The Gettysburg Planning Commission voted to hold a special meeting on May 5 at 7:00 p.m. in the Borough building in hopes of finalizing their recommendations for the rewrite of the borough’s zoning ordinance. The ordinance will then pass to the Borough Council, which will make the final decisions about the content of the ordinance.
The Planning Commission’s input is phase 2 of a three-phase process, which began when a committee worked with a professional consultant for approximately 10 months to create an initial draft. The Planning Commission has been discussing edits to that draft since June 2024.
On Monday, April 21, they seemed to reach a consensus on their recommendations and changes. Before the May 5 meeting, borough planning staff will clean up the document, and planning staff and the town’s solicitor will have time to review anything if needed.
On May 5, the Planning Commission will verify that the draft zoning ordinance reflects all of their guidance accurately, and if so, will vote to advance it to the Borough Council. The Council has requested to be able to start reviewing the ordinance at their May 26 workshop meeting.
Earlier this month, Borough Council President Matthew Moon commented that the Planning Commission had been working on the ordinance longer than he would have expected, and that he believed their process would have taken only 3-6 months.
At Monday’s meeting, Chair Charles Strauss addressed those comments, saying he believed they came from a place of shared enthusiasm for moving the rezoning project forward, but if there was a time limit for the Planning Commission’s work, they had been unaware of it.
He said that during a 2008 zoning ordinance change, which was not a full rewrite but still significant, the Planning Commission worked for about a year to produce their recommendation, working alongside a professional consultant. The difference this time was that the project was split into three phases, beginning with the drafting committee, which then passed the project to the Planning Commission.
Strauss said, “I believe that the group has worked really hard and without waste to listen to public concern, to work with our very talented planning director as well as the expertise that we receive from our solicitor and engineer, to produce what we may recommend to our borough council as a zoning ordinance today. And I don’t think it could have taken any month shorter.”
The Planning Commission worked Monday to tie up loose ends on changes that had been suggested at previous meetings, including the addition of a new zoning district, the Carlisle Street Commercial District (NC-4) in the 200 and 300 blocks of Carlisle Street near Gettysburg College.
The intent was to create a zone that focuses on residential uses while still allowing for some low-impact commercial uses. The Commission ironed out which uses should be allowed, including adding student housing, bed-and-breakfast establishments, community housing, and convenience stores. Others, like drinking places and inns (which do not require an operator to live on the premises, unlike bed and breakfasts) were excluded.
A representative for Gettysburg College spoke during public comment at the beginning of the meeting to request that student housing be allowed because 13 out of the 17 properties in the zone are owned by either the college or an associated fraternity.
Gettysburg Station Project
The Planning Commission was also presented with the preliminary land development plan for the Gettysburg Station project, initiating a 90-day review period to determine whether the plan complies with borough code, specifically the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (SALDO).
The proposed development includes 185 apartments and a retail and restaurant space. Concern over what to do with the property, which has been vacant for over 20 years, has been a topic of discussion in Gettysburg for many years. The property has been characterized as one of the last remaining parcels within the borough that can be developed to increase the tax base.
In 2018, the borough council approved a hotly debated proposal to allow increased building heights on the site. The developer, Tim Harrison, purchased the property in 2021. One of the buildings in the current plan, which would house most of the apartment units, makes use of the height exception and would be 7 stories tall. https://gettysburgconnection.org/new-york-developer-tim-harrison-purchases-the-gettysburg-station-site-for-1-million/
A matter before the Zoning Hearing Board was resolved in 2023, and the Historic Architectural Review Board completed its review of the project in 2024.
Although the 90-day clock has started, planning staff reminded the Planning Commission that it is possible for them to request an extension and not uncommon for planning bodies to do so.
The borough’s engineer will begin reviewing the plans and will likely offer his input if he believes any aspects of the land development plan require edits to bring them into compliance with the SALDO.
Commission member Martin Jolin thanked Harrison for presenting a strong plan for development of the property, joking that it was the borough’s brownfield site and he thought he would die before seeing something built there.
The next regular meeting of the Planning Commission will be held on May 19 at 7:00 p.m. in the Gettysburg Borough Council Chambers.
Catalina Righter, freelance reporter, lives in New Oxford. She previously wrote for the Carroll County Times and the Kent County News, covering crime, education, local government and arts. She works as a legal assistant.
The Planning Commission is to be commended for their diligence and their willingness to listen to people whose property, neighborhood, and community could be affected by the proposed changes in the zoning ordinance. Initially, a selected “task force” of half a dozen people met directly with the consultant, in nonpublic meetings, with no available minutes or summaries, for ten months. Then an extremely lengthy document was given to the Planning Commission to review as part of their duties under the PA Municipalities Planning Code. The consultant was available to the public and the Planning Commission only twice during their year-long… Read more »