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The Abington Citizens Network
where Abington, PA residents can share
ideas and join forces to build a better community
JOIN WITH OTHERSThere is so much that needs more
attention from citizens, more voices and collaboration. If would like to meet with others to
work on an issue just
contact us .
We can use your help an any issue that interests you.
In a nutshell, the Township, under Richard Manfredi and Board
Press Tom Hecker and VP Matt Vahey, are hell bent on a course to
remove zoning protections and densely develop everything they can.
Chair of the Montco Planning Commission and VP of our Zoning Hearing
Board Steve Kline plays no small role.
The Economic Development Corporation Your leaders want to use your taxes, grants & personnel to "become the developers" .....
but are using your $ to set up a "separate legal entity" so they
don't have to follow the rules the law requires of them when they
develop. The goal of the entity is to distance the Commissioners from public opinion,
avoid bidding and other requirements. The conflict of interest lines are completely blurred.
it was passed in an underhanded way on July 13, 2023. So, the same people who
worked to deceive you at the Willow Grove Mall, and in writing the
Comprehensive Plan will be the ones now having a "development arm" using your money,
your well-paid personnel, your grants and every resource they can to
give to people who have demonstrated not one thing that they would do.
Well over $600K is set aside in the 2025 budget ( for 3 years)
plus a "fair price " for unlimited use of highly professional
personnel and township resources has been determined to be $1, I don't
find that fair- do you? Especially when you have not been shown
anything, even once, that would benefit YOU, the one
paying for all this. Nor can you see how much will end up
in campaign coffers after your taxes are used to enrich the "chosen" developer
friends.
On
July 13th, 2023
it moved forward- using, once again, deceptive tactics, and on May 9th
2024, the Board members were appointed, including people who had been
complicit in deceptive schemes in the past as well as others whoes firm does
a great deal of business with Abington and who therefore would present
a real conflict of interest. And yes,
Manager Richard Manfredi, despite supposedly being employed full time as Manager, and
not having the time to do that job properly, is slated to be appointed as Executive Director. Seriously? While we pay others to do his management duties, or
while important matters fall by the wayside, he is steaming
forward with something that residents have vociferously opposed and
that will simply contribute to the "transfer of wealth" phenomenon
right here, locally,
and even on a broader scale.
The best thing that residents can do
is loudly demand that the Township show exactly how they
intend to develop with these newly minted "gifts " and require full
financial analyses of all projects - including of employee time used.
They have a history of presenting bogus
financial analyses from other projects, such as the PRIET 365 units at
the Mall. see:
https://www.abingtoncitizens.com/aaISSUES/EconomicDevelopment/DeceptiveTactics.htm
PS : Manager Manfredi announced in
April 2023 that he will be retiring at the end of 2024
( or beginning of 2025. While we are thankful for that news,
given the harm he has caused in his 7 1/2 years here, we are
concerned he may be creating a retirement position for himself where he
continues to disregard the interests of the residents while still
controlling their tax dollars as a "soon-to-be-paid" Executive Director of this new Economic
Development Corporation. He currently makes well over $230K per year
paid by you, and tried to tell the public that his time as Executive
Director was "free" ......Literally trying to convince you that the
time of someone who makes a quarter million dollars from your pocket
does not "count". You can't make this stuff up.
comprehensive plan shenanigansOUR
COMMENTS STILL NOT POSTED !!!! After a May 25th, 2023
meeting with residents that barely
scratched the surface of the issues in the Future Land Use
Chapter (Chapter 13 ) of the Comprehensive Plan. The
collected comments from the May meeting were to be coalated and
revisited on June 15th. That meeting was postponed. A year
later, the promise has still not been kept. And while we still have not had the comments or
the answers to the questions posed, as promised, a new Future Land Use
Chapter has been posted that does not at all represent any of the
feedback we shared. Quite the opposite, in fact. At the
September 2023 Board of Commissioners Meeting, Board President Tom Hecker
said the posted comments were coming, but would not elaborate. It
appears that they are planning to bring them out at the moment before
they are ready to approve the whole Comprehensive Plan - again so as to
leave no time for 'dissent" or to gather residents into an
information loop. They know it takes time for the
message to get out. They are removing that time now.
