A proposed Patton Township ordinance that would have substantially restricted development atop the Bald Eagle Ridge has fallen flat.
The Bald Eagle Ridge Overlay District, written by a township planner, would have banned land development on 15- to 25-percent slopes that are at least 1,500 feet above sea level. Current township regulations already forbid development on slopes of more than 25 percent.
Beyond that, the new zoning ordinance would have imposed a variety of other limits, including a 40-percent cap on land-area development above elevations of 1,500 fee, and precise tree-replacement standards in developed areas.
Township Manager Doug Erickson said the proposal was inspired by similar initiatives in Ferguson and Harris townships and the encroachment of some multi-home developments toward the Bald Eagle Ridge area. He said the proposed restrictions had several intended goals: to prevent erosion, maintain ground stability and preserve the natural aesthetic of the ridgetop.
But the township Planning Commission, which first heard the concept in June, agreed this week to drop it from further consideration, commissioner Rory Stenerson said.
‘There were absolutely zero stakeholders (property owners in the affected area) who wanted the ordinance,’ Stenerson said. ‘As a matter of fact, there was 100 percent rejection of the ordinance’ among property owners who spoke up. ‘ … There was no one saying they really wanted this.’
The ordinance would have affected 63 property owners on the ridge, according to Paul Silvis, who is among those property owners. Fifty-five people signed petitions opposing the ordinance proposal.
Stenerson described the opposition as ‘a firestorm of rejection.’
‘If a group of people wants an ordinance, they typically ask legislators to make an ordinance,’ Stenerson said.
Silvis, whose home near Skytop sits at 1,620 feet above sea level, said he wasn’t ‘sure what kind of problem (the proposal) is solving.’
‘You’re trying to play God with our property rights,’ he said in an interview, referring to the proposed ordinance.
In a gathering at the Silvis home last week, a number of ridge property owners aired similar concerns, worrying that the ordinance proposal could undermine their land value and severely inhibit their property use.
Some at the event questioned whether the township had documented specific, legitimate threats that would warrant the detailed new restrictions.
David ‘Duff’ Gold, a professor emeritus of geology at Penn State, visited with the group. He said that the ridge crest is, in fact, a sound place in which to anchor building foundations because of its close proximity to bedrock. Colluvium ‘soils’ farther down the slopes are prone to shift and can cause landslides and accelerated erosion when they’re disturbed, Gold explained.
But those soils vary in altitude and don’t rest exclusively above or below the 1,500-foot line, he said. Gold suggested that planners trying to guard against soil destabilization would do well to take note of the region’s soil-survey maps.
For now, though, the proposed Bald Eagle Ridge ordinance is off the Planning Commission’s table entirely, Stenerson said.
He said if the commission moves later to protect against exposure of subsurface pyritic rock — a high-profile environmental concern in the Skytop area — planners will recommend a township-wide measure, not one focused exclusively on the ridge.
Gold has advised planners that pyrite exists throughout the region, not just in the most mountainous areas, Stenerson said.
