Town Council - Regular Meeting

I like that we can see Steve's dogs there. So that's Steve's family. Hm?

Good evening.

I'd like to call to order the Town of McCandless Meeting of Town Council for July 27, 2026. Everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Remove your hats, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. As always, we'd like to start tonight's meeting with a few announcements. At the previous Town Council meeting on July 13th, 2026, Town Council entered into an executive session regarding legal matters. That meeting concluded at 8.35 PM. We have a couple of great events coming up I'd love for you to take note of. Join us Tuesday, August 4th, from 5 to 8 p.m. for National Night Out, located behind Town Hall, with a live DJ, food trucks, vendors, free giveaways, and family fun. Please also join us August 13th from 8.30 to 10 p.m. at Wall Park for our Perseids Meteor Shower Viewing Party. Don't forget to save the date for our Town of McCandless Community Day, which will take place on September 19th, 2026, beginning at 1 PM behind Town Hall. And yes, there will be a parade this year. Also coming up is our McCandless Adventure Tickets are available at Town Hall for a chance for your child to enter to win a ride to school in one of our McCandless vehicles. Tickets are available beginning at National Night Out on August 4th through Community Day, September 19th, 2026. One free ticket per McCandless resident. This was a really great activity last year. Got a lot of enthusiasm and I hope to see it again. If you want any information on any of these events, please contact Check out the website. Any further announcements from council before we move on? Okay, hearing none, we will move on to public comment on agenda items only. Remind you to please state your name and address. You can address council. We will not answer questions at this time. These are for comments only, and we appreciate you giving time. You have five minutes, and please approach if you're ready to make a comment.

We'll go ahead and kick us off. I'm here to comment on the proposed Harmony Manor. So good evening, council members. My name's Janelle Petrilli. I live at 9760 McCutcheon Ave, and I'm here tonight to ask you to please table or reject the proposed development as it's currently submitted. I want to be clear, I'm not opposed to housing going on this property, but what is proposed is the density of this plan and the way that it fits into the neighborhood is not adequate. This proposal will introduce a level of development that is far more intense than what residents expected and more than what this area can absorb. Our neighborhood is defined by half acre or larger lots, older homes with meaningful variation in design and spacing. This is the character of Old Inglemire, and this is the identity of our neighborhood. A cluster of track style or production homes on smaller lots do not blend with the existing neighborhood. It would materially change the character, the privacy, and the safety of our area. For me personally, the impact is immediate and significant. Under the proposed plan from a single window, my kitchen, today I see zero houses. In the future, I will see eight houses. That's the scale of the density that this plan puts right behind my property. This means a loss of privacy, significant increase in noise and light, and pollution, and it's a very different living environment, the one that my family has invested in and reinvested in once again. In my view, that level of impact is not adequately addressed for us neighbors. Furthermore, I ask you to table or reject this proposal since there are five major issues that remain unresolved. First, the issue of legal access to Bellcrest Place for the SOAR main access. That should be resolved prior to any preliminary approval being granted. That needs to be legally settled upfront since this involves public utility access. I also ask for the minutes for the June 22nd meeting to be amended to include Mr. Clover's decision on this matter. Second, the plan should not move forward until the site design fully accounts for the school bus stop pad that was recommended, adequate tree buffering, and the remaining engineering comments related to stormwater, plantings, waiver requests, and the potential sidewalk along the private section of Harmony Drive. As Gateway noted that this may require additional plan changes and utility relocation. These are not minor details and many are interconnected. They affect whether the plan actually works and whether it protects the surrounding neighborhood. To the point of waiver request, I urge you to deny the request for modification for the lot depth. The lots should be laid out in a manner that incorporates the natural site features while still meeting the ordinance. Third, the density should be reduced. This is a development that connects onto Woodlawn Road. It should be required to meet the minimum lot pattern of that neighborhood. A lower density plan would be more compatible with the area and would better address the concerns around traffic safety and impact to nearby neighbors. Fourth, there must be a meaningful solution for the homeowners adjacent to the development who rely on private wells. This should be written down and legally agreed to prior to plan approval. And finally, the long-term maintenance obligations must be clearly funded and enforceable after the lots are sold. Stormwater facilities, common areas, and any future sidewalk obligations cannot simply be left without financial commitment. The neighbors need confidence that these responsibilities will be maintained for the years to come. My request is simple. Please table or reject this proposal until these issues are fully resolved. A revised plan should reduce the density, protect the neighboring properties, resolve the outstanding engineering and access issues, and provide a clear long-term maintenance framework. Thank you for your time and for representing the residents of this community.

Thank you for your comments.

Hello, Mike Canaway, 375 Belcrest Place. I just want to reiterate our concerns about the well water. Like I said before, our property sits directly downstream from the new development. I just hope that a formal agreement would be in place to ensure that our well water is protected and also a contingency if our well water is contaminated, who exactly takes care of that? That should not be on us. The other issue is flooding. I know that they've done a lot of research on the water containment, but we have lost our driveway three times from this property already without everything being put in place. I just hope that they can, if they are so sure of the engineers' research, they should have no problem signing some kind of agreement with us to take care of this if something else happens like that. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Good evening. Jack Murtaugh, 9825 Belcrest Road. My property fronts on Belcrest Place, which is why I'm very interested in this. This is more of a comment to the builder. There was a report delivered to the town on May 20th with respect to the easement issue, indicating that it was the opinion of council or the builder that the easement issue would be settled by the recognition of an implied easement. Council cited a case. principal in that case is not one that I object to. But in that case, there was clear demonstration evidence wise of a common owner and division of property from a common owner to create a common street that's not been done in this case. And I'd like to ask the builder to update that information because without that it is not possible to make a final determination on the efficacy of the claim of an implied easement. The town solicitor two meetings ago recognized that, that that's an issue not for the town to decide, but to be resolved by the builder and the homeowners. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Julie Greenberg, My name is Julie greenberg my family and I live at 1000 woodland road, I want to thank town council for its attention to the details and the various iterations of the harmony manner plan. Julie Greenberg, it's the attention to detail that keeps the canvas a lovely community that people want to live in stay in and move into. Julie Greenberg, The lot with ratio requirement in the mechanical ordinance exists for good reasons. City Council Chambers, And there have been no good reasons, and in fact no reasons really at all stated to justify a modification of a lot with ratio for this proposed development. City Council Chambers, i've reviewed the developers July six admission to town Council and it's a bit unclear to me what the scope of the requested modification is and. City Council Chambers, I also note that there seemed to be some acreage differences between the recording plan that's included in the submission. And the actual site plan that's included in the submission and I haven't been able to figure out where the acreage has gone. But the Harmony Manor property totals more than seven acres in size and it's fairly rectangular in shape and seven acres is a lot of space. I am confident there's a configuration of lots for this property that will meet the lot with ratio requirement without requesting a modification or requiring a modification. It may necessitate subdividing into one less lot, but it should be able to conform with the code. I do not believe that the township makes a routine practice of waiving the lot with ratio requirement or any other requirement in the ordinances just to allow someone to be able to develop every square inch of a piece of property. particularly when the sole benefit of the modification is the enrichment of the developer. None of the adjacent neighbors here and none of the rest of the Woodland Road corridor neighborhood are going to benefit in any way from the requested modification if it's granted. The lot width ratio requirement serves to provide consistent proportionality among lots to maintain the visual character of the neighborhood and to protect property values. Stapp, The requested modification does not serve that purpose i'm also not sure why the developer gets another bite at the apple on this issue when no substantial. Stapp, Modification substantial modifications to the plan that's been submitted are evident from the drawings we all sat and stood here weeks ago. Stapp, When town council denied the modification request for the lot with ratio. based on a 12 lot plan with three lots whose width to depth ratio didn't meet the ordinance. And we're all back in this room tonight because we're still looking at a 12 lot plan with the same three lots that appear to be out of compliance and seem to have largely unchanged frontage measurements. So nothing has changed here. Surely this cannot be the best effort of Mr. Pol and his team to bring their development into compliance with McCandless ordinances. Quite the opposite, it seems to be a considered refusal to even try to adjust the configuration, which to me demonstrates arrogance and a disdain for the town regulations. So in that vein, I urge you to again deny the request for modification of the lot width ratio. On a related matter, we continue to wait for both the developer and the township to address the visibility and safety concerns related to the intersection at Harmony and Woodland Road. I won't rehash my prior remarks, but please know that vehicle and pedestrian safety at the Harmony Woodland intersection remains a serious concern. And as a community, we're anxious to hear the plan that will help make this intersection safer before the infusion of additional traffic on these roads. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comments.