Rezoning
Township-Wide
via the Comprehensive Plan Manager Manfredi is gifting himself the
right to "rezone" your properties in a complicated and deceptive
process that lays the groundwork via "visions " that will
enable blanket approval of Text and Map Amendments that meet the
"visions" . Quite simply, a "back door" around
your zoning. Text and Map Amendments are already such a "back
door" but this enables what would be illegal spot zoning in a
frighteningly deceptive way. Residential Explosion
THE 2024 BUDGET PASSED 12-14-24 WAS A
MESS
And now the 2025 Budget is out with the same problems - nothing fixed. Residents
need to be paying attention to this. They are not improving the
Township - they are transferring wealth from your pocket to others. The excessive
nearly 40 % Real Estate tax hike over
2020 to 2022, was put in effect even AFTER Manager Richard Manfredi
and Board Executives Tom Hecker and Matt Vahey knew of the $19
million Covid relief payment that was awared to us.......and while we already had a
General Fund Balance buffer of millions - far more than needed.
Many or most of our current problems could have/should have been fixed
with reserve funds of such magnitude.
Instead, we still suffer from insufficient code inspection employees,
roads with potholes, deteriorating curbs, piles of trash that may take
2 years to be addressed, blighted properties that would be sold and
redeveloped if the laws were enforced, but aren't because they
are waiting for grant monies and the zoning laws to change favorably
for them. We have a website where the main
information cannot be found, a budget that took away transparency
measures with each new iteration, and a Manager who prefers to spend his time
"playing developer" and ignoring the concerns of the residents
who pay his salary . This Manager Richard Manfredi, has hired
consultants to do his own job and that of other directors - who no
longer direct much at all -at great
expense to taxpayers. He directs the consultsnts to create documents that say what a good job he is
doing... like the Strategic Plan that outlines lovely goals like
transparency and accommodation of the public, which of course means
nothing if you refuse to implement those goals. Manfredi himsel
refuses meetings with engaged residents, while cancelling blighted
property meetings, leaving building and streets in shambles and
leaving residents in dangerous conditions that he refuses to even
discuss.
CURRENT ZONING CHALLENGES INCLUDE
:
1514 Robinson Ave - Building in a floodplain : For every
builder and developer who makes himself a "sweet little bundle"
squeaking past the intent of our laws, the cost to the Township is
becoming increasingly unsustainable. Building in a floodplain has
costs and consequences for all of us. And often, like here, the intent
of the law is clearly against it.
1583 Rothley Ave
-
INFO COMING SOON
This never should have been approved.... 1209 Rydal Road A Senior Facility,
Assisted Living & Memory care unit
etc This has already been a victory for the rest of the Township
and we hope for this property, too. The residents handled their
protest so well that the Institutional Zoning that would have allowed
this has been removed from every residential district that the Steve
Kline-led zoning rewrite committee wrote it into. Hurray. A LOT of
work for the residents. And while your neighborhoods have been saved,
the developer might still try to come back and get this one through.
Would you want
one of these where you live? Beside or behind you? Neither
do they. This the new ordinance won't affect this developer unless they
withdraw their proposal completely ---- then, the new ordinance would
be in
effect.
But pay attention. This is the kind of thing they are trying to put
into the Comprehensive Plan without you knowing - as they did here
during the zoning re-writes.
Attempt tp put a monstrosity in the middle
of a beautiful residential area
Baederwood Shopping Center - Noble Town
Center
-
Ross + the former Bed Bath and Beyond and
also the
4 acres that make up the Trader Joe's/Raymour Flanigan strip
.......
A possible plan per our Comprehensive Plan
could include as many as 297 apartments - one assumes with retail under them on the
ground floor.
