City Council

1 BOROUGH OF AKRON COUNCIL MEETING – JUNE 26, 2023 2 3 Council Members present-Nathan Imhoff, President; Justin Gehman, Vice- 4 President; Kleon Zimmerman, Ryan Cochran, Bonnie Young. (Paul Swangren, Jr. 5 and Randall Justice not present. 6 7 Others present- Mayor John McBeth, Susan Davidson, Borough Manager; Sean 8 Molchany, Assistant Borough Manager; West Earl Police Chief Eric Higgins, Larry 9 Alexander, Ephrata Review; John Taylor, Chris Beiler, Sue Glick. 10 11 Roll Call 12 Kleon Zimmerman- Present 13 Paul Swangren Jr. – Not Present 14 Randall Justice- Not Present 15 Ryan Cochran-Present 16 Bonnie Young- Present 17 Justin Gehman, Vice-President- Present 18 Nathan Imhoff- President 19 20 Meeting opened at 6:30 with the Pledge of Allegiance. 21 22 Approval of Minutes 23 Ryan Cochran made a motion approve the June 12, 2023 Borough of Akron 24 Council meeting minutes. Kleon Zimmerman seconded the motion. Bonnie 25 Young mentioned that on page 1(line 43) of the minutes the word board should 26 be changed to Council. Motion carried with the one change. 27 28 Visitors 29 Sue Glick mentioned it was great to see the work that was done on Tenth and 30 New Streets, but residents would like to have been notified more in advance of 31 the boil water advisory instead of the last minute. Susan Davidson , Borough 32 Manager mentioned that we did not anticipate doing a boil water advisory, but it 33 was a necessary precaution. 34 35 Zoom- no visitors 1  1 2 Reports 3 Police- Chief Higgins distributed copies of the Police Report to Council and Mayor. 4 Chief Higgins also mentioned that a few meetings to discuss , National Night Out, 5 have taken place and things are going well. National Night Out is Tuesday, August 6 1, 2023 at the Broad Street Park. Officer Samantha Heise is overseeing the 7 planning of the event. Bonnie Young will reach out to Officer Heise for an 8 interview before the event. 9 10 Zoning 11 Sean Molchany mentioned that most of the proposed zoning stays the same. 12 Major changes are apartments allowing use permitted by right in R-3. C-1 is a 13 mixed use and this addresses Ten Thousand Villages and the Old Dutch School 14 properties. 15 Molchany also mentioned a specific sign article, off-street parking component, etc 16 in accordance with the Municipal Planning Code. Mobile homes have not 17 changed. 18 19 Molchany mentioned the flood plain currently is a zoning district but will come 20 back and revise the flood plain district to be an overlay district. 21 22 Sean Molchany asked if there are any questions or comments and also mentioned 23 that the Akron Borough Planning Commission went through the ordinance. 24 25 Bonnie Young mentioned that she has comments on the format and Molchany 26 stated similar comments came from the County and they have been corrected. 27 28 Mayor McBeth had comments on the County review and that restaurants are no 29 longer allowed in C-M. Sean Molchany stated the only C-M property that possibly 30 could have met parking requirements for a restaurant was Weiser’s old property. 31 Mayor McBeth then asked in the future if the current owner wants to put in a 32 coffee shop the use is non-conforming. Molchany said that the donut shop is 33 retail use permitted by special exception. And if they would want to expand the 34 use they would need to meet the Zoning Ordinance provisions. 35 2  1 Mayor 2 Nothing at this time 3 4 Borough Manager 5 Susan Davidson, Borough Manager mentioned that the computer software 6 update for the Financial and billing will take place beginning of June 26. 7 8 Finance Committee 9 Nothing to report 10 11 Community Relations 12 Nothing to report 13 14 Parks Committee 15 Susan Davidson, Borough Manager mentioned that the Lancaster County Disc Golf 16 Club is installing more of the golf tees pads at Roland Park. 17 18 Nathan Imhoff mentioned there should be a groundbreaking ceremony with 19 Rosenberger for the Colonial Park Pavilion. Sean Molchany, Assistant Borough 20 Manager mentioned the work for the pavilion won’t start until August/September 21 of this year. Bonnie Young will contact Rosenberger about this event. 