Good evening. I'm Chris Kennedy at 940 Woodland Road, and I'm also commenting on Harmony Manor. At the meeting on June 22nd, I was happy to hear and was announced that a would perform a traffic study at the intersection of Woodland and Harmony Drive. I think it's great news. I hope we can get an update on the progress of that report tonight, and I look forward to having the opportunity to read that report when it's done. I repeat my request that conditional approval for this project not be allowed. The site terrain seems to be complicated and the neighborhood impact is significant. Please set all the I's, cross all the T's, get the ducks in a row, all that stuff before granting a permit and do not allow conditional approval. I will also repeat my request that McAnus uphold its zoning ordinances and not allow modifications for this project to Harmony Manor. I expect these ordinances were carefully considered when developed and enacted just three years ago. This is not an outdated ordinance. This ordinance set a minimum standard, not an optimum or ideal standard. At the June 22nd meeting, Town Council did approve a modification to allow two-to-one slopes without a public discussion that I'm aware of. My question is to Town Council, why? And are you going to change the zoning ordinance to allow other people to use two-to-one slopes? I feel like I'm putting the cart against the horse on this next topic regarding the modification for depth to width ratios. HAB-Masyn Moyer- As Jerry mentioned, I don't see any significant changes to the plans to comply with the depth through with ratio requirement, I hope that the developer will clarify this this evening. HAB-Masyn Moyer- If it's not and town council of approves it i'm going to ask the same questions why, and are you going to change the ordinances to allow other people to have the same permissions. Also at the June 22nd meeting, Town Council approved the waiver for sidewalks with the stipulation that the developer will fund future sidewalks. After a brief review of the developer's revised submission, I don't see the stipulation documented. I expect the developer is trying to stretch every dollar and every square foot of the property, but that should not be a concern of Town Council nor the Zoning Board. I'm not asking for town council or the zoning board to change the ordinance or bend the rules to my desires or a neighborhood consensus. I'm asking that town council and the zoning board not change the ordinance or bend the rules in favor of the developer by allowing modifications. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Libby Blackburn, 1015 Woodland Road, here for the same issue as many others, although quite a few of my neighbors said that their concerns, they didn't feel as though anyone was listening to them and they weren't even going to waste their time tonight since people who they elected weren't listening. It says on your website that the provisions of zoning codes have to have minimum requirements to achieve nine things. This plan does not achieve any of the nine items listed on your very township website. One of the reasons that the town said yes to the modification was that they didn't want the land even more torn up, causing more problems. But if you would not allow the modifications, there would be less land torn up because there wouldn't be as much development. The well water needs to have the builder be responsible, not future owners. They are only responsible until someone else buys it. I'm quite sure the future owners don't realize that they're going to be responsible when several of the wells no longer are providing proper water to these many homes. This has caused current homeowners to lose property value as seen by the fact that the next door neighbor who put up their house for sale as soon as this development was known, they have put it on the market and have been unable to sell their house. They had bought this house less than two years earlier and weren't planning on moving. This is causing them to move. Their property value is going to go down, which is why they were trying to sell it before this goes in. Other townships have buffer ordinances and even require half-acre lots for homes in new developments in order to maintain property value. I'm wondering why McCandless doesn't have the same thing. we're trying to maintain property value. That makes our township better. This development causes our taxes to go up and our property values to go down. No modification should be allowed. If you allow modifications here, you can be assured you'll have to give them to anyone else in the future. Your own solicitor said he would want to see the Commonwealth Court rule on access to the Bellcrest Place Road. His name was put on, he said he did not want his name put on that. He would want to see a Commonwealth Court ruling because he did not feel as though that was necessarily true. You should make sure that happens before you rule on anything. It would be very important to make sure that we aren't giving bad advice, especially publicly, for anything happening in our township. Make sure that the courts rule on that. before you do anything. And I would not allow any modifications. You've had many, many of your taxpayers saying that this isn't okay with them. Everybody is very unhappy with this. It's very odd to me that this is being seen as zoned as part of the houses along Bellcrest when it's definitely part of our neighborhood. It's not part of that neighborhood at all. So thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Samuel Caneroy, Belchrist Place, 375 Belchrist Place. I just wanted to talk about, once again, mention the well water. It's just a little disheartening. We've not received any communication about it. It's been, the plan is test once before and once after, and that seems to remain the plan, but that doesn't account for what happens in a year, two years, three years, four years. This is not an inconvenience to us. We would not be able to live in our house if our well water is damaged or contaminated or even just completely dried up from striking a ground well. So I just wish that there was more consideration given to the people who are already living here as opposed to the developer who's building 12 now houses here that are all squeezed into this little cul-de-sac, which also, about the lot-width ratio, I don't see how this is coming back up again. The law, it's an ordinance that it has to follow a certain ratio, and they're asking to change this to bend it to them just because it's not stopping them from developing. It's just they won't be able to necessarily fit as many houses in and get as much money from this as they can, because they can say it's about building nice houses, building, developing a neighborhood. But it is at the end of the day about money and an investment that they really have no stake in that affects dozens of people that live around here. And I respect the town council. You've been very helpful with anything we've reached out about, especially Matt. And I just hope that there's more consideration given to the residents who live here as opposed to a business, a real estate developer who is just out to make money no matter what they say. So thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Is there any further public comment on agenda items? Agenda items including things other than the Harmony Plan as well.

I'm not sure if there's a way for me to show you the picture.

I took this on my way here. The grass is over a foot high still. We say it every time.

Thank you. We will submit to the code officer. Thank you. Any further public comment?

Hi, my name's Eddie Antos. I live on 9790 East road. My property is on also is along Woodland Woodland road. I was just here to support my fellow neighbors. I spoke at 1 of the planning company meetings, and I just want to come here tonight to also see how the vote goes. I also urge you not to allow the ratio variance tonight. I appreciate you not allowing it last time. A month ago, you know, I moved into this neighborhood 8 years ago, and immediately I saw how special it was and historic and charming it was. And I purchased the house from the original owners from their grandchildren, and they still contact me. We've got the blueprints from the house as well. There's many other houses in the neighborhood that are like that. And we try to preserve that. So the half acre to an acre is is what it is. It's been 8 months and Mr. still is pushing for a few quarter acre lots and adding, I think, like, for for lots that are like, point 3.4 and we only have point 2 or 3 of those. I also represent other friends in the neighborhood that couldn't be here tonight. They all are discouraged at what's going on with this development. So it's not just us. There's a lot of people. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anybody really support this, although I do support development to some degree. I personally feel that he should that it should be zone for the very low density, which is the entire women corridor. Not the not the low density of the of the bell crest area. Also, with the potters pond extension, which we're very excited about. I just took my kids there yesterday. You know, I feel like that's going to introduce a lot more traffic into the neighborhood as well. So, which is, which is fine. You know, we, we love part of spawn and we hope that people come from other neighborhoods to enjoy it. But that's going to introduce more traffic as well as this development will. So, um. i uh the the well issue and the safety issue are definitely the top two the historic side is is the third one on my list but um i just wanted to uh state those comments and just support the neighborhood um so thank you thank you for your comments

Okay, if we have no further public comment at this time, we will move on to agenda item number 5, the approval of minutes.

May I have a motion please to approve the meeting of town council minutes from July 13, 2026.

We have a 2nd, please 2nd, thank you. Okay, any questions, clarifications or corrections from council about the minutes.

will be abstaining from the vote since I wasn't present.

Thank you. Okay. All those in favor of approving Town Council Minutes of July 13, 2026, please respond by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? We have six in favor, one abstain. Motion carries. Okay, we will now move on to administration and finance finance reports for the month of June 2026. And if you'd like to share with us, please. Sure.

Good evening council in your packet are the general fund revenue and expenditure reports for June 2026. Okay, hear me. As of June, our year-to-date revenue totals are $7 million, compared to $7.9 million at the same time last year. Our year-to-date expenditures total $9.9 million, representing about 48% of the budget, compared to $7.6 million, or 38% from last year. The primary difference is the timing and the Interfund transfers. This was identified as a key driver last month, and it continues to be the factor contributing to the variance between 2025 and 2026. This difference is expected to normalize over the next month. Also, at our last meeting, I discussed the status of the BPT tax collections and mentioned that those revenues should be coming in very soon. While I had hoped we would receive these deposits before the end of June, the payments ultimately began to arrive in July. So on July 7, we received a significant portion of the outstanding BPT collections. This included a deposit of just over $1 million. So that would make our overall collection rate increase from 16.8% where it stands now to 87% with just that one payment. So as a result, the figures that will be presented at the July meeting will be much more in line with the amount of BPT taxes collected to date in 2025. So next I will move on to the approval of the checklisting. Enclosed in your packet is the checklisting for June, 2026 and the amount of $1,725,810.99. And I would be happy to answer any questions regarding the checklisting or the finance report. We have any questions from Council, Mr. Wall? Yeah.