We'll keep you posted if a proposal comes in. That 297 would be added
to the 244 that was to be the Redstone or Whitestone or
Baederwood Apartments - whatever they are calling it now . That
project couldn't go forward because they didn't have an emergency
exit. Now both properties appear to be owned under the same
organization, or under different "sister organizations with a similar
name. So the Baederwood 244
could be granted the driveway access soon ----- but a looming question
is still : how did it get one complete side with NO BUFFER or
access to emergency services on a steep slope? Beneficiary: the
developer, to get a few more units to line his pockets. Who approved
that dangerous feature and why?
Another
question, will these many units include a large number of "affordable" units?And what does that mean. Often it
means you'll be paying to make the landlord whole
after he puts in residents with incomes too low to pay the outrageous
prices. Stay tuned. Will the former Walgreen's there
become a Chick Fil-A?
Nothing definite yet. THE
GALMAN
MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDING on
the Foxcroft Shopping Center - taking 2.61 acres of recreational
golfcourse greenspace and turning it into Business Use,
and anticipating a possible transition coming for the Pavilion from
Office to retail/commercial and residential . This is right on the
heels of the 104 ( or 107 ) unit Jenkintown Flats completion - while
you, yourselves, pay for the sidewalks and stormwater the Flats should
have installed and while hundreds of units of Medical Office space in
need of renovation already exist . Once again, the Comr threw his
residents under the bus as they testified one after another to keep
the recreational space and to deny more Medial Office space. Usually
the Ward Comr votes with the people who elected him and lets others do
the :dirty work". We all ponder just what incentives they have to
vote, themselves, against their residents. The dirt from the Flats was
used to level out the steep slope on the golfcourse acreage. Is this
allowed? 1368 Valley Rd- clear cut - riparian buffer completely
violated in an attempt to put more houses than are allowed by law on
this property with a more than interesting
chain of ownership
and 2 for one trees that should have to be replaced before anything at
all is done.
Alverthorpe
- Open to All
? Recommended
in Comprehensive Parks Plan to be Open to All - not just Abington
Residents. We are told "this Board" won't do that , but the Plan has
not been amended. It should be so we don't have to sleep with one eye
open. We also have heard that using Federal Funds might trigger
this.
Huntingdon Valley Shopping Center
in the Comprehensive PlanLearn
more about the apartments that could come to the parking lot and the
duplexes and triplexes you might find next door to you if you are
less than a 1/4 mi away from the Shopping Center. Despite
what the Comr has said- the Comprehensive Plan poised to pass and our
zoning ordinance say otherwise.
Development (or Overdevelopment?)
Our township is under assault from developers throughout, with the complicity of
the Commissioners, Manager and those we elect and pay with our tax dollars,
doing things that flaunt both ethics and the law to help
them.... while the residents feel they have no say in how their community
is developed because of these tactics. Willow Grove Mall 365 Apartments?Gone for now but they'll be back
After a full year's
worth of meetings (12 ) where the Commissioners helped PREIT keep
the public focused on one single building despite an ordinance
presented to them that would have enabled far, far more,
they ultimately withdrew the proposal - rather assuredly waiting for the Comprehensive Plan
( and State Laws also in the works) to pass which
will make doing this easier. And where far more will be allowed.
False figures offered, false testimony given, and Commissioners
complicit in this enormous deception of the public (in a dozen ways)
were the hallmarks of this saga. PREIT, shortly after
withdrawing, nonetheless released press info that they WILL have residential on the
Willow Grove Mall and around it. But then ....PREIT ownership
changed.
(Don't expect that means no more residential attempts ...) Code Enforcement or Corruption?The Colonade Whistle Blower LawsuitViolations of our
Trust and of the Law. Grand Jury results still withheld or
sealed . Thanks to the Whistleblower case
we have a lot of info that would otherwise have been difficult to
get ...or was made difficult by Josh Shapiro when the case was
apparently sealed. The case settled with even more very disturbing revelations......
