Next Monday will be a local government holiday in Westmoreland County. As a result, the Planning Commission’s customary first Monday of the month meeting time is moved to Wednesday, Jan. 4. The session will begin as usual at 1:30 p.m. in A.T. Johnson auditorium and the first order of business will be election of the new calendar year’s Planning Commission Chairman and Vice Chair. Commission Clerk Robert Fink will preside over the meeting until the Commissioners officially

select the Chair.

A public hearing on Joe and Martha Salcetti’s request for a Chesapeake Bay Act Exception will immediately follow the organizational segment of the meeting. The Salcettis hope to demolish an existing 2,460 square foot structure and replace it with a 2,579 square foot dwelling in the Haulover Shores subdivision.

To offset encroachment within the Act’s 50-foot resource protection area, the applicants propose to plant 10 trees and install four 10.5-foot stormwater infiltration trenches.

The final portion of the Commission’s Jan. 4 meeting will focus on possible changes to the county’s wellhead radius regulations. Current language allows wells to be built on lots too small to accommodate wellhead radius setback requirements. There are instances in which a portion of one lot’s wellhead radius is permitted to encroach onto a neighboring property, despite that neighbor’s objections. Existing ordinance language in Westmoreland compels an unhappy neighbor to deliver proof the encroachment would render the impacted property unusable for its intended purpose. New language will be developed to at the very least diminish the burden the existing measures impose on a well lot’s neighbor.
Once new language is in place, a public hearing will be advertised. The Planning Commission will follow with a recommendation that the Supervisors accept or reject the proposed new language. A second public hearing on new language will be advertised when the question is directed to the Westmoreland County Board later in 2012.

Betsy Ficklin