Patton Township, PennDOT at odds over A&P site

Development on the former A&P site hit a speed bump due to a left-turn issue between the township and the state Department of Transportation.

The issue lies at the intersection of Park Forest Avenue and North Atherton Street, township Manager Doug Erickson told the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday. The intersection had seen its fair share of crashes in the past, with as many as four to seven each year between 2010 and 2012.

The township held off on making any changes to the intersection and began a traffic study once the Trader Joe’s Plaza opened, Erickson said. By adding additional traffic lights along that stretch of North Atherton, crashes declined to the point that there hasn’t been an incident at the intersection since October 2014.

“PennDOT feels strongly that we should prohibit left turns from Park Forest,” he said. “They think the extra traffic created by the development will cause problems at that intersection.”

PennDOT is withholding approvals that will allow the development to proceed until the township prohibits left turns at the intersection, Erickson said. The board questioned if giving into PennDOT was the only way to get things moving again, saying the department is holding the development hostage through the township.

“What’s going to sway PennDOT is if we’re fairly persuasive on this,” Supervisor Jeff Luck said. “We have to show a high level of confidence.”

Luck said he was willing to try reasoning with PennDOT one last time if staff agreed, saying he wanted to avoid a point where the board had to capitulate on the situation.

“If you feel we didn’t make the strongest argument with the last discussion, then OK,” he said. “If you want the board to send a letter to make the strongest argument, so be it.”

The board agreed its position on the subject was not to prohibit left turns from Park Forest because the accident reports don’t warrant it. If reasoning with PennDOT doesn’t work, the board agreed a political action may be necessary.

In other business, the board agreed to find the common strategic goals in the township comprehensive plan rather than focusing on a larger strategic planning exercise for the township as a whole.

The discussion began in May regarding the potential for starting work on a strategic plan for the township, Erickson said. The planning exercise would be “helpful in continuing to provide good governance or improving the community.”

Luck questioned the need to develop a strategic plan when the township already has a comprehensive plan, saying instead, if staff were to compile a list of the goals for the township, they could instead focus on what they are doing to achieve those goals.

“We have agreed to a lot over time,” he said. “I want a better understanding of what all this means.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 10:11 PM with the headline "Patton Township, PennDOT at odds over A&P site."