Did our manager, who gave you
the highest, and the most unnecessary tax hikes the Township has ever
known, claim he was brought here to save the taxpayers money? Oh my. If
that were true, he would be long gone. Despite his actions at the
Colonade/ now 100 York Apartments, Steve Kline was
appointed to Zoning Hearing Board in 2022
- and in 2023 the public has had a front row seat to the health and
safety crisis that the Landlord - and the Township are turning a
blind eye to, as tenant after tenant testified to the conditions Kline
left there and to the horrendous impact on hteir lives. As fast as they move out, new victims move in. And,
yes, now they want to put apartments everywhere
in Abington, because .... well because ... well... working with
wealthy Landlords must have some "hidden benefits" the rest of us
can't see. It is changing our Township, our finances, our
schools and our quality of life ,,,, and they want more of it. Despite
that the people that they represent are saying just the opposite.
Public Comment It has been changed 4 or 5 or more times since Richard
Manfredi arrived - not one of those was for the benefit of the public.Each time are
rights are reduced further - til they are nearly literally
removed, while calling it an
expansion. They fixed NONE of the things we told them were
problematic and they regularly are violating law and policy.
This is all being done in conjuction with their efforts to
pass zoning changes that are known to be unwanted and that will
change our Township forever.
Homelessness
-Please share your ideas for
solutions The
PREVIOUS (2022) Budget They
got $19 million dollars for free in Covid relief funds - SIX
times what the tax increase would bring - and they levied the tax
increase anyway . 30 % spread over 2 of the last 3 years,
while families battle Covid losses and inflation. The budget was
withheld from the public and proper speaking rights not granted...
You don't have to do things like that when you're operating in
good faith. An 856 page budget with teeny, tiny print,
so paper copies are useless. John's Spiegelmans long saga of
why your taxes had to go up missed the mark by a mile - missing
the actual reasons that your taxes had to go up. A lack of
transparency and integrity.
https://abingtoncitizens.com/aaISSUES/Budget/WhereTheMoneyGoes.htm
__________________________ MORE
CURRENT ISSUES
Development :1209 Rydal Road A Senior facility
w/Memory care & Independents Living Facility proposed
May of 2023 ( after Townhouses etc. failed) but shenanigans by
Township & Comr Hecker
Development :
St Basil's Academy Toll Brothers
150" Carriage homes approved - but why is it not spot
zoning?
Development :
770 Jenkintown Rd
- Florist and greenhouses to 13 Commercial Condos using a little known
method
Development :
Mission Green - 70 Shady La - 61 Units - connected to the Medical Mission Sisters project
at 8400 Pine Rd
Development :
365
Cedar Rd Ended up with 7
- still too many
Develoment :
The Roslyn Wawa
- in the Roslyn Shopping Center - Grand opening was
August 2023
Development :
Old York and Susquehanna
Not much Intersection Improvement ... but big benefit to a
developer --- and other property owners at taxpayer expense.
Development :
Baederwood Shopping Center -
Noble Town Center - Trader Joe's
/Raymour Flanigan : 244 apartments on 8 steeply sloped acres
lacking fire access on one whole side at Baederwood and
297 apts anticipated at Noble Town Center and Trader Joe's.
Development :
Former YMCA Property is now CHOP - Huge improvement from the
BET senior apts monstrosity-
but what else was simultaneously re-zoned?
Public
Safety :
Massage Parlors
- some legit - some not. What is being done to eliminate
what we believe are known establishments still participating in
improper or illegal activities - Human Trafficking should not be
happening in our town. Who will help?
Parks Travesty :
The Boy Scout Preserve in Meadowbrook -
went down to the mud.... a 13 acre wildlife refuge at the outset of winter-
when wildlife needs refuge . Dead
trees left standing . Live ones removed. Proposal again to poison every living thing...
Parks Recreation:Manor Woods -
back on the front burner with the Football Field Option still in the plan.
Were $120K (?) in 2021 Covid Funds allotted
to create trails and a parking lot when those exist right
across the street ?
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).
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