Planning commission recommends multiple waivers for proposed 30‑unit apartment, citing minimal wetland impact

The Middle Smithfield Township Planning Commission on Monday recommended approval of a package of waivers for a proposed 30‑unit apartment development, including a wetland setback modification and waivers for road width, sidewalks, parking landscaping and stormwater methodology.

Planning staff presented a May 12 waiver request and described the site as an approximately 30‑acre parcel where existing buildings and driveways would be removed and a new 30‑unit apartment building constructed. The applicant told commissioners that "of the 43,996 ft of the outer buffer area, only 17 square ft are proposed to be developed as building area," and that removal of existing structures and new native plantings would reduce overall buffer impacts.

The commission discussed multiple waiver items individually. Staff and the applicant argued that Mount Nebo Road already performs adequately for traffic and that improving the roadway only along this frontage would be piecemeal; commissioners recommended approval of waivers for minimum road widths (170‑56, 170‑57, 170‑58). On the transportation impact study requirement, staff said the project alone does not surpass the township trigger of 50 peak trip ends and the township traffic reviewer did not recommend intersection changes; the commission approved a modification request for the TIS requirement (170‑73.1).

Commissioners also approved a waiver to allow sidewalks set back from the right‑of‑way rather than immediately adjacent (170‑78), a waiver to relocate required parking‑lot trees where there is no room in the front yard, and waivers related to grading and replanting in the inner and outer wetland buffers (including references to 116‑15 J5B and related code sections). On stormwater methodology, the commission approved a request to use the applicant's Atlas 14 rainfall methodology in lieu of the township appendix (waivers 160‑13K and 160‑18B).

Planning staff told the commission that the proposed stormwater design routes roof leaders into a pervious pavement system and that no runoff is expected to discharge into the wetland or buffer. The applicant emphasized that the project removes an existing 369 sq ft building previously located within the outer wetland buffer and includes additional plantings "in excess of those required for the site" to offset the small amount of new disturbance.

Each waiver was moved, seconded and recommended by the commission; the transcript records at least one member voting opposed on several motions but does not provide a roll‑call tally by name. Staff noted the land‑development plan assumes a separate lot‑consolidation will be recorded in sequence before final recording of the development plan, and the recommendation forwarded that condition to the board of supervisors.

The commission's recommendation does not itself authorize construction. The supervisors will consider the staff recommendation, the commission's motions, and any outstanding technical items before deciding whether to grant final approval or impose conditions.