How are we doing with the new tax collection? In your opinion, is it going well?

It does seem to be going well. We've gotten a heavy volume of calls just because people received the tax bills in the mail. And it was different. So they wanted to make sure it was actually legitimate. So we have had several calls based on that. But once we explain it and give them any information that they need, it's actually gone pretty smoothly. The guys were here two different days so far. and the powers room collecting taxes in person. And both of those days went very well. Very smoothly.

So they did a great job. That's for senior citizens, correct?

It's for anybody.

I think anybody can take advantage of being able to talk to somebody here.

It helps to be in a senior citizen. I think it's a wide range of everybody coming in.

Impressing being able to ask the questions and things like that.

Yeah, and it is nice. It was like a social gathering. Right. Everybody enjoyed their time together.

Will there be any more of those dates? Yes, they have, I believe, four more. OK, great. They're all in August and they actually range from summer 9 to 12 and then summer 1 to 4. So it's all available and Liz does a great job of blasting them out beforehand. So everybody knows that they're coming.

My only concern is that, you know, when we did have somebody in house, the collection of taxes seem to be so much quicker.

It is, but unfortunately, They are doing.

I don't know if that's fair to say the business privilege tax was received a month later than we would have received it. You know, the due date was still the due date. So the money came in and the money went out the July 7th deposit date. We would have recorded it on the 30th of June. So you'd see it in there. It's a seven day.

Any further questions? Okay, if there's no further questions, do we have a motion to approve the checklisting number 6?

Make a motion to approve checklisting number 6 day of June 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026. Totally 1,725,810 dollars and 99 cents. And submitted to each member of council and posted on the bulletin board in the town website. Thank you.

We have a motion to move a second, please. Second. Thank you, Mr. Hickerson. Okay. Any further questions from this work before we go? Okay. Seeing none, we are all in favor of approving checklisting number six. Please respond by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?

I have two. Same two to three.

Okay. Thank you. So motion carries 6-0 with one abstain. Next we will move on to the communications report for the month of July. Ms. Vanazzi.

Good evening, Council. Thank you. I'll kick off with social updates. At the last meeting, I mentioned we will be doing two content series. So as of now and continuing, you can anticipate to see the Next Week in McCandless events coming up on Thursdays and then Sustainable Saturdays in conjunction with updates from the EAC on the social media channels. our call for restaurants for restaurant week is now open and we just announced as well that we're accepting restaurants that only do take out coffee ice cream across the board so we have a form on the website and we encourage restaurants to submit and join us for october 12-16. Since the last meeting, there has been a 24% increase in our social media engagement. And I wanted to make one correction to my report on your social metrics at a glance. It says 13 videos. The number is actually 29 videos equaling 429,000 views. So we're getting great traction on those videos that are going out. We'll continue to do those through the rest of the year and continuing. For the website, I am actively working with the EAC and Jeff Wissner, the fire marshal, to update and enhance their web pages, as well as going through and making audit changes to anything outdated on the website. So I'll keep you all in the know there. For email, the August McNeil will be hitting this week, later in the week, and you can sign up on the website if you are not on that list. The town crier was distributed to residents last week, so everyone should have them. And we also have additional copies out in the lobby area. And the last meeting, I mentioned there were three announcements we were saving for Community Day to be announced in the town crier. So those three announcements were that the parade is now back, so we will have the parade again this year. The Frank and Barb Farina Memorial Car Cruise will take place the Friday before Community Day, so September 18th. And lastly, I announced that the McCandless 175 Brew in conjunction with Illusion Brewing is a pre-prohibition style lager. There was some history and research put into that, so it hits that 175 history feel. I was going to let you announce the name. No, you do it. So we just confirmed the name and we have the town vote on the socials. So I will steal that from Abby's agenda, which the name for the brew is the Harmony Brew. which was voted on. So that will be at community day on September 19th and there's a limited amount. So really excited there. Regarding the town crier, there are also some activity pages that we wanted to have some fun and encourage everyone to do those and learn a little bit about the town and see where your knowledge is there. and to take the Witch McCandless Landmark quiz and let me know on social what you get. And lastly, I'm currently building relationships with the local press and have been working with them to answer their questions for any updated stories.

Thank you very much. And it was really exciting to see the new town crier live in my mailbox last week. I stopped what I was doing, put myself a cup of tea and enjoyed that very much. Thank you.

I'm glad to hear it.

Absolutely. Any questions for Ms. Benazi from council? Okay, we will move on then there is no junior council report until the fall of 2026. So we will move to liaison reports. Um, the canvas industrial development authority. Mr. Higgerson.

Oh, there are no updates right now.

Okay. I'm meeting. Thank you. Council of governments.

Mr. we met a couple of weeks ago. The biggest thing we wanted to do over the. This past year's audit, and they found nothing of note or anything of concern, so they're in good shape.

And I did read in the most recently approved minutes your request for cooperation with deer culling from their surrounding communities. How has the surrounding communities received that?

They definitely want to take a more rigorous and collectivist approach in trying to manage the out-of-control. that this region has been battling with.

That's really good to hear because I think everybody needs to be involved.

Absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up because if we don't have cooperation from all, just us doing something, we'll not have the employment. It's not going to matter.

It's like trying to get a colander afloat in the ocean.

Yeah. So any further questions for Mr. Giorgetti from council? OK. Hearing none, we can move to Northern Regional Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Watt.

Thank you. Our last meeting, the meeting minutes are in your packet. We had a meeting just last week, and there are activities that are being planned that will be announced later on in the year.

Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Well, any questions for Mr. Well? Council. Okay, at this time, I'd like to welcome any public comment on administration and finance.

Ellen Wright, 9635 Old Coomer Road, Allison Park, PA 15101. I apologize if I didn't take a good look in the agenda, but since June marked the halfway point for this year, is there a finance report showing how the town is doing against budget? I heard how it compared to 2025, but how is it doing against this year's budget? At the town council meeting in June, I needed to double check this, and I apologize for not doing that. Did I hear that there was a public notice published that the audit was complete? If that was the case, what was the date of the public notice so I can check that? In reviewing the audit that was filed in the court, the auditor makes these comments, and I'm going to read them out loud because I've read it multiple times myself. And then I'll share with you what I think it's saying. In our opinion, because of the significance of the matter discussed in the basis for adverse opinion on US generally accepted accounting principles section of our report, this schedule referred to above do not present fairly. I'm gonna say that again, do not present fairly in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. the financial position of the town as of December 31st, 2025 and the results of its operations for the year that then ended. So that I've read it multiple times. And is that saying that the town was not using generally accepted accounting principles and that the auditors were done unable to say what the position of the town's financial record was at the end of 2025. That's how I'm reading it. If that's not how it's if I'm reading it incorrectly, please let me know. Thank you. And I'm curious once again, why the Vice President Nick Giorgetti is abstaining for approving the check dispersal. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Is there anything we can reply, respond to at this time? That auditor's report, I think we clarified that at the last meeting.

Municipalities follow GASB standards, not GAAP standards. That is a standard auditing language that they use in the front of every letter that they give to anybody they audit, public or private sector.

Okay.

Thank you. It seemed pretty standard verbiage I've seen before myself. Thank you. Any further public comment on administration and finance? Thank you. Hearing none, we will move on to agenda item number seven, planning and zoning reports. Mr. Ennis, if you'd like to give us your report for the month of July, please.

Good evening, Council. To give an update for the Planning Commission, there's a number of items tabled at the July meeting that will be presented at the August 5th meeting. I do want to note that the Planning Commission meeting is on August 5th, which is a Wednesday, due to a conflict with National NARAP. Those items are the Wright Hyundai dealership combined preliminary and final line development, and the three combined preliminary and final line developments for Peebles, Hozek, and Inglemar School, as well as new requests for a lot line revision on the Brandel Lane plan, a preliminary and final line development for North Albany School District for the senior high school, and a discussion on the zoning ordinance amendment review. To give an update on the zoning hearing rule, there was a meeting on July 22nd that I was unable to attend. However, appeal 2062 was granted. I'm happy to discuss any questions.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Ennis from council? So are these, were these issues tabled for lack of information or were there still some questions from planning before they could?

