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Zoning plan upsets owners
By MEG BERNHARDT
Hanover Evening Sun [Hanover, Penn.]
April 14, 2007
A Gettysburg motel owner is threatening a lawsuit if the borough rezones part of a busy tourist street to residential use.
The borough's planning commission plans to recommend the change on Steinwehr Avenue south of Culp Street, said planning consultant Tom Comitta, owner of West Chester-based Tom Comitta Associates, Inc.
That section of Steinwehr includes America's Best Value Inn, the American Civil War Museum, Friendly's, McDonalds, May Flowers Asian Buffet and Restaurant, KFC, and General Pickett's Buffet. It is currently zoned tourist-commercial.
The planning commission is expected to make its recommendation to the Borough Council in May, and then the council will decide whether to proceed with the proposed zoning ordinance. If it proceeds, a public hearing will be scheduled. But the council could ask the planning commission to strike the change before going ahead with the ordinance.
If it is passed, Paul Witt, the owner of America's Best Value Inn, will sue the borough, he said.
"I think it's a horrible idea," Witt said. "I can't understand why they want to do this. This is a commercial street. It's been this way for 75 years. It was partially residential 30 years ago, but now it's commercial."
The recommendation was made largely because the current visitor center near Steinwehr will be demolished when a new one opens near Baltimore Pike. The Gettysburg Foundation is currently in the process of building the new $125-million visitor center and plans to open it in 2008. Business owners along Steinwehr have complained the move away will damage business.
"We thought that would be a good change because the borough has heard repeatedly from people such as Eric Uberman of the American Civil War museum that once the visitor center leaves its current location – along with the Cyclorama Center and the Electronic Map – that business will die on Steinwehr Avenue," said borough planning commission member Walton Davis. "If that's the case and they are going to die, then what we don't want to see is other types of businesses that have less a chance of success going back in. É We'd rather see it go back to being residential."
He pointed out during the 1863 battle, the area was residential farm houses.
If the businesses survive the move of the Visitors Center, they can remain as pre-existing legal non-conforming uses, Davis said.
But the business owners have concerns that new zoning will tie their hands if they attempt to improve their structures or adapt to the changing business climate, they said.
And Uberman said he was surprised the planning commission members mentioned him because he has not discussed the change with them.
"This is the first I've heard about it," said Uberman, a longtime critic of the new visitors center plans. "Nobody has spoken to me either as a property owner or as a business owner."
And he said he never said all businesses will die.
"There are a number of businesses along Steinwehr Avenue that if they lose 10 percent of their gross is enough for them not to continue in business," Uberman said.
But he said he has a built-in clientele and believes his business will remain intact.
He worries restrictive zoning will damage the existing businesses further, but said he isn't sure because he hasn't been given any information about the change.
"To devaluate people's property based on the fact the Park Service is moving, is unreal," Uberman said.
Who made the planning commission "God of Gettysburg?" asked McDonalds franchise owner Emmett Patterson.
"I hope the common sense of the Borough Council overrides the good intentions of the planning commission that aren't very well thought through," Patterson said. "They have to be operating in a vacuum to even consider this."
He said the borough should be working with businesses to help them thrive and build the tax base. He said the National Park Service had not done this when making the decision about the visitors center.
By changing the zoning, business owners said, the borough will be reducing the assessed property value and hurting their tax base.
And Patterson pointed out the businesses will need to be flexible in order to adapt and survive, which more restrictive zoning could inhibit.
"Business people don't just roll over and die," Patterson said. "You've got to adjust to the changing times."
Davis acknowledged the zoning change might not be popular, but said it is the best move. He said the commission envisions more commercial activity in the downtown and around a planned redevelopment site near the newly renovated historic train station.
"Our job as a planning commission is to plan and look to the future and do what we think is best for the borough," he said. "We might step on some political toes, but it's up to the Borough Council to make decisions (with that in mind)."
Eric
By MEG BERNHARDT
Hanover Evening Sun [Hanover, Penn.]
April 14, 2007
A Gettysburg motel owner is threatening a lawsuit if the borough rezones part of a busy tourist street to residential use.
The borough's planning commission plans to recommend the change on Steinwehr Avenue south of Culp Street, said planning consultant Tom Comitta, owner of West Chester-based Tom Comitta Associates, Inc.
That section of Steinwehr includes America's Best Value Inn, the American Civil War Museum, Friendly's, McDonalds, May Flowers Asian Buffet and Restaurant, KFC, and General Pickett's Buffet. It is currently zoned tourist-commercial.
The planning commission is expected to make its recommendation to the Borough Council in May, and then the council will decide whether to proceed with the proposed zoning ordinance. If it proceeds, a public hearing will be scheduled. But the council could ask the planning commission to strike the change before going ahead with the ordinance.
If it is passed, Paul Witt, the owner of America's Best Value Inn, will sue the borough, he said.
"I think it's a horrible idea," Witt said. "I can't understand why they want to do this. This is a commercial street. It's been this way for 75 years. It was partially residential 30 years ago, but now it's commercial."
The recommendation was made largely because the current visitor center near Steinwehr will be demolished when a new one opens near Baltimore Pike. The Gettysburg Foundation is currently in the process of building the new $125-million visitor center and plans to open it in 2008. Business owners along Steinwehr have complained the move away will damage business.
"We thought that would be a good change because the borough has heard repeatedly from people such as Eric Uberman of the American Civil War museum that once the visitor center leaves its current location – along with the Cyclorama Center and the Electronic Map – that business will die on Steinwehr Avenue," said borough planning commission member Walton Davis. "If that's the case and they are going to die, then what we don't want to see is other types of businesses that have less a chance of success going back in. É We'd rather see it go back to being residential."
He pointed out during the 1863 battle, the area was residential farm houses.
If the businesses survive the move of the Visitors Center, they can remain as pre-existing legal non-conforming uses, Davis said.
But the business owners have concerns that new zoning will tie their hands if they attempt to improve their structures or adapt to the changing business climate, they said.
And Uberman said he was surprised the planning commission members mentioned him because he has not discussed the change with them.
"This is the first I've heard about it," said Uberman, a longtime critic of the new visitors center plans. "Nobody has spoken to me either as a property owner or as a business owner."
And he said he never said all businesses will die.
"There are a number of businesses along Steinwehr Avenue that if they lose 10 percent of their gross is enough for them not to continue in business," Uberman said.
But he said he has a built-in clientele and believes his business will remain intact.
He worries restrictive zoning will damage the existing businesses further, but said he isn't sure because he hasn't been given any information about the change.
"To devaluate people's property based on the fact the Park Service is moving, is unreal," Uberman said.
Who made the planning commission "God of Gettysburg?" asked McDonalds franchise owner Emmett Patterson.
"I hope the common sense of the Borough Council overrides the good intentions of the planning commission that aren't very well thought through," Patterson said. "They have to be operating in a vacuum to even consider this."
He said the borough should be working with businesses to help them thrive and build the tax base. He said the National Park Service had not done this when making the decision about the visitors center.
By changing the zoning, business owners said, the borough will be reducing the assessed property value and hurting their tax base.
And Patterson pointed out the businesses will need to be flexible in order to adapt and survive, which more restrictive zoning could inhibit.
"Business people don't just roll over and die," Patterson said. "You've got to adjust to the changing times."
Davis acknowledged the zoning change might not be popular, but said it is the best move. He said the commission envisions more commercial activity in the downtown and around a planned redevelopment site near the newly renovated historic train station.
"Our job as a planning commission is to plan and look to the future and do what we think is best for the borough," he said. "We might step on some political toes, but it's up to the Borough Council to make decisions (with that in mind)."
Eric
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