Gettysburg Borough moves forward on new ordinances

The Gettysburg borough council moved forward on a number of proposed ordinances at its workshop meeting on Monday evening.

The council will move forward on a new complaints policy by which the public or others may make complaints about borough staff including members of the police department. The document sets a series of hierarchies for examining and resolving complaints and requires monthly summaries of potential complaints to be shared to the council.

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Vice President Matt Moon who in the absence of President Wes Heyser chaired the meeting, said the policy was created because it had been requested by members of the borough staff and that the documenting of incidents would help protect the borough from liability. “We hold our staff, both uniformed and non-uniformed to an incredibly high standard of behavior,” he said.

The borough will postpone considering a resolution regarding the unlawful use of waste containers to a future contract with WM and will postpone considering a potential resolution regarding the unlawful sharing of utilities until it is relevant to a future borough contract.

The borough will move forward with a new special events zoning ordinance that followed from a proposal from Scott Engiish that came to the council in February.

The proposed use of the property at 66-68 W. High St. for events prompted the council to develop a special events zoning ordinance for the Elm St. Overlay District. But doing so opened a can of worms for the council because so many questions came up.

The board agreed they should move forward expeditiously and that Mr. English had been waiting too long for a decision.

Moon said the council was right in the approach it took because the English application had “laid bare” many questions including the use of public toilets.

“Somewhere we got thrown a curveball,” said board member Chad-Alan Carr.  “We’re restricting somebody’s property and somebody’s business too much. I think we need to go back to the drawing board.”

Eastman said any vote on the proposed ordinance could not occur until after a public hearing process.

The borough is moving forward with a comprehensive rezoning plan. Planning Director Carly Marshall said the current document was signed in 2008 and that there have  been many amendments since then.

The next regularly-scheduled meeting of the council will be on Dec. 12 when they hope to approve the 2023 budget, which is currently on display for public viewing.

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Charles (Chuck) Stangor is Gettysburg Connection's Owner, Publisher, and Editor in Chief. I would like to hear from you. Please contact me at cstangor@gettysburgconnection.org.

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