It was all comments from engineering comments, just things they needed to address. Whatever you have combined preliminary and final, that's where you need to make sure that all engineering comments are addressed. So they just had some outstanding items that they'll respond to and then represent at the next meeting.

Very good, thank you. Okay, if there's no further questions, we'll move to liaison reports and then Planning Commission Miss Ault.

As you can hear from Matt's report, There is a lot going on with the Planning Commission. I would encourage members of the community, if they like, to attend these meetings. They're very informative. You can understand maybe the difference of preliminary plans versus other types of plans, understand what some of our ordinances mean, why they were developed, why they are put into place. If for no other reason, even if you don't have, let's say a dog in the fight, Um, the things with the schools, for example, very, very informative to find out what's going on in the community and find out what drives the decisions that are made. Why things are done the way they are done.

Thank you. So, any question from the council.

So, I mean, I was in attendance at the setting hearing board at the last meeting and the 1. As Matt had said, the one appeal, the one zoning appeal was approved unanimously, and that was for the general store, putting a pergola out in front of the general store at the corner of Ingmar and Babcock.

Thank you. I pass it almost every day. It's looking really good on that corner.

They're doing a really good job.

Any questions for Mr. Wall? Okay. Is there any public comment on planning and zoning?

Ellen Wright, 9635 Old Comer Road, Allison Park, PA 15101. I'm not sure why the revote on the Harmony plan. The July 23rd letter from the engineer. City Council Chambers, This multiple mount outstanding issues, including but not limited to that the plans are missing from the. City Council Chambers, pair issue there there's nothing for the engineer review, because the plans are missing the grading plan is missing. The DEP revised worksheets are missing. The slopes, the submitted modifications are incomplete and need to be revised. Looking at the code for modifications, it says that modifications are not to be granted if they're not in the public interest. And being here for multiple meetings and listening to multiple neighbors speak about the potential harm, It does not seem that approving the Harmony Plan is in the public interest. So as a resident of McCandless, I would urge you to table or to deny both the modification and the Harmony Road Plan. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Hi, good evening. Marcia Caliendo, 10529 Abbey. I don't have a dog in the fight about Harmony, but I do have a dog in the fight about the town. We have ordinances and zoning laws for a reason. I don't see why we should vote on allowing the change. It just makes no sense. And I don't have a dog in the fight. I hope you don't approve it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Is there any further public comment on planning and zoning? Okay, hearing none, we will move now to recreation reports from our Park and Recreation Director, Mr. Foster.

Good evening, everybody. Earlier this month on July 4th, we had our B-Day 5K. It was very hot, but very well attended. So thanks to members of council, volunteers, and staff who made that day possible. It was a lot of fun. We had over 100 racers show up that day. We had 116 registered. And we also had assistance through McCandless Franklin Park Ambulance Authority. They were on hand with, you know, some cooling chairs, some cooling towels and lots of ice water. So thanks to all involved. It was a wonderful day. Wonderful way to kick off the holiday. Caroline Ridge, our LGA intern, is concluding her time with us at the end of this week. So a special thank you to Caroline. She's been wonderful in completing our McCandless 175 scanning project that we did this summer, as well as other duties as assigned, including decorating the cake for the B-Day 5K. So she can add lots of random things to her resume after her time here with us. um mccandless adventure tickets will be available next week at national night out so i'm excited to bring that program back the last day for those tickets will be community day and then i'm hoping to organize rides to school in mid-october As was mentioned, the Harmony Brew is the new name for our special McCandless 175 beer with Illusion Brewing. We worked with them to create a logo, or excuse me, a graphic for the label that sort of encompasses everything that we are trying to achieve in brewing that special beer for this year. So that'll be exciting to see that in real life whenever that comes out in early September, I think. We were awarded a Main Street Allegheny event grant for $10,000 to support our McCandless Restaurant Week. We were awarded that last Friday. So we're excited to get that news and we'll be working with Diane and Liz and some other volunteers as well as our McCandless 175 Committee to get Restaurant Week up and running this year. So we are thankful for the support. The Heritage and Cultural Center is chugging along with our third Thursday lectures. They've been going very well in recent months, and we've got quite the lineup for the rest of the year through November. In August, we will have Scott Barrett come and talk about the 40th birthday of Ross Park Mall. After that we have Daylin McManus, a Allegheny County park ranger, talk about the history of North Park, as well as the North Hills Genealogy Group, and the last one in November will be the Nike Missile Sites. So registration for those programs is online. They are free, but they are limited in space, so if you're interested, sign up now. That's all I have.

Thank you. Thanks. Any questions for Ms. Kostick from Council? I'd like to congratulate you on the events so far for McCandless 175, and I'm glad the blue name that I voted for won. He didn't vote for it. But we're looking forward to, and congratulations on that grant. That's really exciting news to give that to. We've moved to liaison reports from the FDPC for the Heritage and Cultural Center, MSALT.

The activities at the Cultural Center are absolutely amazing and word is spreading throughout the community. Recognition from the Heinz History Center who helped with the appraisal fair that was held at the end of June could not speak highly enough about the volunteers at the center and the center itself. When you get an organization like the Heinz History Center amending the operation that you have in your community. That is an absolutely amazing thing. And it's something to be very proud of. The third Thursday lectures are filling up faster than anybody can think. We have a full house every single time. There's people wait listed. So if you want to learn about Ross Park Mall, Make sure you get signed up the other thing I wanted to mention. Oh, and people wanted to know with the appraisal fair. When are we doing it again? That's the every everybody every time we have an event. When are we doing it again? Or when's the next one? So, if you see something that you like on the website. make sure you sign up early because you might miss the chance to do it. People are already contacting Abby or when Abby contacts them about next year's lecture series, like absolutely we would love to come and talk to the people in your community. So well done, thank you.

Any questions from Council for Ms. Alton? And at this time is there any public comment on recreation? Hearing none, we will move on now to agenda number nine, town manager's report. Mr. Schwinn.

Manager's report is in your packet. Happy to answer any specific questions. A few highlights include the ad and the job description for the fire chief position will come out in August. So we hope to have that process completed before the end of the year. Finished our collective bargaining with our police friends. We should have a contract at the August 10th council meeting for council to consider. Second round interviews for DPW superintendent will be completed this week. And we re-advertise for the position of building code official also. In the world of finance, Brittany's working hard to switch over to the Tyler Technologies new software, leaving our old AccuFund behind. Her and her partner have been working rigorously to get the codes changed and corrected. It's almost time to start talking about the budget again. We'll be reaching out to council members in the upcoming month with any ideas you have for things that you'd like to see included in the 2027 budget. A question was asked about comparing you know, this year's numbers to prior years. You can see that on the revenues and expenditure sheets that are put out. But then the last column also shows the actual as a percent of budget for the year. Comparing that percent of budget for 26 compared to the percent of budget for 25 is a helpful tool because it shows if you're on track with where you are historically. So knowing where you are in relation to the budget is important, but it's also important to see it compared to where you've been in the past too. In the grant section of the report, I'll turn that over to Ms. Stringin for a moment so she can update you on all of our grant opportunities.

Thank you, Mr. Schwinn. Good evening, town council. As Mr. Schwinn just said, a brief update on our current grant work. Green Lake goes cycle 10. These are our adaptive signals in the Wexford Flats. This is Perry at Nash, Perry at North Meadows, and Perry at Richard. The design work has begun with trans associates. And we have a kickoff meeting in two weeks with PennDOT. So that project is moving right along. Another update for council tonight is the early school zone flasher. This is design work that's begun with trans associates as well. This is at NA Intermediate, McKnight Elementary, Perry and Hillview, Ingmar Elementary, Hozak Elementary, and Cumberland. And this work is to replace outdated signals and install new school zone signage. So this project is also moving right along. Moving into grants that we'll be applying for, CDBG opens in mid-August this year. We were not successful in receiving a grant for the Town Hall ADA restroom improvements. However, we'll be rolling that project into Devlin Park ADA improvements, as well as the town hall improvements. And we'll be applying for that through GEDTF, which is a county grant, which opens in mid-August. For CDBG, we'll be looking at potential curb ramp ADA upgrade projects, but we'll be working through that process. And then Main Street Matters is also opening at the end of August. We've applied for the Inglemore Road Street Skate Project previously. We'll repackage this project with some updates and be applying again this year for that work, but we'll be bringing those resolutions before Council as part of that approval process, and I'm happy to answer any questions about the grant work.

