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1 NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 7:00 P.M Center Highway, North Huntingdon, PA CALL TO ORDER Mr. Chapman called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ROLL CALL William Chapman, President Present Also Present: Virginia Stump, Secretary Present Andrew Blenko Thomas Kerber Present Ryan Fonzi James McHugh Absent Stephen Cross Present Joseph Dykta Present Nicholas Liparulo Present APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion: Mr. Kerber Motioned to approve minutes. (Meeting of July 10, 2018) Second: Mr. Dykta Motion Carried: 6 ~ 0 ~ 0 CITIZEN S INPUT OLD BUSINESS NEW BUSINESS S : Robbins Estates - Proposed subdivision in the Circleville area of the Township. 219

2 Mr. Fonzi read his memo: this is a minor subdivision located on Robbins Station Road at the site of the recently discovered log home. JAAAM, Inc. currently owns a lot totaling 0.80 acres in size. The log house has since been dismantled and the lot is now vacant. JAAAM, Inc. would like to split the lot into two separate parcels with the intention of building a single family attached villa with two units that will span the side property line. The applicant received a variance from the Zoning Hearing Board in June to build this type of home in an R-2 district, have a 0 side setback at the common dividing line and have a 60 minimum lot width for proposed Lot 1. All other aspects of the subdivision meet the minimum dimensional requirements for an R-2 district. The applicant will also need to acquire sewage planning approval from DEP for one newly created lot. There are a couple labeling errors on the plan, but once the surveyor corrects these issues, I can recommend the plan for approval. Mr. Fonzi said the surveyor, David Woody, was present and all the corrections have been received. Mr. Kerber asked to have the single family attached villa with 2 units explained. Mr. Fonzi said it is much like the villas in Buena Vista that share a common wall that acts as the property line. Motion: Mr. Cross Motioned to recommend this subdivision for approval. Second: Mr. Kerber Motion Carried: 6 ~ 0 ~ 0 SP : Waste Management Building & Natural Gas Fueling Dispensers - Proposed new building, addition and natural gas fueling dispensers at existing WM site. Mr. Blenko read his memo: this is a Site Plan application to demolish an existing building at the Waste Management site, then construct a new 22,938 SF building, and three sets of overhead trusses and a compressed natural gas system. The new building will house a tool/part storage, a truck wash, locker rooms and office space. The CNG facilities will be at the rear of the site, but CNG will be piped underground to a series of overhead trusses 20+ feet high with drop connections to supply the refuse trucks with CNG and electrical power. These overhead structures have lighting to illuminate the parking areas. This may be a problem if visible from adjacent residential properties. The stormwater report submitted for the project claims the new site will have no impact on stormwater runoff, although both Township and State stormwater regulations require that the existing site be treated as 20% meadow when a site is redeveloped. The applicant has requested a waiver of this requirement. 220

3 No low or high level landscaping is proposed as part of the site development, although the SALDO requires 10% of the site, arguably only the portion of the site being redeveloped, in landscape improvements. An NPDES Permit is required for the site work since more than an acre will be disturbed. A copy of my review letter is attached. Mr. Blenko said it is important to note that there is a six foot high fence separating the site from the adjoining residential property. Jim Queen, Waste Management, and Chris Wulff, Larson Design Group, are present. Mr. Blenko said he has not received a response to his review letter that was sent out last week. Mr. Wulff said a clarification on the stormwater waiver is we are doing the 20% reduction meadow. There is an old Turtle Creek watershed plan from 1992 still recognized as valid for the current NPDES regulations that has a 60% release rate. That is the part we are asking a waiver from, the 60% release rate. We are going back to the 20% of the site impervious being considered of what we are disturbing on site. Mr. Blenko asked how is that going to happen when you are adding about a third of an acre of impervious. Mr. Wulff said in the front of the site along the road, we are adding a large grass area that is currently asphalt. There is also another large grass island next to the building that is proposed. Some of the gravel in the back also gets converted to grass. A YouTube video was viewed by the Board of another Waste Management site in Wilmington, DE, that is similar to the proposed site plan presented tonight. Mr. Wulff said the trusses and operations are what we are proposing. The building will be metal with block along the frontage. Mr. Dykta said they are filling trucks early in the morning before they start on their routes. Is there any current lighting that is like the proposed lighting? Mr. Wulff said it is a time-fill, so it fills up before they do the route over a duration. It is over a number of hours. There are some lights in the back but there aren t any trusses. 221

