Commissioners Accept 1,000th Signature

The Lower Macungie Township Board of Commissioners accepted another collection of petitions at its Jan. 19 meeting.

Resident Mark Spengler presented the the latest batch, explaining that among the petitions he was presenting was the 1,000th voice asking the commissioners to withdraw from a memorandum of understanding that changed zoning laws for a third of the township.

The change to the zoning ordinance alllows development of hundreds of acres of farmland in the township's southwest corner by David Jaindl.

Spengler gave three reasons for asking the commissioners to abandon the MOU and to pull back from developing the farmland:

1. Overcrowding in the East Penn School District

", just down the street from this land has over 30 students in some of its first grade classrooms, and it is a brand new school."

2. Flooding

"East Penn closed on two occasions this year due to flooding while every other school in the Lehigh Valley stayed open."

3. Higher taxes

"Building high-density residential housing, warehouses and strip malls on this land will elad to a lot of infrastructure needs in the future that will result in inevitable tax hikes. The children of this township will pay these bills, and it is not fair to them."

None of the commissioners gave a lenghty response to the presentation, though Commissioner Roger Reis said that the BOC has made itself clear on its opinion in the matter.