What is the main streets project that we applied for before? Is that from Highland?

Mr. Sean speak to that and this is for a planning grant. So it's not to actually do any work. This is to receive funding to have the planning. For a project in that area, so it includes the entire. Length of my road from the school down to the other side of the gas station, and then from Coons up the road also. It's not likely that it will be funded in my opinion, but we're going to try again. I think Katie has some new ideas on how we can improve what our request was from the past and hopefully it'll be looked upon favorably. So this is just to receive enough money to come up with a plan.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Just a few more highlights in the manager report. Thank you, Mr. Engine for that. I appreciate it. John Potter, zoning cleanup amendment is coming in near future so as we know, in 2023 there was a big. John Potter, You know zoning change a complete rewrite as we've lived through that there have been a few different things that we find need adjusted in order to make it either. John Potter, more realistic or more simplistic for residents to apply for simple permits and for certain types of development to happen and redevelopment I should say, especially in our business districts so. more to come from that on that uh soon but you know one thing we talk about zoning ordinances and they are put there for a reason but you know there's there's no code that can adequately address every piece of property in the town so that's why variances are something that people can apply for it's why modification requests are something that exists is because you know no no set of rules could apply perfectly to every property that we have here too so Combined with that, we're going to start talking about data center ordinances so that we can make sure that we're ahead of the game on that and protected if a data center would decide that McCandless should be its home. Solicitor and I have talked with council and started to talk amongst ourselves about revisions to the town charter. This is something that would have to be in a referendum. It would be in 2027, but there are pieces of language in there that are outdated. There are percentage requirements that no longer are necessarily adequate, and there's some advertising requirements that are maybe unnecessarily burdensome. So we're going to talk about town charter amendments coming in for next year, too. Last thing I want to highlight real quick. We made an administrative change at the beginning of the year to start live streaming the meetings. I think the live streaming of the meetings had been well received by people who are not able to attend in person. One thing that we do need to address, though, is the issues that we've had with recording the meetings in perpetuity and saving them for the public's viewing. So continuous storage issues have become a problem with our Zoom account and our YouTube channel. We've also seen residents had privacy concerns, which we took seriously, too, as we thought about this. You know, people state their name and address. It's out there in the public record forever. Some people may not be comfortable with that. And for these reasons, we are going to continue the live streaming. However, we're going to discontinue the archiving of recorded meetings on the youtube channel so we'll still record the meetings at the time of the meeting so that diane can use them for the purpose of creating the minutes the minutes are the living record that stay alive forever with the town they have to be kept in perpetuity and she'll be able to use those to make her minutes but once those minutes are reviewed and approved then they will not be stored any longer happy to answer any questions anybody who have about that also

Other than that, that's my report just to clarify. There was never any ordinance or laws or anything that said that these videos needed to be kept. Forever is that maybe Mr. Corbel could answer to that as well.

Yeah, that's correct. The state rules. Indicate that they should be kept as long as they're administratively relevant. And just like audio recordings of meetings. Um, the, the law around that is once the minutes are approved, those recordings can be discarded.

Thank you for clarifying.

Yeah, you're very welcome.

Okay, any questions from counsel for Mr. Okay, now that we have you, Mr, the town attorney's report, please.

Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for indulging me and allowing me to participate while traveling. Um. As always, my report was in the packet, and although I'm not present tonight, I'm happy to chat with anyone that has questions about its content. And that is the end of my report.

Thank you very much agenda item. Number 11 business, and there is no old business. So we will move on to number 12 new business. So I would like to welcome the switch. If you'd like to share with us your experiences here, McCandless.

Yes, hello good evening, thank you for allowing me up here to share a little bit about my experience this summer. So this summer I was the intern at McCandless through LGA local government academy and I had the opportunity to really work with our parks and recreation director Abby on the preservation and revitalization of local history within the McCandless and then also the surrounding North Hills region. So the bulk of my project consisted of scanning historical photos, a lot that dated back to the mid-1800s, which was really cool to see some of those old photos. I also scanned and uploaded some of the Old Town criers that we had, the calendars and the annual reports, and all those were added to the permanent collection. for the HCC to preserve that legacy as well. I also truly got to learn how local government worked and operated. So I got to meet with all of the internal departments of the town of McCandless. So that included the Department of Public Works, our police department. I got to tour all three of our volunteer fire departments, and I got to go down to Fireman's Pearl, which was really cool. And I also spent a lot of time within the zoning and planning department with Matt and helping with projects there. And then I also got to meet with some of our outside partnerships. So the ambulance authority, I got to go on a tour of the waste management facilities, which was very interesting and a lot of fun. And then I got to view the library. My favorite time during the town of McCandless was painting and decorating the giant birthday cake that Abby was mentioning. There were some pictures and there was a picture of me in the birthday cake, but you guys can just imagine what I looked like in it. I also got to create some promotional material for the appraisal fair and helped with some preliminary community day planning. um so overall i had a really good time this summer and i would really like to thank the town of mccandless and the staff within the town of mccandless you really welcomed me with open arms and didn't just push me aside and let me have real projects and got to truly learn how local government operated and worked so i thank you guys very much for that

Thank you, Miss Ridge. I'm really happy to hear you. You've got a good benefit from your experience here and hopefully you'll stay part of the community after this. Um, now we will move on to our next new business, which is action concerning the Harmony Manor plan. Um, would you like to start anything or maybe ask Mr. Ennis if there's anything to add here?

Yep, absolutely. I'll turn it over to Matt so that he can see. I believe we have the developer present who probably wants to make a presentation again, correct? Matt, if you need to add anything before we have them come up.

Yeah, I can just comment. The town is in the process of conducting a traffic study at the intersection adjacent to the development. Trans Associates is working on that, and I should have an update within the next few weeks on what the results of that are. As for the site, I believe the developer is going to clarify some information regarding this request and present so I can share it now.

Thank you, Ms. Hartman.

Hi, everyone. My name is Katrina Harmel. I'm a Scheffler and Company and we're the preparing engineer for this preliminary submission of the proposed residential development. Just to make a note that this proposed residential development meets the zoning requirements and also meets the land development and stormwater management requirements, except for the two and a half times depth ratio. We have a rendering to share with you today showing that the 12 lots with the change of the two and a half depth can still be achievable as well as the grading would remain generally the same of the property eight and a half acres approximately two acres is developed is undeveloped it will be the wet room part of the recreational open space that's open to the public and sidewalks are provided throughout the development the property lines that would be changed would be for lot three lot seven and lot eight uh lot seven and lot eight are at the rear of the property into the cul-de-sac you can see that the yellow lines actually are the two um are meeting the requirements for the land development showing that no modification is needed the reason why it was presented previously was because it did kind of fit the neighborhood having those slots a little bit bigger and it provided in that area specifically it's a little more rural it's a little more rolling and so it made sense to have Stapp, It a larger lot towards the rear of the lots and the density that is shown is is allowed for the ordinances, but I just wanted to present this again to show you that Stapp, Would still be a part of the development and no other modifications will be needed. We prefer to leave it the way it was because it's not providing a flag lot. scenario which is why the two and a half times depth was was added to the units we believe so this is what we're presenting today for lot three it literally was like a difference of 11 feet so it wasn't much of a change any questions so i have a question so if

If the plan rent rose to have these allowable lot sizes, what would happen to that land? That's not part of somebody's lot. Who's going to be caring for that? Etc. It would it would be you mean if it was in there like, if it right now with these new lines you have on, you know, I look at lot 3, you know, that 11 by. eight probably or 15 or whatever. Who's caring for that? Who's mowing that lawn back there? Who's taking care of that little spot?

Oh, you mean, oh, that would be onto the lot two, which is the original lot. Yeah, that would be dedicated to lot two.

And then what about the ones to my far left?

To the far left, which is lot seven and lot eight by the wetland and the pond, that would be open space.

And that would be owned by the HOA then?

Yes. Is that correct? It'd be owned? Yes. Owned by the HOA.

Thank you.

If I could ask Matt, or can you explain what the thought process was behind the ordinance? What were we trying to keep from happening?

Yeah, I can explain. I obviously wasn't here for the adoption of our ordinance, but to justify the reasoning for it is essentially to disallow very skinny and long lots that would have access lanes that wouldn't be characteristic to where a typical property would be. you know, whenever you think of like a flag lot, whenever the ordinance was adopted, flag lots weren't addressed. So that was something that was adopted this last year in 2025. This lot with ratio was to, you know, keep those skin lots and their chipper on from being permitted. And I think that's what the general justification was. I don't know if you have anything to add, Kelly.

