Commission to Recommend Contingency Plan for Proposed Region 1 Elementary School

In a tense, nearly two-hour session, the Upper Southampton Township Planning Commission decided Monday to recommend approval of a plan for the proposed Region 1 elementary school on Maple Avenue.

However, the plan was OK'd with the caveat that it includes changes to internal traffic flow that the board had originally requested only as a contingency if the district plan failed after the school is built.

It is unclear what, if any, impact the recommendation will have. But district officials said it could delay the project by six months, increase costs and create a dangerous traffic situation for students.

The school board meets this evening and can include the commission's recommendation in its discussion, but can't formally put it on an agenda until its next meeting, according to members Mark Miller and Cyndi Mueller, who attended the planners' meeting Monday.

The Upper Southampton Township Board of Supervisors, which has final say on the plan, meets next Tuesday and is not bound to abide by the planning commission's recommendation.

The school district plans to consolidate it's current six elementary schools into three regional schools, with the Region 1 facility located at the site of the former Davis Elementary School, at 475 Maple Ave. The school would have a maximum capacity of 950 students.

The plan includes two egresses from Maple Avenue. One egress toward the west is planned strictly for buses; the other for cars only. The cars would have to wind their way through the parking lot along the front of the school.

 Board member Franz Kautz predicted “horrible traffic jams” when students are dropped off and picked up.

He suggested an alternative plan whereby cars also could use the westerly entrance and loop around the building within school property, thus cutting the number of vehicles on Maple Avenue.

“We would like to see plan B ready to go if it turns out this proposal isn't working,” chairman Stanley Gawel said at the Feb. 7 meeting. “It only becomes an issue if you're wrong (with the current plan).”

Since then, district consultants supplied a sketch plan that would increase the number of cars that could stack up on the property from 57 to 87, by allowing them to loop around the building. But John VanLuvanee, a land use attorney representing Centennial at the hearing, said that plan has not yet been “engineered” to make sure the grading would work.

“The township likes it, but nobody with the school district likes it,” he said.

He added that Plan B would require much additional work, including architectural changes and a new traffic study.

“Everything would have to be redone,” he said.

“What we're asking is that you not hold this project up six months,” he added.

The attorney also said the school district, as an applicant before the Planning Commission, is only required to comply with township ordinances, which he claimed it had.

However, Gawel said public safety can be an overriding factor for the commission.

“If we feel that what you're proposing is not going to meet the standards of public health and safety, then we would have to make a recommendation to the board (of supervisors) that Plan B is much more suitable to the township, regardless of the delays and financial implications,” he said.

The meeting got particularly heated after Mueller said the cost of the project will rise if it is delayed.

“We asked for information a year ago but didn't get it,” said Township Manager Joe Golden.

Kautz said “I view this rush as self-imposed,” and later backed up Golden's contention.

“We spent a year getting stonewalled and ignored,” he said.

At one point, Mueller and Centennial's Assistant Superintendent of Schools William Gretton went so far as to say that if delayed, the project could die.

“You may have no children from Southampton going to school in Southampton,” said Mueller.

The district wants to open the school in Sept. 2012.

Golden was outspoken during the meeting. At one point, when VanLuvanee said the school district has no intention of allowing a bad traffic situation, Golden responded, “It's our police department that has to deal with it. What is the school district going to do about it? How are we going to fix it if you're wrong? We can't widen Maple Avenue. We have to get more cars on the site.”

In response, Mueller said several schools in the district stagger the dismissal time for students who walk home from school.

Golden tried to get a guarantee from the project architect that the original plan would not result in traffic backups. The architect said he couldn't do that, and VanLuvanee said there's no real way of knowing how many parents will be driving their children to school.

But the architect said he felt confident in the original plan in part because it separates cars and buses and provides for a larger pick-up area.

Gretton added that Plan B would have more students walking through traffic on-site.

“You're asking for a disaster to happen,” he said.

Township traffic engineer Brian Keaveney said the original plan would make the parking lot in front of the school useless. He said no one would be able to get out of their spaces if the vehicle looping were allowed in the lot instead of around the building.

VanLuvanee and Roth said a second option could be allowing traffic to loop twice as many times in the parking lot, but that idea didn't seem to gain much traction.

The loudest part of the meeting came when board member Ray Grossmuller, who missed the last meeting, said he couldn't understand why the district provided Plan B if it doesn't want to use it.

“Because you asked for it, as a backup if there is a problem” replied VanLuvanee. “It's only a sketch plan. You're not going to approve a sketch plan that needs a variance.”

Nonetheless, that is exactly what Grossmuller wanted to do, first offering a motion to simply recommend Plan B. Golden expressed support for that as well.

“You're just changing a little bit of asphalt,” he said in a reference to the extra paving required for the loop around the school.

Centennial School Board Member Mark Miller said the state has already given approvals to the original plan.

Eventually, Grossmuller retracted his motion and put one forward that recommended approval of Plan A that includes the internal traffic proposal that is Plan B.

It was approved on a 6-1 vote, with board member Lou Ann Hingley casting the dissenting vote.

When asked about the board changing a contingency plan to its first choice, Gawel, didn't deny that he and his colleagues had changed course.

“We wanted to see a solution to Plan A,” he said. “After we looked at Plan B, all our objections went away.”