Lancaster Township residents will have the opportunity on Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM to gather at the Maple Grove Community Center to review and discuss a revised plan, along with two others.
Earlier plans to locate the fire house in Lancaster Community Park behind Planet Fitness had drawn neighborhood objections for consuming a large portion of the current playing fields, the private drive dividing the park in two, and for generating emergency traffic onto the residential Atkins Avenue.
The new version basically eliminates all three concerns:
- The fire house would be located to the frontage on Millersville Pike (Rt.999) adjoining Planet Fitness and across from Manor Shopping Center.
- The private drive from Atkins Avenue would be relocated to the western end of the park along the Manor House Apartment boundary and then take a 90 degree turn behind Planet fitness until it reaches the fire house. The new drive location both avoids dividing the park and intersects Atkins Avenue before traffic reaches the single family community served by the one-way residential street.
- Traffic using the private drive will be restricted to personnel traveling to the fire house and to returning emergency vehicles. Emergency vehicles will exit the site onto Millersville Pike. (Note on the sketch the drive through design of the fire house.)
The park area is subject to a hundred year lease from the School District of Lancaster, which would require SD of L approval for any new use.
Management of the 276 unit Manor House apartment complex cooperated with the township in preparing the latest plan and endorses its adoption.
