Council revisited the financial possibilities of developing the township-owned Sharp Road property at last week’s meeting.
According to township manager Bill Cromie, a request for proposal was approved by council at the meeting.
“The council approved it and it will be distributed for builders and developers for ideas if they are interested in the property or to develop the property, whether it be residential or commercial,” Cromie said.
The parcel of land is 29 acres, with 20 acres available for development. The remaining nine acres are wetlands and cannot be built on, according to Cromie.
“The highest and best use would be residential,” Cromie said, “but we don’t want to limit ourselves.”
The need to develop the property stems from money lost in tax appeals, dating back to April, Councilman Ken D’Andrea said.
“It’s still preliminary. We went ahead to get information on the possibilities,” D’Andrea said. “A lot of this started because of the tax appeals and we’re accountable for the taxes.”
Looking ahead, council is weighing the potential and seeing if there’s a possibility to generate revenue at the Sharp Road site.
“We want to maximize what we have,” D’Andrea said. “We want to know what we can do with the site, we could keep it, which we may do, or is it going to fit in the surrounding areas?”
According to Cromie, there are numerous residential areas along Sharp Road, including low-to-medium income housing, townhouses and the senior development Sharp’s Run.
“We authorized it, once we get the information the back we’ll decide,” D’Andrea said. “No decision has been made one way or the other.”
In other news;
• Eight police officers were promoted due to retirements, Cromie said.
Walter Miller and Thomas Reinholt were promoted to captaincies; Joseph Friel, Brian Rosenberg and Bruce Higbee were promoted to lieutenant and Jason Siitonen, Thomas Campbell, Jared Halpern were promoted to sergeant.
According to Cromie, no new positions opened as result of the promotions.
“They’re very qualified, I worked with just about all of the officers promoted, certainly the captains,” Cromie said. “They bring a lot of experience and knowledge to the job and they’ll help Chief Christopher Chew as he moves to fight crime and be community oriented in the policing techniques. The promotions are well deserved.”
• Fees at Indian Spring Golf Course were reviewed by council, according to Cromie.
“We gave the current fees to the township council and what we thought would bring in more money,” Cromie said. “We discussed possibly raising all the fees one dollar. We reported to them it would bring in an additional $71,000 per year.”
According to Cromie, council asked the professionals to prepare a plan for the special meeting, scheduled for Oct. 22, with a comparison of area courses and membership fees.
“Council will give us their ideas and where we should go,” Cromie said.
“We’re looking to do an evolution of the whole complex, looking at the organization, how it couples with Marco’s Catering and new logos or what have you to try and reestablish and try to move forward,” D’Andrea said.
• The next township council meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the municipal building.
