Setback

The Warwick Township Zoning Board on Monday night unanimously reaffirmed its approval for Mobil Oil Corp. to have its proposed service-station canopy encroach onto the frontyard setback from Almshouse Road. In October, the board gave its approval for a variance that put the canopy 31 feet from the legal right of way, instead of the required 50-foot setback. But plans by the state Department of Transportation to widen Almshouse Road within the next 12 years meant that the canopy would eventually be only 11 feet from the right of way. On Monday, the board stood by the approval it gave eight months ago. Mobil plans to build a self-service gas station with three pump islands and a Mobil Mini-Mart convenience store on the northeast corner of the intersection.

The Solebury Township Zoning Hearing Board on Tuesday delayed a decision on Frank Brower's request for a variance to allow construction of a swimming pool until June 28. Chairman Alex Frank said that he wanted the board to inspect Brower's property in Carversville before granting or denying the variance. Brower seeks the variance to build an in-ground pool in the back yard of his property at 6455 Fleecydale Rd. because the plans of contractor Raymond H. Hendrick call for a setback - from the end of the pool to a neighboring property - which doesn't meet with township standards.

After some deliberation, the Easttown Zoning Commission approved an application permitting construction of a 500-square-foot deck at the rear of William O'Hara Jr.'s house at 405 Rock Creek Circle in Berwyn. The application was submitted at a commission meeting Monday by contractor Charles Viola Jr. on behalf of O'Hara. Viola and O'Hara sought approval for the deck, which will also serve as an emergency exit from the house, after learning that three of the deck's four footings would extend 3 to 4 feet into the township's flood-plain setback, where building is prohibited.

East Brandywine Baptist Church has been asked to take its plans for two more buildings on its property along Route 322 to the township planning commission. The church had applied to the East Brandywine zoning hearing board for a variance to construct one building that would contain eight Sunday-school classrooms and a second building, a new fellowship hall, that would contain a gymnasium. The township's zoning ordinance requires a 40-foot setback from the lot line to the buildings, but the church's plans showed a backyard setback of only 22 feet.

Officials of the Foulkeways at Gwynedd have asked the Lower Gwynedd Township Zoning Hearing Board for a special exception to permit the construction of a building to house two swimming pools and an addition to an existing garage. At Wednesday's meeting, Donald L. Moon, executive director of the Society of Friends retirement community, outlined plans for the swimming pools to be used for physical therapy by the community's residents. The addition to the garage would be used to protect two 19-foot buses that belong to Foulkeways, which is located on Sumneytown Pike.

The Conshohocken Planning Commission was set to recommend approval of the eighth draft of a proposal to rezone 34 acres in the lower end of the borough for office and commercial use, but two developers who own the land turned up with last-minute revisions. At Thursday's commission meeting, Donald Pulver of Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corp. and Ray Weinmann of Meehan-Weinmann Inc. said that some of the language in the proposed ordinance was too restrictive. The developers have proposed building a 1.1-million-square-foot office complex on the industrial site.

A firm that has been trying for five years to open an adult bookstore in Monroe faced another setback last week, but a company shareholder and attorney say they are not giving up. The Monroe Planning Board on Thursday denied requests from Brighton Enterprises Inc. for site-plan approval and zoning variances. The 7-1 vote temporarily halts the plan to open an "adult entertainment center" on the Black Horse Pike in Cecil. The Philadelphia-based firm had asked the board to approve variances to use loose stones for the driveway and to have a front-yard setback of 70.5 feet.

The Media Borough Planning Commission has rejected preliminary plans to convert two Media properties that currently do not meet borough codes into apartment buildings and offices. The property at 15 E. Second St. is owned by Evan Segal and the property at 422 N. Orange St. is owned by Warren Breckenridge and Jim Dalton. Bob Linn and Robert Blair of Building Techniques, a Media-based architectural firm, presented plans Tuesday night for the Segal property. Under their plan, the top floor of the building would be converted into a two-bedroom apartment, while the other two floors would be changed into professional offices.

The Warminster Township Zoning Hearing Board has granted a request by psychologist Robert J. Berchick to build a single-family home and office at Street Road and School House Lane. In approving an exception and a front-yard variance at a meeting Wednesday night, the board stipulated that Berchick must build at least 50 feet from the curb line and 40 feet from the School House Lane right-of-way. Berchick, who plans to move to Warminster from Bensalem, said the entrance to his office would face Street Road and the entrance to his home would face School House Lane.

After three years of marathon zoning board meetings, municipal court appearances and record fines, Niagara Pools Inc. and Voorhees Township are close to resolving a dispute over the company's site plan. "We've been getting together so much, we're going to be like family soon," Zoning Board Chairman George Murphy said at the close of a four-hour meeting on Thursday. At the meeting, the board tabled the swimming pool company's application to allow Niagara Pools to fine-tune the current plan.