That's exactly my thought as well. The goal of it is to prevent

Just a second, what Matt said, the intent of that is to avoid long and skinny lots as well as wide and narrow lots. It's to provide a more uniform lot shape and size. It's the goal of that, as Matt mentioned. The flag lots were addressed at a later time in the ordinance through a change to the code.

Thank you.

Thank you, Matt.

The purpose of that ratio was not for lots like this. It was for lots that were the flag lots. In a situation like this, you know, we see that this plan can comply if those yellow lines are changed. I think that Matt and I reviewed this and discussed, you know, the professional recommendation is that the plan in its original format has better consequences in the end than this would because you have these areas, you know, that are HOA maintained. We've had people draw concerns about, like, who's going to have to afford to pay for these HOA maintained spots. so you know we've reviewed this and uh you know feel that that we think that it's a fair request for that modification to be approved for the lobwood ratio

I'd like to expand on that to mention that whether the plan presented would have dedicated space on someone's lot of their own, that would be dedicated to being maintained by the HOA, or if it was two separate lots that meet the ordinance that are then owned by the HOA. If you have an easement over the top of the property that somebody owns, then in the future that person will have a little bit more stake to make sure that it's maintained. If you do split the lots into an HOA in 30 years from now, that's where I've seen in the past you know, HOAs that lapse and things like that. That's why, you know, whenever these type of developments come in, there are developer agreements that are put together that, you know, formulate the creation of an HOA, formulate the requirements for what that HOA must maintain in perpetuity, and things like that.

Do you have any further questions?

Could you explain the rationale between the Lot 3 change then? The 7 and 8 you explained pretty well. You brought up the border to make it more rectangular and to prevent this unowned bit of land. But if the change from 3 will just make it property of 2, why was that not the original?

City Council Chambers, And that is a, that is a good question, and the goal was just to provide a little more space for lot three in the rear of the lot that was to give them more of a backyard area provide more of a buffer.

John Potter, You tend to not want to draw a regular shaped lots also so you know I don't know if it's specifically highlighted in our code, but you know, to change that line. John Potter, You know, instead of having a four sided property of a five sided property now not the end of the world, it would comply, I think that the logic behind it in the beginning, my guess, and when we looked at it from the staff perspective was what looks reasonable and what's kind of a normal shaped lot so.

John Potter, you've seen the neighborhood. you've seen this plant in your opinion your professional opinion does this meet with the contour and does it meet with the character of the neighborhood now i know that's before you answer i know that that's kind of a trick question because some people say that this is part of the woodland road side of the neighborhood part says that it's part of the belcrest road neighborhood I want to know your professional opinion because that's why we hired you. Sure.

When you're talking about the development itself, the development of these properties are located in the RL district. That means that the RL district zoning standards apply to this plan. So anything that's in a different zoning district, even if it looks a little bit different, the zoning minimum and criteria for the RL district is what has to be applied whenever we're reviewing this from a legal standpoint. And that's why the recommendation is to approve the plan as submitted, because there are no zoning modifications City Council Chambers, The modifications come from the subdivision land development ordinance there's no requests for variance or anything along that lines that would require them to go to his own board and to put a case in that scenario and that's just not the case here. City Council Chambers, I know that there's been a number of comments regarding the character of the neighborhood and the size of the blocks across the street and I understand that. However, when it comes to zoning, we as, you know, farming professionals and under the municipality's planning code have to look at it as what the town has adopted with the zoning ordinances. And then 2023, this lot was, all these lots and lots adjacent to here that are along Bellcrest Place are in the RL zoning district. And so we have to apply those zoning standards.

Matt, does RL require single family homes?

Require it permits. Yes, it also permits two-family housing as well.

So just to follow up, in your opinion, your professional opinion, this plan is legal. This plan meets our zoning requirements and this plan is up to snuff.

Yeah, my professional opinion is that the town council should approve this plan preliminarily based on the The only differing portions of this plan are requests for modification, which the engineer has presented. And it's the opinion of the town engineer, town manager, planning director that the justification presented is in the attempt to meet what the ordinance has planned. And that's why our recommendation would be to approve this plan.

Okay, now for clarification. This is preliminary? Correct. We still have to address the engineers. We have to address them in an enumerated fashion, correct?

Yeah, so a preliminary plan is approving the, you know, the configuration and working through some of the engineering. As I stated in the last meeting, you know, typically during preliminary plans, not all of the engineering is completed until, you know, previous to a final. If you look at Gabriel Engineering's comment letter, you can turn to the last page and you can see there's a list of items that need to be completed, a cost estimate of site improvements, They also have to have agreements with the landowners regarding well testing, correct? No. They don't? I mean, that's not.

No, the answer to your question is no.

Okay. I'm just trying to get clarity. Okay. Well, thank you for that. I appreciate it. It makes my decision a little bit clearer.

And to try and imagine a very good job. One thing that I want to correct, you know, you asked him if it was his opinion and it really isn't his opinion. It's factual that this plan complies to the zoning district. You know that modification request is the thing that needs to be taken into consideration separate from that.

And let me clarify that he is designated professional engineer for us. He's not an engineer. He's our planner. Yes, he's our planner.

Correct.

And he is in charge of zoning. So I wanted to. We always talk about relying on our professionals here in the town, whether it be the police chief, whether it be our police officers, whether it be the DPW, whether it be our parks and recreation or our finance. I asked Matt the question based upon the fact that he was hired to do a job, and I wanted his opinion.

And his job is to know what the zoning laws are? Absolutely. And that's what he shared.

That's what I asked. I didn't, it was not meant to do anything other than to get clarity.

Any further questions or comments from Council?

I have another one. So we've heard a couple people, a couple residents bring up could you do it with 11 houses? And this revised plan makes me look at the big rectangle by seven and eight and say, well, couldn't that be one lot? Surely that is rectangular. And so what is the reason that that wasn't considered? And as I asked this question,

The original plan actually had 13 lots. It was originally submitted to the Planning Commission, had 13 lots. And it was discussed that, you know, as it was presented that it wasn't going to work with the engineering, wasn't going to work. That large center is a wetland. And there's wetlands that run back there and down Bellcrest Place and along the drive. And, you know, the ordinance is written to So there's a certain way that engineering has to occur to happen. And this is what is being presented by the applicant.

The most feasible way to do it is to split that back around the wetlands.

As they presented it.

I don't know how you can do that. I don't know how you can do that and get the lot size that you need. And I want to reiterate this. This is preliminary approval. It will be brought back in front of this Council for final approval, correct?

And the Planning Commission. So it has to go back to the Planning Commission and then the Council.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Any other questions?

You know what? I'm sorry. So what is the process here? If we give them preliminary approval, what are they going to do? Are they working with the engineer to?

We have to resubmit for final approval to this planning commission the same way our plan would be. It's just instead of being a combined preliminary and final, they go through a preliminary, and then they go through a final. they'll have to get you know updated engineering plans reviewed the engineer will have to review those plans to the satisfaction i'll have to put together a developer's agreement that you know the town will have to sign with the developer to sign we'll have to sign an operation and maintenance agreement for the stormwater to ensure that the HOA has ownership and that if the HOA ever failed to maintain that property in the future, that the town would have access to go and make correct changes and to charge that HOA for that service. And then all the other additional comments are included within Gateway's letter from July 23rd.

Mr. Hickerson, did you have a question? No.

I have one more thing for you. And Don and your team, this is up to you if you want to make any comments. Mr. Wall asked if you had to come to an agreement about anything related to well waters. And the answer is no, you don't have to. Did you want to present anything or discuss any? You heard the concerns of the residents at the last meeting about well water. Have you thought about this anymore? Have you come up with any ideas?

Well, we

Come on up, whoever's going to come up to the microphone. I think there was a reference from maybe a hydrologist that we've also reviewed and Kelly can comment on this too.

I'm with Moody and Associates and we looked at the hydrogeology out there and just did a mounting analysis to see what the stormwater design, how that could affect the aquifer. Um, and the mound will expand past. The distance, but it's not going to affect any outside lots. And then the with the water wells. The depths of the wells are a lot deeper than where the construction is going to be. Oh, geez. So yeah, we put together this report and found that there won't be any impacts.

Kelly, did you have a chance? Did anybody from gateway get a chance to review this report? And do we have any comments on behalf of the town?

