Will a proposed campground at the Bellefonte Airport become a reality? Owners file appeal
The owner of the Bellefonte Airport and a developer whose plans to construct a campground at the airfield were rejected by Benner Township’s decision-makers appealed that ruling Monday.
Marina Elnitski and Maison Lodging asked a judge to reverse the township supervisor’s denial of their conditional use application, which would clear a path for the project to move forward.
The 44-page filing alleged supervisors Randy Moyer, Larry Lingle and Thomas Moyer relied on “irrelevant, incompetent and speculative” testimony from those who opposed the project.
The decision, attorneys Marcy Colkitt and Andrew Kennedy wrote, was an “abuse of discretion and error of law.” The property is zoned agricultural and campgrounds and RV parks are permitted uses, they wrote.
The airport proposed to add 100 spaces for recreational vehicles and a 2,500-square-foot clubhouse. The addition was projected to create about a dozen jobs.
The proposal was largely geared toward offering air travelers an opportunity to stay close to the airport, especially during Penn State football weekends.
The township’s supervisors weren’t swayed.
Their concerns included “significant additional traffic” — especially when students at the nearby Benner Elementary School are either arriving or were dismissed — and changing the “essential character of the neighborhood,” township solicitor Rod Beard wrote in a January decision.
Residents who objected to the proposal expressed concerns about noise and potential alcohol abuse. The project, Beard wrote, is “unsuitable” and would be “injurious to the health, safety and welfare of the community.”
“They do the best job they can,” Beard said Wednesday of the supervisors. “They make the decisions they feel are in the best interest of the township.”
Neither Colkitt, Kennedy, airport manager John Elnitski nor an attorney for a Bellefonte resident who opposes the project responded to a request for comment Wednesday.