4 Ms. Stump asked if there are any protective shields that prevent the light from going up into the sky or protecting the neighboring properties. Mr. Wulff said they are generally down-aimed lights. They can have shields on them to prevent any spillage onto adjacent properties. Ms. Stump said whenever those lights are flashing, it can create a strobing affect and with people who have seizure disorders it can create a seizure. That is a concern of mine if the light is spilling out into the sky or neighboring properties. Mr. Queen said that is a manual setting for the flashing. All the drivers meet in a common area and then depart for their trucks. It is set up military fashion. This is a timed event. If there is an issue with the lighting with the neighbors, we can shut it off and it can be a constant light. Currently we have an extended flashlight with a red light that the managers walk around and it flashes. We can continue to do that if there is a problem. I have been at this facility for years and at one point in time the neighbor two doors away had one of our lights shining into their bedroom. We literally shut the light off. We have had zero complaints for the lighting or anything. Ms. Stump said they look pretty bright in the video. Are they a LED lights? Mr. Queen & Mr. Wulff didn t know. Mr. Queen said if you look at their site, behind the property where the building is, the last phase is going to be the front. That is years down the road. Everything is in the back, literally behind the building, and there isn t going to be any illumination on the front side. The homes are to the right (East) of the property. Ms. Stump asked if there is anything (lighting) that will be visible from Route 30. Mr. Queen said no. Mr. Wulff said he doubts it. Mr. Chapman asked if you were using diesel fuel. Mr. Wulff said currently. Mr. Queen said it is a transition from diesel to consolidated natural gas/compressed natural gas. That is the goal. As the trucks are replaced with new trucks, they will use the natural gas. It will evolve into an entire new fleet for our facility. They are a lot cleaner and very quiet (like a car compared to a diesel). Mr. Kerber asked how many trucks currently use that facility now. 222

5 Mr. Queen said we have approximately 100 heavy trucks and run about 72 a day. Ms. Stump asked Mr. Blenko if he received any responses to these items on this list. Mr. Blenko said he has not. Mr. Wulff said their intent is to reply. We are working on them right now. We will have landscaping along the frontage and green areas along the building to comply with the ten percent landscaping requirement. We will clean up some of the issues in the stormwater report. Ms. Stump confirmed they would have the ten percent landscaping. Mr. Wulff said they would. Mr. Chapman asked if we were waiting for all these comments to be answered. Mr. Wulff said they are working on the responses now and should have them within a week. Can we do a conditional approval tonight? Ms. Stump said she would like to see some of these items answered (i.e. stormwater). Mr. Chapman said there are twelve items that need addressed. Mr. Kerber asked if there were any recommendations from the township. Mr. Blenko said there were none. Motion: Mr. Kerber Motioned to recommend tabling this site plan until all comments/items have been addressed. Second: Ms. Stump Motion Carried: 6 ~ 0 ~ 0 Mr. Liparulo asked if there will be a large holding tank for the natural gas. Mr. Wulff said it isn t large. They are smaller, 15 diameter steel pipe that is 25 long. They stack a few of those. It is a small compressor station. Is there any feedback on the stormwater waiver for the 60% reduction? Ms. Stump said the Turtle Creek Watershed experiences flooding. I would be reluctant to grant any waiver unless you had something from the state. Ms. Wulff said the state has passed the latest version of the NPDES regulations from Basically for the state regulations you take 20% of the existing 223

6 impervious area and treat that as meadow and you have to make water volume rate and quality standards for that discharge center. We ae reducing the amount of stormwater generated from this site. We are in a real challenge to get a 60% reduction on top of that or along with it simply because we are a completely built-out site. There is nowhere for us to do an above ground detention pond, any under-ground pond and we are going to be hauling soil material off-site. It is extremely costly to try and implement that on top of a facility such as this on a tight site. Ms. Stump asked if they have done anything with rain gardens, landscaping, etc. Mr. Wulff said they talked with the Conservation District about that and possibly doing a little bit there. You can t do much to infiltrate on site. These soils are heavily compacted. There is a real limitation what we can achieve reasonably on this site without starting from scratch. We are trying our best to try and meet the state requirements. The Turtle Creek Watershed requirements go back to As far as the state is concerned, until that is updated and republished here, anything that was done before 2006 they don t actually enforce that on a state level. Mr. Chapman said what I am hearing is if we are looking at twelve items and you come back with eleven of them corrected and the last one is a waiver on stormwater, we would probably look favorably at that point. ADVISORY HEARINGS DISCUSSION ITEMS CHAIRMAN S REPORT Mr. Chapman asked if the changes for the submission process were any closer to being completed. Mr. Blenko said it is going before the Board of Commissioners this month. Mr. Kerber asked if the Board of Commissioners have seen what is being proposed and had any comments about the process. Mr. Blenko said no. Mr. Chapman and the Board congratulated Steve Cross on his retirement. 224

7 COMMENTS ADJOURNMENT Motion: Mr. Kerber Motioned to adjourn (7:40P.M.). Second: Ms. Stump Motion Carried: 6 ~ 0 ~ 0 Meeting minutes of were approved by the Planning Commission on August 27, X X Planning Commission Chairman Planning Commission Secretary 225