Amanda’s Field Needs Better Fencing; Invasive Plant Ordinance to be Drafted

PETERSBURG – Upper Township Committee met Jan. 25 and learned from Committee member Hobart Young that once again the soccer and football fields at Amanda’s Field had been vandalized by off-road vehicles.
“Someone has been doing ‘doughnuts’ and leaving tire marks all over the fields,” reported Young. “We need to, and will at this point, put fencing around the fields to keep these people out; we also need to have all township employees lock the gates that they may be using from day to day. The road along Sunset and then they go down to the pit so we’ll need to make sure the gates by the various bike paths also are made narrower so no cars can get through,” said Young.
Invasive Species Ordinance
Committee took up discussion of whether or how to proceed with an invasive species ordinance per the request late last year by a Strathmere resident. He said his property was being “taken over by bamboo from his neighbor.”
Solicitor Daniel Young had earlier provided committee with examples of invasive species ordinances to be used as reference and model including one from Ocean City.
Young explained that if committee moved forward to introduce this type of ordinance it could either specifically address bamboo as an invasive species or make the ordinance broader in application.
“For example, you could describe or define ‘invasive’ as poison ivy as well as bamboo and state that the list is non-exhaustive.” Township engineer Paul Dietrich said he favored the broader approach “so that six months from now we don’t have someone come in and complain about an invasive plant we did not cover.”
Committee agreed to go with the approach of broad application and requested that Solicitor Young draft an ordinance for the township that “we can move forward with quickly since that is what we said we were going to do,” said Mayor Richard Palombo.
Proposed Accessory Apartment Ordinance
Committee considered a possible ordinance related to “accessory apartment” operations.
This concept is related to affordable housing obligations that Upper Township has under its master plan.
Young clarified that an “accessory apartment” is a secondary use dwelling placed on a property where the primary use is a residence.
“We considered such an ordinance seven years ago, when Council on Affordable Housing was giving us the quantity of affordable housing we needed to provide. Now this requirement is under court-appointed supervision. So I recommend we give the topic to our housing sub-committee and they can tweak it or send it back to committee and let us know if this needs to be done right away. In reality, the number allowed under ‘accessory apartment’ for Upper is small, just 10 units so it will not change at all the character of the township.
“The applicant comes in to submit the paperwork, there’s a subsidy involved, and once 10 is reached then that’s it.”
Dietrich added, “Cape May has a similar program, and if eventually we wanted to add more units to the ordinance we could always do that.” Young’s recommendation to have further discussion at the sub-committee level which will then submit their findings to Committee. 
Route 50 Change
Dietrich announced that the switch over to one-lane traffic on Route 50 due to bridge construction will happen soon. “Exact timing is pendant on other factors, there need to be contingency plans and coordination with the Fire Dept. and OEM, but if the change to one line with a traffic signal stopping traffic in one direction at a time doesn’t happen this week it will probably take place early next,” Dietrich said.
Kudos to Public Works
Each committee member and the mayor commented on the work done by the Public Works Department. “I’ve heard nothing but compliments,” said Young and this sentiment was emphasized by all. “This was a good opportunity to get a handle on how our resources are being used, it’s not just the trees coming down and snow removal, we also had worse flooding than expected in Strathmere. So planning over years, the military vehicle acquisition we’ve pursued, everyone chipped in. When I owned a pharmacy store I also took out the trash each day and here everyone did a great job doing their part and rose to the occasion.”
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.