Hearing and Vote on Heartland Home Plan for Highland Country Club Delayed Again

A hearing and vote on a preliminary plan for 170 townhouses and 134 single-family homes to be built by Heartland Homes on the grounds of the former Highland Country Club has been postponed again.

The issue is not on the agenda for Monday night's meeting. 

Ross Township Commissioners had first planned to discuss the proposal at their meeting on March 18.

Attorney Jonathan Kamin, who represents the developer, Limerick Land Partners, said the township requested another postponement so that the another traffic engineer could review some of the comments from (the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) regarding the traffic impact on Highland Avenue and Gass Road.

Kamin said the hearing is now scheduled for April 15.

At the Feb. 19 commissioner’s meeting, Kamin acknowledged that the developer's own traffic studies indicated the new housing plan would negatively impact traffic at two key intersections: Highland Avenue and Gass Road, and Highland and Cornell Avenues. 

The author of the traffic study, Ray Caruso, told commissioners the best solution would involve installing traffic lights, although neither intersection meets the criteria set by PennDOT, which owns both Highland Avenue and Gass Road.

Kamin also said PennDOT would be unwilling to order new traffic signals based on projected traffic from a housing development which has not been built, much less approved.

"The solution that we have offered is that we would make a contribution to pay towards going ahead and paying for a light when the light is finally needed," he said.

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