Testimony Begins, New Parties Attempt to Join Giant Opposition

While it wasn’t a meeting for public comment, Northampton Township residents still voiced their opinions, solicited or not, regarding the proposed site of a new Giant grocery store.

The auditorium at was more than half full last night as the Board of Supervisors continued its public hearings into Dreher Group’s application to construct a shopping center at the old Davis Pontiac site, just off of the intersection of Second Street Pike and Bustleton Pike.

Six new parties were presented for approval by John Ryan, who is representing them and Murray Battleman, owner of Richboro . Dreher Group’s attorney, Marc Kaplin, was met with boos during his cross-examinations. Much of the reason was due to his questioning to a few of the possible parties regarding whether they were solicited by Battleman to stand against the site.

Ultimately, an objection by Ryan to the questions was sustained each time. Once Kaplin was finished with his questioning, applause came from the crowd.

“My ultimate concern, because I live in this town, and I work in this town, is that one of these supermarkets, and for all I know, it might be Giant, might be put out of business,” said Douglas Brong, who operates Richboro Optiques.

“These are our homes,” said Christine Meyers, another opposing party along with her husband, Douglas. She also noted flooding concerns in the area around her home, which is very close to the proposed site.

“The more you pave, which will happen, the more it will flood,” Meyers said.

The six potential parties include the Meyers, Brong, Paul and Bridget Scipione, William and Mary Rita O’Hara, Allan and Bonnie Spurr and Donald Walterick, owner of Printers, Inc. in Richboro. Since the Scipiones were not present, Board Chairman George Komelasky urged Ryan to ensure their presence at the next scheduled hearing. He hopes to have a decision on whether to allow the new parties at that time.

The board will hold that hearing at 7 p.m., Jul. 13. Barring any changes, it, too, will be at Richboro Middle School.

“Due to the way that this is moving along, I think that we better have a meeting in July,” Komelasky said.

The bulk of this meeting, though, was dedicated to the applicant’s presentation, which included the testimony of project manager Gregory Glitzer. A civil engineer, Glitzer is leading the design team for the site plan and was the only witness called by the applicant’s attorney, Marc Kaplin.

The focus of his testimony centered around the permissiveness of building a shopping center in both a C-2 zone, which covers offices and commercial site, and through meeting the Village Overlay District (VOD) requirements. Affidavits for both were prepared by Glitzer’s team, and according to him, all zoning requirements for each are met or exceeded.

“This plan is a little more detailed relative to streetscape improvements,” Glitzer said of the VOD plan, adding that in his opinion, the plans meet all zoning requirements.

Included in that were, among other stipulations, buildings not to exceed 45 feet in height and have 70 percent impervious surface area in C-2 areas. An attempt by opposing attorneys, to disallow the affidavits on basis of hearsay were denied by the board.

“It’s not hearsay because Mr. Glitzer is here and can be cross-examined on every item of the affidavit,” Kaplan said.

But, Township Legal Representative Tom Smith successfully argued that Glitzer had not correctly calculated the impervious surface totals of his plans since part of the proposed site lies in a residential district. Since those have far less impervious surface allowances, the net site area total of just over five acres may in fact be too high.

Due to a planned 10 p.m. cutoff, cross-examination of Glitzer from Ryan and fellow Jeffrey Batoff, who is also representing Battleman and the six possible new parties, will take place at the next hearing.