East Pikeland Residents Take School Complaints to Board of Supervisors

After spending a few months in front of the planning commission, the planned expansion of the East Pikeland Elementary School will go before the zoning hearing board March 23.

Some residents and business owners asked the board to send opposition to the zoning hearing.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board voted to authorize a law firm to represent the board’s interests at the hearing. The board is still trying to decide its stance on the issue, according to Chairman Ronald Graham.

Dennis Ray, an East Pikeland resident who lives near the school, read a petition signed by 90 nearby residents. The petition cites a 2006 referendum approved by township residents to preserve open space. Ray’s petition states that the school expansion will have a “deleterious effect on the character of the neighborhood.”

The Phoenixville Area School District hopes to expand East Pikeland Elementary School, located at Hares Hill and West Seven Stars roads. The potential expansion will add extra capacity to the existing building. Without the expansion, Superintendent Dr. Alan Fegley said following a prior planning commission meeting, temporary trailers could be needed as early as fall 2012 to support the school population.

The district plans to add a district-wide kindergarten center to the existing use, but in approximately five to six years, the kindergarten use will be removed from the site. With the last projected enrollment numbers, all proposed capacity—room for 575 students total with the expansion—would go to grades one through five.

Ray cited four main issues with the district's plans. He said the latest plan, which includes a conservation easement given by the school district for a 2.5-acre tract on Kimberton Road, won’t do anything to help with impervious coverage or open space on the school site.

Additionally, Ray cited concerns with the amount of impervious coverage proposed on the 11.4-acre site. The allowable amount of impervious coverage in that zoning district is 20 percent. The school site is currently at 23 percent, and the latest plan by the school district calls for 40 percent impervious coverage.

Ray also noted concerns with traffic and said the school doesn’t have a right to expand by 25 percent.

Douglas FitzSimons, president of the Kimberton Village Business Association (KVBA), said Ray made a presentation to the association recently regarding the school’s plans. The KVBA has two issues with the plans as they stand now, FitzSimons said.

He stated adamant opposition to the 2.5-acre parcel that may be provided to compensate for deficiencies in meeting the impervious coverage requirements. FitzSimons said it would be “ill-suited” and “bad planning” to take that piece of property out of play for a potential commercial site or other use.

FitzSimons said the KVBA also has issues with district plans to route buses along Hares Hill Road in the afternoon.

“That’s an awful burden for the afternoon,” FitzSimons said.

Following a previous planning commission meeting, Fegley said the expanded site would be serviced by 12 -14 buses. FitzSimons said he wasn’t sure of the number of buses that pass through Kimberton village currently.

Jonathan Gayl, treasurer of KVBA, explained that the 2.5-acre parcel has “significant issues.” The site has a history of contamination, Gayl said. The way to get those problems remediated would be to have a commercial developer come in, rather than having a conservation easement on the site.

“It is in my mind a horrible idea,” Gayl said.

Ray clarified to the board that the neighbors didn’t mind having a school there, but wanted a neighborhood school, rather than “a mega-school, or two schools,” noting the addition of district-wide kindergarten. When the idea of the district finding another location for a school came up, Graham said the township must look at the plans it has.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that the township has asked them to look elsewhere,” Graham said, noting the “debacle” of prior plans to build an elementary school on a different township site.

At the zoning hearing March 23, the school district will ask for five variances and two special exceptions. At the planning commission meeting Feb. 14, the school district with a 5-2 vote.

The special exceptions deal with construction in a precautionary steep slope area and the expansion of an existing educational use in a residential district. The variances include relief from steep slope disturbance, impervious coverage, building height requirements, parking setbacks and the amount of passive open space provided.