michaelskis
Cyburbian
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Last week, I posted a link to an article. Last night... well... I will let you read. Our Senior Planner does the ethical thing, and might get fired.
"City planners reject plant that would employ 220
After the vote on the KVP plan, Councilman Michael D. Schorn calls the planning commission a disgrace and demands planner Karl Graybill's resignation.
By Jason Brudereck
Reading Eagle
A plan for a company to open a $6 million plant on Morgantown Road in Reading was unanimously rejected Tuesday by the city planning commission, which then was subjected to a half-hour tirade from other city officials and company representatives.
As some commission members and city planner Karl Graybill tried to leave the meeting in City Hall, City Councilman Michael D. Schorn followed and called them a disgrace and demanded Graybill's resignation.
The planners said the facility proposed by KVP Inc. is too intensive for a largely natural setting, though it once was the site of the city sewage treatment plant.
Critics of the vote called it a blow to economic redevelopment and said it was unreasonable because the size of the plant proposed for the 9-acre site had been reduced from 150,000 square feet to 120,000 square feet.
Albert R. Boscov, the project's coordinator, said he'll try to convince KVP officials to revise their proposal and not drop it because of the vote, which cannot be overruled by council.
Last month council approved using $2.4 million in federal and state grants and loans to fund the project.
Boscov, chairman of Boscov's Inc., tried unsuccessfully to keep order among a dozen men at the meeting.
“Well, they just don't care about the city of Reading,” Mayor Joseph D. Eppihimer said after the vote.
Other city officials loudly lamented that KVP won't be able to relocate 220 employees from an overcrowded hangar at the Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township.
Schorn followed commission member James D. Strohecker into a hallway after one shouting match.
“You're a disgrace,” Schorn yelled.
Strohecker turned and replied, “It's a disgrace to show up to a meeting when you just want to intimidate people.”
Schorn went back inside the meeting to point at Graybill, call him an unprofessional disgrace and demand his resignation.
After the meeting Graybill said his recommendation to deny KVP's proposal was based on city plans for the area, which do not include large industrial uses such as the KVP plant, which would manufacture conveyor belts.
“I don't appreciate a councilman accusing me of being very unprofessional when I built my reputation on being professional,” Graybill said. “It's unprofessional of Councilman Schorn to say that to me and call for my resignation just because he doesn't agree with the planning staff's recommendation.”
Planning commission member Michael E. Lauter said the panel had to consider the long-term implication of allowing a largely natural setting to be replaced with a large manufacturing facility.
The commission voted 4-2 last week to refuse to review the preliminary plans because members wanted to review more information about the project, which is in a tax-incentive Keystone Opportunity Zone.
Bernard Gerber, a retired lawyer who worked on the project for free, said the commission's vote to reject the plant meant more than not bringing 220 jobs to Reading from the Bern Township facility.
“What we may have witnessed here tonight is 200 lives destroyed, a company destroyed, the start of several lawsuits and a death knell for future development opportunities in Reading,” he said.
Gerber said KVP may be in a hopeless situation because it closed its facility in California and hired about 185 more employees in anticipation of opening in Reading.
KVP officials declined to comment after the vote."
What are your thoughts?
"City planners reject plant that would employ 220
After the vote on the KVP plan, Councilman Michael D. Schorn calls the planning commission a disgrace and demands planner Karl Graybill's resignation.
By Jason Brudereck
Reading Eagle
A plan for a company to open a $6 million plant on Morgantown Road in Reading was unanimously rejected Tuesday by the city planning commission, which then was subjected to a half-hour tirade from other city officials and company representatives.
As some commission members and city planner Karl Graybill tried to leave the meeting in City Hall, City Councilman Michael D. Schorn followed and called them a disgrace and demanded Graybill's resignation.
The planners said the facility proposed by KVP Inc. is too intensive for a largely natural setting, though it once was the site of the city sewage treatment plant.
Critics of the vote called it a blow to economic redevelopment and said it was unreasonable because the size of the plant proposed for the 9-acre site had been reduced from 150,000 square feet to 120,000 square feet.
Albert R. Boscov, the project's coordinator, said he'll try to convince KVP officials to revise their proposal and not drop it because of the vote, which cannot be overruled by council.
Last month council approved using $2.4 million in federal and state grants and loans to fund the project.
Boscov, chairman of Boscov's Inc., tried unsuccessfully to keep order among a dozen men at the meeting.
“Well, they just don't care about the city of Reading,” Mayor Joseph D. Eppihimer said after the vote.
Other city officials loudly lamented that KVP won't be able to relocate 220 employees from an overcrowded hangar at the Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township.
Schorn followed commission member James D. Strohecker into a hallway after one shouting match.
“You're a disgrace,” Schorn yelled.
Strohecker turned and replied, “It's a disgrace to show up to a meeting when you just want to intimidate people.”
Schorn went back inside the meeting to point at Graybill, call him an unprofessional disgrace and demand his resignation.
After the meeting Graybill said his recommendation to deny KVP's proposal was based on city plans for the area, which do not include large industrial uses such as the KVP plant, which would manufacture conveyor belts.
“I don't appreciate a councilman accusing me of being very unprofessional when I built my reputation on being professional,” Graybill said. “It's unprofessional of Councilman Schorn to say that to me and call for my resignation just because he doesn't agree with the planning staff's recommendation.”
Planning commission member Michael E. Lauter said the panel had to consider the long-term implication of allowing a largely natural setting to be replaced with a large manufacturing facility.
The commission voted 4-2 last week to refuse to review the preliminary plans because members wanted to review more information about the project, which is in a tax-incentive Keystone Opportunity Zone.
Bernard Gerber, a retired lawyer who worked on the project for free, said the commission's vote to reject the plant meant more than not bringing 220 jobs to Reading from the Bern Township facility.
“What we may have witnessed here tonight is 200 lives destroyed, a company destroyed, the start of several lawsuits and a death knell for future development opportunities in Reading,” he said.
Gerber said KVP may be in a hopeless situation because it closed its facility in California and hired about 185 more employees in anticipation of opening in Reading.
KVP officials declined to comment after the vote."
What are your thoughts?
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Just kidding Mike, we wont get you in trouble. At least not today....
