Union Township supervisors debate the need for ordinance updates

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A meeting of Union Township supervisors on Feb. 11 included a discussion on ordinance updates regarding short-term rentals; non-commercial keeping of livestock and domestic fowl; fences, walls, and hedges; and parking and storage of unlicensed vehicles.

During township engineer Stephen Sherk’s planning commission report, he said the commission was looking for additional guidance regarding the ordinances before moving forward. He said they want to know whether they should pursue the ordinances and what supervisors wished to have included.

Supervisor Stephen Lum said he would have liked to stop the ordinances before they got to this point. Supervisors had examples of model ordinances from other municipalities to consider.

The draft ordinance for maintaining livestock, he said, has a “credit system” for how many of each type of animal residents can own, depending on how many acres the property is. 

“When I saw that, it’s like this should never even have come across our desk. We’re in a rural area,” Lum said. “My fear is we throw all this against the wall, and let’s see what sticks, and if it doesn’t stick, well, we have a few more things we can regulate our people. I joined [the board] to not allow this to happen.”

Township manager Brent McFeaters said the ordinances aren’t available for public viewing yet because they’re still very early in the process. He said they aren’t trying to target agricultural zoning areas, but are instead trying to regulate residential areas.

“We’re not saying you can’t have any, but it’s got to be within reason,” McFeaters said. “Our book was done in 2009. Back in 2009, the house pet was a cat and a dog. 2026, the house pet is a pig, a donkey, a goat, cat, dog, ducks — it’s just hard to say. We got to finesse it and massage it to what works best for our community.”

He said they’ve had issues with chickens running around other people’s properties, people feeding feral cats, and ducks raising ducklings in someone’s swimming pool. McFeaters said they aren’t seeing animal-related issues all throughout the township, but it’s a problem that “needs to be addressed.”

Lum has similar regulation-related concerns with the model ordinance regarding fences. He said it would require homeowners to get a permit if they want to put up a fence around a tree or around a garden.

McFeaters and Sherk said that isn’t the goal of the ordinance, and it can be adjusted to include only what township officials want. The main goal is to ensure fences aren’t going up on another person’s property or in the township road right-of-way.

“That’s where a lot of this is coming from is to try to eliminate the vaguary and the ambiguity,” Sherk said. “It’s not to clamp down or restrict people, necessarily. It’s just to make things crystal clear.”

Solicitor Paul Bametzreider said the township supervisors and planning commission can take the model ordinances from other municipalities and adapt them to their own needs. They don’t need to approve the ordinances as they are now.

Lum said township officials know where he stands on the ordinances, though he is one opinion out of three opinions on the board.

In other business, the supervisors:

• Accepted all time extensions outlined in the agenda.
• Awarded the 2026 paving projects to Pennsy Supply, the lowest bidder, for $356,067.35. The paving of Campmeeting Road and Greenpoint School Road should be done by Sept. 30.
• Ratified the snow emergency routes enacted for the January snowstorm.
• Donated $250 from the recreation fund to the Fourth of July parade to be held on July 3 in Union Township and Jonestown Borough.

The Union Township Board of Supervisors will have its next meeting at 3111 PA-72 on March 11 at 6:30 p.m.