The proposed Gettysburg Station Project will be very bad news for residents living north of the main building (tower), which is planned to be 72 ft high by about 130 ft wide (East to West). Two government subsidized apartment buildings devoted to people of low income, including seniors and disabled persons, lie immediately north of this tower. These are the Gettysburg Interfaith Garden Apartments and the Harold Court Apartments. If the Project is realized, the fate of the residents in the 72 apartments in these buildings is to be shadowed from the sun for much of the day during winter, when the sun only rises low in the southern sky. Most of Harold Court will see no sun at all during peak daylight hours of 10:00 to 2:00 in the winter months, when sunlight is already scarce. Apartments on the South side, only some 50 feet from the tower, will be blocked from about 8:00 to 4:00, essentially all day. Interfaith will begin to see the sun blocked from about noon onward. As the afternoon progresses, the shadow of the tower will creep over the complex. Residents will not see a sunset for most of the winter.
This will have consequences we must seriously consider before letting the Station Project go forward. For example, a resident of Harold Court writes the following on the Save Historic Gettysburg Facebook page, in response to a comment by a fellow Gettysburg resident on the shadowing and its detrimental effects:
“YES! THIS IS MY GREATEST FEAR, living at Harold Court. I am so disgusted with Gettysburg… And thank you for your kind concerns! Due to my medical issues, I was very thankful to have an end unit which allows me to have a total of 3 windows (2 are doubles). They will no longer be useful… I also have 2 loving cats who sun bathe regularly… They are my Emotional Support Animals so if they become depressed due to lack of sunlight, it’s gonna drastically affect me….”
Stories like this will be a very sad and ironic outcome of this unnecessary new development. Sad, obviously, for the residents, and deeply ironic in that the Project has found the support of many in the past because of a supposed low income fraction of apartments. It turns out that the developer appears to have no intention of including any such housing. His website clearly states that all apartments will be offered “at market rate.” It has been confirmed to us by the Borough Planning Director, John Whitmore, that no low income plans have been produced.
There are a great many reasons to be against the Gettysburg Station Project, including the impact on historical tourism and the economic fallout from that. But beyond such concerns, we cannot ignore the human impact on the residents of our town, especially those living in scarce low income housing within the downtown area. The Borough has never done an economic cost/benefit analysis, let alone a human one.
The Land Use Plan for the Project is now before the Planning Commission for analysis. As stated on the Borough Website, “The Commission protects the health, safety, and welfare of Borough residents, and provides leadership in the management of growth and change of the economy, ecology, and environment of Gettysburg.” Given this directive, it could not be more clear what the Commission’s responsibility is in the current situation.
These neighbors and friends have already experienced challenges in life beyond what many of us will ever have to face. Will we take away their sunshine too? They are Gettysburg residents, and the Borough must protect their “health, safety, and welfare.”
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a serious risk for seniors and those living with a disability that can significantly affect their well-being. The restricted exposure to sunlight will impact everyone, but especially those susceptible to this condition.
The time has come. Let us put an end now to this ill-planned and ill-conceived aberration on the historic and human landscape of Gettysburg.
Richard Barvainis is a 23-year Gettysburg resident, a Save Historic Gettysburg member, and a retired Program Director in the Division of Astronomical Sciences, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, Virginia.
This is an excellent article which highlights just one of the many ways in which the proposed Station Project would destroy all that is great about Gettysburg. The environmental, infrastructure and traffic impacts of this development would be very destructive to the entire area but especially to the historic district where this would be built. Something should be built there that would actually benefit the community, not a Staten Island developer.