On May 28th the Whitemarsh’s Planning Commission held a meeting about a sketch plan involving a townhouse community planned near the intersection of Butler and Skippack Pikes.

During the meeting questions arose over the process of how townhouses came to be a conditional use with the property’s zoning district (VC-4). Previous to October 25, 2018, a developer seeking to build townhouses within the VC-4 would have had to go through a zoning hearing (a much tougher process). You can read the prior article for the details here.

The following day we sent an email to Whitemarsh’s Board of Supervisors who voted to approve the amendment that allowed for townhouses to become a conditional use. We did not receive a response.

Below is the text of the email send with the questions:

Hi. I am seeking comment on the text amendment adopted by the Board of Supervisors on October 25, 2018. Below are the questions:

1. Did a member of the Board of Supervisors, a staff member or someone else first suggest amending the uses allowed by conditional use within the VC-4?
2. When was there a discussion between the Board of Supervisors regarding amending the uses within the VC-4?
3. Who specifically directed Charlie Guttenplan to alter the text amendment to change the uses within the VC-4?
4. Since the text amendment was presented as a housekeeping measure, did each member of the Board of Supervisors understand that their vote on October 25th would amend the uses within VC-4?

Thank you.

Let us know in the comments whether you think these questions deserve an answer.