BLCC Seeks Environmental Exception for 16 Houses

BLCC Housing Development Plan

In an aggressive response to Media Borough Council’s action to preserve open space in Western Media by rezoning the Broomall’s tract from Residential (R-2and R-3) to Municipal, Educational, Recreational, and Community (MERC), the leadership of Broomall’s Lake Country Club has decided to press forward with a plan to build 16 housing units on the site. The Club’s strategy appears to be a desperate bid to derail Borough Council’s proposal to rezone BLCC’s tract as MERC.

On December 7, 2017, Broomall’s Lake Country Club submitted an application to the Media Zoning Hearing Board for a Special Exception to the Steep Slope Conservation Overlay District Ordinance https://ecode360.com/16183073 in order to construct 16 single-family, semi-detached (twin) housing units, a roadway cul-de-sac to service the new housing units, underground infrastructure for utilities, and a parking area for the housing development.

The purpose of the Steep Slope Conversation Ordinance is to “avoid potential hazards to property and the destruction of ecological balance which may be caused by increased runoff, flooding, soil erosion and sedimentation, blasting and ripping of rock, landslide and soil failure” and to “encourage the use of slopes for open space and other uses which are compatible with the preservation and protection of natural resources.”

While the Club’s request for a Special Exception to a critical environmental protection ordinance is problematic in and of itself, the application also wrongly identifies the Broomall tract as a Residential zoning district (R-2 and R-3) rather than a MERC zoning district. The Borough’s Zoning Officer informed the Club’s lawyer on December 13, 2017 that the application will be considered according to the uses allowed for a MERC zoning district, under the terms of Pennsylvania pending ordinance doctrine.