Sure. So the latest report we received was more of an assessment of kind of the opinion that was formed from this. So there wasn't any technical material in there. We previously did receive the and review the technical material associated with the loading ratio of the stormwater, which was what was mentioned in the initial statement there. So we did review that and it did meet the requirements regarding that's a specific stormwater management ordinance requirement. So we'll make a few comments here on the well water testing. So as we've discussed before, unfortunately in PA, private wells are not regulated by the state and it's not regulated by the town of McCandless. However, the DEP does recommend that private well owners test their own well yearly. so every year the well should be tested there are parameters that are published that you are supposed to test for and send your tests to certified labs to show that you don't exceed those they're called maximum containment levels MCLs so what we would recommend which I know has been discussed previously would be to act in the best interest of the residents in relation to the section of the ordinance that we did about the Jennifer general health and welfare for the surrounding residents in the town would be to do a baseline test prior to any excavation work that is being completed for the adjacent and downstream well owners, and then completing a comparison result prior to project closeout. So once all earthwork operations are complete, but prior to the release of the contractor from the development agreement, And those would be the two primary tests that we would recommend be completed. I will say that the challenge associated with having the developer on the hook for testing in two years, five years, 10 years after construction is the link, is having a clear tie that the source and the impact is coming from the construction that was previously completed. I just wanted to point that out as well. That is kind of a great area that could be some challenging later on. But the clear recommendations that we would have from what we've reviewed, once again, it is not requirement from the state, but just for that best practice would be to do the baseline testing and then that post-testing to make sure that there are no changes that would be impactful or exceeding those MCL levels per the PADEP.

If any more questions, I want to make sure Council has the opportunity to share any further comments, questions. We've got all the professionals in the room.

Well, the one thing that I have, and Kelly, you said it right there, the requirements that the state put forth, I mean, it doesn't protect anybody. I'm concerned about the wealth. at 3, 5, and 7 years. And I've gone through this thing in my head 20 different ways. And I thought about, what if Mr. Pol hooked everybody in? The three people that were supposed to be impacted by this, he hooked them in to Westview Water. And then I heard people don't want that either. It's not easy. It's not an easy question to answer. Could be affected by the construction and their wells. I understand the hydrologist's report. I understand that the wells that would be impacted are below the construction area and not up on Belcrest Place, closer to Belcrest Road. I know the area extraordinarily well, having grown up there. My only concern about this, and it wouldn't hit me in preliminary approval, but it would certainly hit me in final approval if we can't come to some sort of mitigating agreement between the developer and those three landowners.

Come on up. Is it OK if I speak to this? Yes, please. Yes, OK. So I'll let Matt speak on this. But I wanted to bring the question is that when a water well is affected, it would occur immediate. And so testing 5, 10, so many years down the road is not necessarily going to provide you the information that you're looking for. and I can let him explain.

I'll ask you a question. Let's say that we have the baseline and a year later we have a problem with a well and it's attributable to the construction. Who's taking care of it?

I guess maybe attributable to the construction is something that is the key here.

You'd see that any impacts would happen during construction. like when you set yourself you're not testing until the ground's all well the the nature of it would be turbidity so your water would get cloudy baby and you might see something like that but it's really that's you only see that really in deeper excavations when you're excavating down to where um in the bedrock all goes So you would see, you know, you would see that right away. And once you constructed the site or claimed everything, all that would go away. I mean, you know about that. That's really the only way you have. Then I'll ask the question a different way.

If we do the baseline testing and then you do the testing during construction and you find that this is a problem, who's taking care of it? Is the private well owner or is it you guys?

yeah so yes so the developer part of the mitigation plan would be to you know provide a water source as far as drilling well because that would be replacing kind and kind and the new well would meet the the baseline guidelines or the baseline testing numbers that you had prior to correct i would think go ahead you'd want to go for uh just the drinking water standards

You're missing my point. You're missing my point. My point is, and I'm not doing this to be difficult. I'm just trying to get clarity here. If you have a baseline from a well today, and you have to drill a new well, you can talk about whatever drinking water standards you have, but you better make these people solid with at least with at least the numbers that you have from the first baseline. Some of these people probably have water that's better than average drinking water there. So my thing is, you get them back to where they were. You guarantee you're going to get them back to where they were. We can talk about lot lines. We can talk about how big these things are. We can talk about the way that the neighborhood views themselves. Okay. You know what? The job of this council, the number one job of this council is to make sure people are safe. So the two things in this development that I have issue with is number one, the traffic study. And guess what? That's gonna come. The second thing is you better give the well owners at least what they had before if you have to drill a new well. At least that's saving. I believe in safety in our constituents, first and foremost. That's why we put so much money in police, fire, ambulance. Public health is the biggest issue that we have. So we better give them at least what they had before.

Thank you. I mean, I think I think council shares the concern. Mr. Well, I know I do. That was 1 of my top concerns, knowing that the zoning did allow for this plan was the wells of the 3 residents. I know the little I know about wells. I know they change every day. The water quality changes every day after storms, et cetera, et cetera. I want to know what the recommendation is. I'm not sure if you've experienced this Mr. Ennis or Mr. Schwendt or Kelly, if this would become part of the developer's letter, how it would be so that it would be something that our residents and our council would be comfortable with having safe drinking water for our people is the priority.

Sure. As Kelly stated, the town doesn't have regulations for water wells. From the conversations that we had, Kelly provided what the best management practice um suggests um and i think that from you know what sheffield and mr paul have stated is that they'd be agreeable to have a you know pre-test baseline and then a post baseline uh test after and you know for me whenever a professional hydrologist comes and states that that is what the recommendation is um it's the same as i trust our engineers to you know stand by their statements as their professional engineers have to think that, you know, hydrologists giving their opinion and being reviewed by our engineers is, you know, doing the engineering work that's required whenever it comes to these wells. I think that in the developer's agreement that we would have at the very minimum what Gabriel is we're basically requiring. Even though it's outside the purview of what our ordinances and what our regulations are, the developer has essentially said that they have agreed to do that. And that's something that I'd like to put within that developer's agreement. And at the end of the day, if the developer's agreement doesn't match what the council's purview is on the development approval, that's what that would be voted on.

Thank you. I just want to make sure because, you know, 10 years down the road, this, this can't be something that the town becomes part of litigate, you know, litigation between 2 private parties.

Yeah, I think the important statement is that the hydrologist is saying that, you know. The one that could be effective is at the time of construction thereafter. So if you do a test before and you do a test after once everything's completed before the developer would turn over anything to the town, that would have to be screwed away and make sure that that test shows that there's no downstream effects. I mean, I'm not a professional when it comes to that. I'm not going to sit here and say what I am. I mean, that's just logic.

I get all that. But I understand we represent people. And the people in this crowd as well as me. Worry about what if. Okay, what if the worst case in there, don't you know this too? What if you deal with the worst case scenario and you deal with agreements based upon that. Okay, because that satisfies the landowners, it satisfies the developer and it satisfies the town. It's as simple as that.

I think given any letter, Gateway will make it very clear what it, maybe I don't want to speak for you, but what is expected based on recommendations from our hydro geologists, et cetera.

Sure. We can capture our recommendations in the next letter as we would want them to be passed through the rest of the process into the final land development approval and then subsequently into that developer's agreement. We can make sure to include that as kind of that record paper trail. Thank you.

And to the credit of the developer, as Matt pointed out, we don't have a code that requires any of this. So the fact that they're willing to do that is to their credit, I will say that.

Thank you. Any further questions or comments from council?

In lieu of any specific requirements and taking into consideration, like you said, that tests can fluctuate, The fact that long-term testing is inaccurate and that our constituents want more testing, the old adage of measure twice, cut once comes to mind. What about we take two tests before, two tests after, avoiding any sort of strange outlier, like you said, from fluctuation. There's more testing so people can feel more confident. We don't have to worry about long-term results not being applicable. As a layman, a thought. Are hydrologists agreeing? Yeah. That seems like a reasonable compromise.

OK. If there are no further questions or comments from council, can we have a motion to approve or deny modification request 1104.130 to allow the 2.5 times width. I kind of chopped that short, but somebody please read the full motion.

I'll make a motion.

Thank you.

Motion to approve a modification request from 1104.130B2 to allow the depth of a lot for single-family lots to 2.5 times its width at the front setback line as shown on the submitted plans.

I think we have a motion to move a second, please. Second. Thank you, Mr. Ciorciani. Any further questions, comments? Okay, hearing none, please respond by saying aye to approve the modification request at this time.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, motion passes unanimously. Okay, and do we have a motion to approve the preliminary plan, please?

