Farmland Use Battle: Residents to Be Removed From Suit

Charlene M. Shupp
Espenshade
Special Sections Editor

BERKS COUNTY, Pa. — The lawyer representing about 60 individuals in a land developer’s lawsuit is pushing to to have the names removed for just attending the meeting. About 80 individuals, including farmers, were listed as nominal defendants in a land developer’s fight with the Lower Heidelberg Township Zoning Board.

The suit, which was originally filed in January, listed people that attended zoning board meetings regarding farmland purchased by Glen-Gery Corp. and Quest Land Development LLC. The developers would like to build homes on the 181- acre property.

The developers said they named the individuals to notify them of the legal action.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Josele Cleary who is representing a majority of the individuals. ‘They should not have been named at all.”

For those listed in the document, she said it could harm their credit rating and other financial actions such as refinancing a mortgage, because if a credit check is done, it will note they are under active litigation.

She said that the nominal defendants should not have been named at all, citing that all they did was attend a zoning board meeting to hear what was going on in their township.

In February, the Berks County Commissioners moved to pay Cleary to get the residents removed from the suit. The attorney fees came from the county’s environmental defense fund. The fund is from money set aside from landfill lawsuit settlements to pay for environmental and land use issues.

Cleary said the commissioners said the action violated the individuals civic right to attend public meetings.

Cleary who has represented several municipalities regarding zoning and development issues said she has never seen action like this before.

The farm in question is zoned for agriculture and is nearby several other preserved farms and others located in the township’s agriculture security area.

In 2004, the developers asked for special exemption to build single homes on the agriculture land. The plans include to build between 90 and 125 homes. The zoning board has denied the request and it has been battled out for several years in the court system. The latest suit said because the board members failed to take an oath of office and file statements of financial interest, the boards decision should be voided, according to reports from the Reading Eagle.

To learn more about the commissioner’s actions on behalf of the individuals, visit the Berks County Website at www.co.berks.pa.us.