Postponed: Hearing and Vote on Heartland Home Plan for Highland Country Club

A hearing and vote on a preliminary plan for 170 townhouses and 134 single-family homes to be built by Heartland Homes on the grounds of the former Highland Country Club has been postponed.

Ross Township Commissioners had planned to discuss the proposal Monday night.

Attorney Jonathan Kamin, who represents the developer, Limerick Land Partners, said the township requested the postponement. 

"We have agreed to postpone it another two weeks," Kamin said. "The township has requested that another traffic engineer review some of the comments from (the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation), and they needed a couple of weeks to complete the review and to develop appropriate mitigation alternatives."

When the proposal first came before the Ross Township Planning Commission on Nov. 29, many in the crowd of 150-200 people voiced their opposition, saying they feared an increase in traffic on already busy Highland Avenue and Gass Road. 

At the Feb. 19 commissioner’s meeting, Kamin acknowledged that the developer's own traffic studies indicated the new housing plan would negatively impact traffic at two key intersections: Highland Avenue and Gass Road, and Highland and Cornell Avenues. 

The author of the traffic study, Ray Caruso, told commissioners the best solution would involve installing traffic lights, although neither intersection meets the criteria set by PennDOT, which owns both Highland Avenue and Gass Road.

Kamin also said PennDOT would be unwilling to order new traffic signals based on projected traffic from a housing development which has not been built, much less approved.

"The solution that we have offered is that we would make a contribution to pay towards going ahead and paying for a light when the light is finally needed," he said.

In the meantime, traffic engineers from PennDOT, the developer and Ross Township have been meeting to see what, if anything, can be done now.

"If there is anything that can be done, it certainly benefits us and the township," Kamin told the commissioners last month. "That's why we are agreeing to extend the deadline and have that meeting and see if three heads can be put together to make some suggestions." 

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