Jaindl Land Co. Attorneys Grill Supervisors On Recreation Plan

Attorneys representing Jaindl Land Co. told Upper Macungie supervisors that fee schedules mandated to developers under the would eventually be detrimental.

Joseph Zator and Michael Shafer addressed supervisors on behalf of Jaindl Land Co. during Thursday night’s public hearing on the recreation plan.

Township officials designed the proposed recreation plan to preserve open space and increase the number of leisure activities available to its more than 19,000 residents, including the

Zator and Shafer asked supervisors to reconsider what they termed as discrepancies in the 111-page report.

Shafer told supervisors that the proposal of hiking the per unit recreation fee for developers from its current $2,500 to $5,00 by 2020 is excessive.

“You want to encourage developers to opt in to paying the recreation fees and they won’t develop if they’re too excessive and inflated,” Shafer said.

Shafer also questioned a portion of the proposal that called for 71 acres of recreation space set aside per 1,000 residents too high.

Instead, he quoted a guideline range of 12-to-56 acres of recreation space per 1,000 residents set by the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Shafer said the plan’s housing growth assumption of 300 units per year was off the mark and told supervisors the township’s expected housing growth over the next 10 years is likely to hover near 200 units annually.

Township Community Development Director Bruce Wlazelek took Shafer to task, asking him how he sourced that information.

“Discussions with Mr. (David) Jaindl,” Shafer said, which drew amused reactions from the members of the public

Wlazelek said township supervisors and officials should consider the points of a letter submitted by Zator on behalf of Jaindl Land Co.

“The market will bear what the market will bear,” Wlazelek said. “If the recreation fees are too high, you’ll make no money. If they’re too low, (residents) will say (developers) got off too cheap.”

Supervisor Sam Ashmar said the building and development boom that ended with a recession taught everyone a lesson.

“At the end of the day, developers come and developers go,” said supervisor Sam Ashmar. “The building boom was a lesson to all of us and it caused a lot of strain on services. We need to do what we need to do to keep up a top-rate parks and recreation system in the township.”

Zator, an Upper Macungie Township resident, called the 300-unit growth assumption “disingenuous,” and described the letter submitted to the board as "a little caustic."

He declined to provide Upper Macungie Patch with a copy of the letter.

“My client supports parks and ball field in this township. He’s built a lot of them. The township doesn’t want small pockets of land. It wants parks and needs the fees,” Zator said.

Jaindl Land Co. in controversial in Lower Macungie Township in recent months.

Residents generally applauded the proposed Upper Mac rec plan, which provides for improvements to several parks and construction of facilities.

The township currently has 20 percent of land preserved as open space and leases some of that open space to farmers. Supervisor Kathy Rader said some of the leased land currently being farmed is not suitable to development.

Wlazelek said the proposal is the first step of an aggressive open space plan that the township hopes will enhance its chances for garnering grant applications for funding.

Supervisors gave no timetable concerning any tweaking of the plan or when it might come up for a vote.