Move to approve harmony mail plan preliminary preliminary subdivision and land development. Block a lot 943 dash G dash 172943 dash G dash 175943 dash G dash 224 and 943 dash G dash 239 subject to address all outstanding comments. In the town engineering memo dated June 17th, 2026, and all subsequent memos.

Thank you have a motion to have a 2nd, 2nd, thank you. Mr. Okay, any further questions comments.

I have 1 quick question. Sorry, Mr. I've been obliged your time. Passing a preliminary plan does not put shovels in the ground. Is that right?

Correct.

Thank you. And Mr, are there any questions from you?

No.

Okay, thank you. Okay. All in favor please respond by saying, aye aye. Any opposed motion carries. Thank you. Okay, and no further business we would like to open up to any public non agenda comments please.

1015 Woodland Road. The comments that I will make are two things. It's not just about the quality of the drinking water, but there has to be enough of it. So with wells, you not only need the drinking water to be the same quality, but they need to have enough water. So I think that it should have those. And since they're so confident, they should have no problems putting into their agreement that they will take care of any problems. If they're that confident, then that needs to be in that agreement, those two things. The other thing I'll comment about is they said, oh, it doesn't match the lots across the street. It doesn't even match the lots right beside it on either side, which those lots are several acres, and these are tiny, tiny. Apparently the rezoning in 2023 is the real problem. It shouldn't have been rezoned as if it was a part of a different neighborhood. So that was the problem, how they zoned it in 2023. However, two wrongs don't make a right. So make sure in the future that this doesn't happen to other property owners because Like I said, obviously the house next door can no longer sell their property for what they bought for it. They've been trying for over a year. This has greatly lowered their property value. We don't want that to happen to other people in the canvas. So you should probably put in some sort of a buffer. Even if you aren't doing the 50 foot one, make it 30 feet, make it make it 35 feet, something so that this doesn't happen to other constituents that you have because this is a real problem. This is part of our neighborhood. It is greatly changing our property values and it's going to change our taxes. The more houses and more kids it's going to change it. So it's it's hurting us and the fact that a lot of other communities have any new developments have to be half acre lots even acre lots for homes. These are all things that McCandless needs to look at. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Mike Haineroy, 375 Bellcross. And I know this is on the agenda, but this is really important to us. Thank you, Mr. Wall. Our water has been good since 1960. We have the most delicious water. People talk about our water. I'm telling you, they do. Mr. Paul keeps talking about his hydrologist. Could we hire a hydrologist? Would the township pay for that? I mean, it's just, I don't have a lot of faith in the hydrologist based on what he was saying. I'm kind of disappointed Mr. Schwinn that you quickly said, no, you're not expensive for our well water because it's not part of whatever. I think you are because we live in your township. You know, it's important. Our house would be worthless. We couldn't live there. You know, and if he doesn't agree to that, he's not, he should be working. secure his research by his hydrologist. He should be having no problem signing anything because for 50 years that water's been good. If it changes in three years, it has to be because of what he did. I'm just saying it's, you know, It's bad enough for losing paradise down there. Now we're going to lose, we have a chance. This week, no problem with him guaranteeing that. And he seems to think drilling afterwards and testing afterwards is enough. And you guys seem to think that. And I don't agree with that at all. You're wrong.

Thank you for your comments.

Hi, Chris Kennedy, 940 Woodland Road. The discussion tonight about the lot ratios I thought was interesting, and I wonder if something could be improved in the process of the modifications. When we finally saw the drawings with the yellow lines, we kind of understood what the, yeah, there was a way to solve it, but I think maybe the way they originally presented it might be a little better, but that's not my decision to make. So I think the communication and the process and helping the neighborhood understand what the modifications are and how it would impact the neighborhood would have been more helpful in this case. Thank you for your comment.

Ellen Wright, 9635 Old Coomber Road, Allison Park, PA 15101. I continue to be concerned about the uneven application of town ordinances, resolutions, and state code. Specifically, the same resolution that states that residents are to say their name and address says that prior to voting on an issue, that residents are to comment. So the last three comments we heard should have happened before the vote and not at the end here. because it's a violation of the ordinance. So we enforce one part of the ordinance and overlook another part of the ordinance. I continue to ask us to have a parliamentarian so that there's somebody on council making these comments and not me. Again, the Sunshine Act was violated when the Planning Commission voted on the modifications because none of those modifications were on the agenda. Let's see. I just can't read my, oh. And at the last meeting, Ms. Auld asked the town manager if it was mandatory for somebody to be present when something was approved, and the town manager said it was not. Both the application for the land and the code said that somebody is to be present so again i ask please may there be a parliamentarian on council who knows the codes and will address the codes so that things are evenly applied Council, you've been erased from the website. You're still listed, but at the organizational meeting, the town president said which council member was responsible as a liaison for which part. And I forget all the different categories. But the ones that you've been listed for, if you go to the town council web page, it lists the categories, but it does not list your names. You've been erased, which leads to the erasure of the media. um is there a cost for this for storage um and um if we're going to get rid of the media are we going to hire a transcriptionist to transcribe the meetings and it's also a violation of the comprehensive plan where you are to be communicating as much as possible with residents. So the media, the live stream is wonderful that that's happening, but to just get rid of the media altogether is problematic. And let's see. Can't read my writing. Oh, and you know what? It's listed that the vote was new business. You voted on it a month ago. How can it be new business? Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Hi, Marcia Caliendo, 10529 Abbey. I would like some clarification relative to not keeping the videos of these meetings. Mr. Schwendt, I know you talked about until the minutes are approved, which is generally two weeks after the meeting. Within that two weeks, will the public have access to the meeting? I think the public needs to know what has happened and that it's a fair request to make sure that if we can't live stream it, that I'd like to see it tomorrow or the next day. I think residents should have that ability to do that. If it truly is a financial need and we can no longer keep these meetings, Is there a compromise? Keep a month, keep six months, keep whatever. But at a minimum, keep online the previous meeting at a minimum until the minutes have been approved. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Nicole Jeffers at 9818 Brandt Avenue Extension. There was a comment made about, and I was just a little confused about what it meant, but about where the neighborhood's like, what is it going to be a part of? I think someone mentioned Bellcrest, someone mentioned Woodland, and I think Bellcrest is considered because of the zoning. I'm not even going to pretend to understand any of that, but visually it's going to be part of woodland in that neighborhood. The entrance comes out and onto into that neighborhood. You drive down Harmony. You're going to see all these new tiny locks. It's not a visual match, and I don't know if that really holds much weight, but that's just I think that's my biggest pushback. I don't understand the zoning. My well is not affected. I'm in that neighborhood. So the traffic is going to affect me. The safety is going to affect me. The noise, the lights, the visual of it all is what's going to affect a good portion of that neighborhood. And in my opinion, it's not going to be a match.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

I just wanted to make a point on the zoning and Matt over here. Matt did his job. Matt and everybody else did their job. The quantitative piece of his report was there. He did it. It was the zoning. It was in the low density zoning. Woodland is in the very low density zoning. So when you have an edge case scenario in his report on the front page, it says, what are the adjacent properties? Three out of the four were low. One was very low, edge case. So that's where the qualitative piece is everyone up here. We need to look at that and see. There's a lot of comments from everybody that when it comes down to this, like when this comes up, These edge case scenarios are they're going to bring up a lot of comments, a lot of questions, a lot of concerns, because that line was drawn in 2023 or whenever it was. But when you large development is occurring in the zone, it's already too late to even or maybe not. But it just when you have the line down there, you can see it's an edge case and it should be looked at. Like that, and I, I don't know how much of an effort would be actually just drive down all these roads that these zones are. There's a reason why we have this zone for very low, right? We have, it's assuming I'm not sure what the zoning is, but you looked around and said, it's very low and they left at that. But it's an edge case, and that's where you get all these concerns. Obviously, the well would be a different issue, but if there's less houses. Possibly less concerns for the well, and so that's just my, this is my 1st time really getting involved in anything like this. And that's what I'm seeing is these major edge cases. And I feel like that this could be something could be done for future throughout the cameras, looking at the roads and all these zonings. for when properties like this come up for sale that you wouldn't have issues like this from all the other residents.

Thank you for your comment. There's no further public comment on non-agenda items. Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Okay all in favor of adjournment?

Aye.

Okay, motion carries. We will move into executive session on legal matters. Thank you everyone and have a good evening.