(2/15) The Liberty Township supervisors voted at their February meeting to advertise several ordinances and amendments for possible adoption at an upcoming meeting, including those addressing junkyard permits, dead roadside tree-removal and driveways regulations.
Chairman Walter Barlow, in introducing the proposed Junkyard Ordinance amendments, said the ordinance was "revised to clean it up - and made it a little bit more helpful to us to be able enforce," because the existing ordinance did not offer a sufficient degree of enforcement power.
The revisions included stating that a junkyard permit is good for one-year from the date that it was issued, and that if the applicant has not properly filled-out a junkyard permit application form, the application permit will be denied, and if an applicant is found to have been in the non-compliance of the ordinance during the preceding term of the issuance of the current permit, a renewal may be denied.
Changes in application fees for applying for a junkyard permit were placed into effect since the supervisors’ January meeting, which raised the application fee from $100 to $1,000, to ensure that the township recoups inspection and enforcement expenses.
In related business, the supervisors approved the re-submission of a junkyard permit application that the board had rejected at their January meeting - due to the application form not having been properly fill-in, according to the supervisors.
Township Secretary/Treasurer Wendy Peck noted that the applicant did submit the $1,000 fee as per the revised fee-schedule.
Also pending adoption is an ordinance which would allow the township to enforce removal of dead or diseased trees whose limbs are overhanging on township roads. The right-to-remove would be applicable to removing applicable trees more than six-inches in diameter.
Chairman Barlow noted that the township has already prepared five letters to be sent to residents along Bullfrog Road who have dead trees "along the road and read- to-fall." on their properties. He stated that such trees potentially pose a threat to those who utilize the road,
Under the ordinance, if adopted … property-owners would be given 30-days’ notice that a tree or trees must be removed. If the property-owner fails to comply, the township will have the authority to have the tree or trees removed at the property owner’s cost, plus any legal costs which may be involved. Failure to pay any resulting assessment would constitute a criminal offense.
Also proposed at the meeting was an ordinance intended to amend the township driveway-ordinance which, Barlow stated, was determined to be in conflict with the township’s Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (SALDO).
Specifically, he said, in the SALDO … the diameter of a culvert pipe is left-up to the discretion of the township roadmaster. The proposed amendment would mandate that any culvert pipe installed be fifteen inches in diameter at the minimum.
Additional changes that the driveway ordinance amendment would entail are that driveways should be paved four-feet back from the roadway, that the entranceway to a driveway should be a minimum of 25-feet in width, and that two driveways per-property would be permitted without having to apply for a waiver.
