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including
multiple views
on either side
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that said: "facts" are important
The Abington Citizens Network
where Abington, PA residents can share
ideas and join forces to build a better community
JOIN WITH OTHERS There is so much that needs more
attention from citizens, more voices and some "investigation" so residents can
really get the facts. If you would like to meet with others to
work on an issue just
contact us .
Have accounting skills? - Take a look at our budget & help plan how it
should look /// Real estate
knowledge - or tired of the over-development ? Connect with those who
feel the same /// Want better candidates to vote for? Find others of
like mind ... If you prefer working alone - we can use
your help an any issue that interests you. Just
contact us
The Economic Development Corporation Your leaders want to use your taxes, grants & personnel to "become the developers" .....
but through a separate legal entity, distancing them from public opinion and all the normally required rules,
like bidding....
Conflict lines are completely blurred, and it was done in an
underhanded way. It was passed Juy 13, 2023. So, the same people who
worked to deceive you at the Willow Grove Mall, and in the
Comprehensive Plan will be the ones now having a "development arm"
and using as much of your grant money as they can to benefit someone,
but they have not shown, even once, how it 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 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, or ones that will benefit
because their firm does so much business with Abington. And yes, our
Manager, despite supposedly being employed full time as Manager, and
not having 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 functions fall by the wayside, he is steaming
forward with something that residents have vociferously opposed and
that will contribute to the "transfer of wealth" phenomenon locally
and even on a broader plane. 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. They have not shown us a single project in
this manner. And they have a history of presenting bogus
financial analysies 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 years here, we are
concerned he may be creating a retirement position 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 the Economic
Development Corporation. He currently makes well over $220K per year
paid by you, and tried to tell the public that his time as Executive
Director was "free" ......Did YOU fall for that?
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.
THE 2024 BUDGET PASSED 12-14-24 IS A
MESS 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 the Manager knew of the $19
million Covid relief payment .......and while we already had a
General Fund Balance buffer if 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, a website where the main
information cannot be found, a budget that took away the transparency
of the previous budget, just to name a few things that need to be
addressed. We have a Manager who prefers to spend his time
"playing with developers" and ignoring the concerns of the residents
who pay his salary .... a Manager who hires consultants at great
expense to create documents that say what a good job he is
doing. Having a Strategic Plan that outlines lovely goals means
nothing if you refuse to implement those goals.
1209 Rydal Road A Senior Facility,
Assisted Living & Memory care unit
Want one of these where you live? Beside or behind you? A new
ordinance may have resulted that will be to your benefit. So something
good may have come from the "up-rising" that this proposal inspired.
This property will not be affected by the new ordinance unless they
withdraw their proposal completely after the new ordinance is in
effect.
Baederwood Shopping Center - Noble Town
Center
-
Ross's - the former Bed bath and Beyon and
also the
4 acres at 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 - with a more than interesting
chain of ownership
and 2 for one trees that should be replaced before anything 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.
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, with John Spiegelman in charge, revamped the entire Township website at the end of 2015
and broke all the links to the information we had archived on this site for you.
In 2017, Manager Richard Manfredi arrived and assigned someone not qualified to redo the entire website again.
They not only broke all archived links we had reinstated, but made everything as impossible to find as they could.
Nearly all of our comments and recommedations to fix the Township website have been wholly ignored.
So we do need volunteers to work together helping the Township create a site that is functional and accessible.
We will be reinstating links as we find them....if the data is still available.
So... please let us know if you find a broken link. Send us the URL of the link
and the name of the page it is on, and if we can, we'll reinstate it.
Thanks for the help.
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