22 23 Mayor McBeth asked where the pavilion will be located. The Mayor mentioned 24 the pavilion should be closer the playground. Sean Molchany mentioned that staff 25 met with the Mayor last year and marked off where the pavilion should be 26 located based on the access trail being at 2% grade for ADA. Bonnie Young was 27 also at this meeting and remembers that the Mayor said the grade can be steeper 28 than 2%. 29 30 Mayor McBeth also mentioned that there should be another picnic table at 31 Colonial Park. Davidson mentioned that Public Works are repairing picnic tables 32 and could be at the shop. 33 34 Personnel Committee 35 Nothing to report 3  1 2 3 4 Streets Committee 5 Susan Davidson mentioned that PennDot did complete their inspection for the 6 Edgehill/Manor Ridge Street Project. Also staff submitted the required 7 Completion Report to PennDot. 8 9 Public Utilities 10 The paving and water work will be completed this week at New and Tenth Streets. 11 Sewer flows are good. 12 13 Nathan Imhoff mentioned that he spoke to Rep. Greiner in regard to old utility 14 poles not being removed. There is a proposal for time limits when the utility 15 poles need removed. 16 17 Public Hearing 18 Zoning Ordinance 19 Kleon Zimmerman made a motion to move into the Public Hearing for the Akron 20 Borough proposed Zoning Ordinance. Ryan Cochran seconded the motion. 21 Motion carried. 22 23 Mayor McBeth mentioned that he is objecting to the notification/advertisement 24 of the Zoning Ordinance. Sean Molchany mentioned that in the Section 3301.2 of 25 the Borough Code it was properly advertised. The advertisement mentions that a 26 copy of the ordinance was furnished of the full text per section 3301.2.(b).(1) of 27 the Borough Code. 28 29 Mayor McBeth said there are some pretty major changes, such as Solar Section 30 1514. Molchany stated solar section is new. 31 32 Mayor also mentioned that under new construction on lot should allow for new 33 driveways to be two cars wide as to deter parking on the public street. 34 4  1 Sean Molchany, Assistant Manager/Zoning Officer made a presentation on the 2 proposed Zoning Ordinance. 3 Sean Molchany mentioned that he reviewed with the Akron Borough Planning 4 Commission at their October 6, 2022, November 3, 2022, December 1, 2022 and 5 April 6, 2023 meetings. The Akron Borough Planning Commission recommended 6 approval of the proposed zoning ordinance at the April 6, 2023 Planning 7 Commission Meeting. 8 9 The proposed zoning was also reviewed by the Akron Borough Solicitor and it 10 complies with the Municipal Planning Code. Also received approval by the 11 Lancaster County Planning Commission on June 12, 2023. The proposed Zoning 12 Ordinance was properly advertised by the Borough Solicitor on June 5 and June 13 12, 2023. 14 15 Sean Molchany mentioned there are no major changes to the zoning ordinance, 16 but it has more clarification and more definitions. 17 18 All Zoning Districts remain the same- R-1, R-2, R-3, C-1, CM, FP 19 20 There are no zoning map changes at this time 21 22 Justin Gehman made a motion to close the Public hearing. Ryan Cochran 23 seconded the motion. Motion carried. 24 25 Council resumed regular Council meeting. 26 27 Ryan Cochran made a motion to approve the Akron Borough Proposed Zoning 28 Ordinance. Kleon Zimmerman seconded the motion. 29 Roll Call 30 Bonnie Young-Yes 31 Ryan Cochran- Yes 32 Kleon Zimmerman-Yes 33 Justin Gehman-Yes 34 Nathan Imhoff- Yes 35 Motion carried. 5  1 2 3 New Business 4 Draft of the Pollution Reduction Plan 5 Sean Molchany mentioned that the Pollutant Reduction Plan is part of the MS-4 6 Permit. The 30-day comment period starts tonight. After 30 days it goes before 7 Council for consideration and will be formally submitted to DCED for review. 8 9 The study analyzed 37 outfall watersheds for the Borough looking at sediment, 10 phosphorous and nitrogen. This is a public participation component of the MS-4 11 Program. 12 13 The draft of the Pollution Reduction Plan will be on the webpage. 14 15 Correspondence 16 Borough Council and Mayor received an invitation from the Akron Lions Club 17 inviting them to a picnic meeting at the Roland Park on August 22, 2023. 18 19 Ryan Cochran made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Kleon Zimmerman 20 seconded the motion. Motion carried. 21 22 Meeting Adjourned at 7:39 p.m. 23 24 Respectfully submitted, 25 26 Susan Davidson 27 Borough Manager/Secretary 28 29 SD 30 6