ST MICHAEL'S
ONSEQUENCES OF THIS WAIVER

St Michael's had an allowed use with their property when they bought it . It did probably did allow for many upgrades but did NOT include the upgrades  to make this level of development.  And in fact many residents recall the letter fassuring no anticipation of functioning any differently.   Thought for the day  ……what is the real cost of this waiver that granted so many increased rights? The Township Engineer's staff, the Code/Zoning staff, the Township Manager, the Solicitor, the Commissioners…….endless meetings and hours of documentation -hours of testimony,  plan review, phone calls, etc.
    And the same for residents  ....    Residents  now had to consult lawyers & others  in order to learn what their rights are regarding  fighting these waivers, or  having codes such as noise enforced. They had to learn their rights regarding easements, property boundaries, sewage system consequences, etc. They have had  to attend numerous  meetings, prepare testimony, read documents and there will be much  more to come.  These things are not paid by the "fees" that St Michael's will be charged. ( Our Code Enforcement /Zoning dept prides itself on running largely on “fees” )  These costs, instead ,  are additional fees on all of us -with a heavy burden for the nearby neighbors - but a burden, too for the rest of us in the Township. It increases our taxes, steals our personal time & expenses . 

    The structure itself while making that property owner "richer" may erode the enjoyment  and value of every property within its "reach", as well as the finances of those beyond its reach .  These  waivers are being very freely given  by our Zoners and Planners and Commissioners - and not just via Waivers, Variances and Special Exceptions but also via Zoning rewrites……click here for more .

 

It it Ok to take from some to give to others . Shall we uphold our laws, codes and regulations or allow our elected and paid officials to use them as they please?

 

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    Please feel free to contact us  with your own  information on these topics  and please be sure to    contact us about any information you believe to be incorrect -

 

 

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Abington Township revamped the entire Township website at the end of 2015 and broke all the links to the information. In 2017, under Richard Manfredi, someone inexperienced was assigned to redo the entire website again. The public was not asked what problems they would like to see fixed. Their new plan was not well thought out, so everything was very hard to find and there were giant paragraphs you had to slog through in order to find the pertinent one or two lines that you needed. Or if you were lucky enough to even find the meetings and agenda page, there was (and still is) a whole page of nonsense on top, so you think you're on the wrong page. Zoom limks are burrid in a giant paragraph, so people can't find them to attend the meeting. They know about these  problems - but have just decided to ignore us.... for the whole of Richard Manfredi's time here (with Tom Hecker's consent).

 Now, in 2025, we are due to get a new Manager, and there are funds put aside to, once again, upgrade the Township website. We can only hope for a fresh chance at fixing some of these things, as our Township website is the best tool we have for communication and should be an easy, user friendly site for all.

We need volunteers willing to work together to help improve the Township site that everyone has to use,  to make it functional and accessible. 

 We will be repairing our broken links in this Abington Citizens site, too, and fixing some of our many, many typo's as much as is possible. (Yes, it's quite evident that, unlike the Township, WE don't have a paid staff of 275+ or a $93 million budget).

 So...please let us know if you find broken links or typos. Send us the URL and/or and the name of the page it is on, so we can correct it.
Thanks for the help.

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