County SALDO questioned

BY STACI WILSON

The requirements of Susquehanna County’s subdivision and land development ordinance (SALDO) are being questioned in court.

Gibson Township property owners Bernie and Toni Sinkiewicz contend that the leasing of the neighboring High Cadence owned parcel to other companies should have called for the property to be subdivided.

Not so, said County Planning Director Robert Templeton in court on Monday. “That’s saying a lease is a subdivision. I’m not certain it is,” he said on the stand Monday.

Templeton went on to testify that a subdivision requires certain boundaries. He told the court that, in his opinion, the matter was more of a zoning issue. Templeton said he formed his opinion on the matter based on 25 years experience in the planning office.

On the stand, Templeton said that his office had received a complaint letter from Sinkiewicz’s attorney in June 2013. That complaint was taken to the planning commission, who believed no action on the matter was needed.

Templeton said that in the 50 years the county planning commission has been in existence, the leasing of a portion of property has never triggered a subdivision requirement.

Templeton said that following the complaint, he asked if the leases established specific boundaries in the land.

Cell towers, for example, the planning director told the court, have subdivision plans filed. Templeton said the cell companies have specific boundaries in the lease, typically for a surveyed 100-foot by 100-foot plot of ground.

In testimony presented by parcel owner Don Twining and Adam Longacre, who leases the property, both said the leases involving all or some of the 13 acres in question were not really defined by fixed boundaries.

Twining said one agreement called for the use of three acres on the parcel. “But they probably had access to all of the property when needed,” he said.

Longacre, co-owner of Scott Longacre Trucking, leases the property in question; and the company, he told the court, sub-leases the area to other businesses.

“The acreage is really not specified,” he said. “In most cases, we’re sharing ground with them.”

Twining and Longacre were presented as hostile witnesses. Both are involved in separate suits with the Sinkiewitz’s.

County Solicitor Thomas Meagher asked Longacre, “What are they seeking?”

“To shut us down,” Longacre said.

President Judge Kenneth Seamans granted Attorney David Gromelski’s request to file a post hearing brief. Filing is to occur within 15 days; the county will have 10 days to respond before the judge renders his decision in the matter.