The Greenwich Township Planning Commission in northeast Pennsylvania is discussing how best to tackle the problem of people living year-round at two of the township’s four campgrounds.
“We’ve received complaints about school buses stopping there for several years but have lacked a policy of enforcement,” Chairman Herbert K. Schick told the Reading Eagle on Monday (July 29).
According to Alice Flyte, secretary-treasurer, the new residents are living in RVs at Pine Hill Campground along Old Route 22 and Robin Hill Campground on Robin Hill Road, but not at Blue Rocks off Soucley Road or at Dutch Mill on Saucony Road.
Township Engineer Dennis J. Smaglinski of Technicon Enterprises Inc. II of Morgantown said the township needs to clearly specify that campgrounds are open year-round for transient campers but not for any kind of permanent residency.
Smaglinski handed out draft copies of an updated zoning ordinance for the board to study and suggested the updated ordinance could close the campgrounds from Nov. 1 to March 31. But he said he doesn’t think it fair to just slap a new policy down on campground operators.
“We need to talk to the operators and have them work with the municipality,” he added.
Commission member Oscar E. Kleinsmith said he wants to look at the state’s camping law for possible direction.
“Till now we haven’t had any way to control this, but it must be done,” Hoppes said.
