It is now up to a county judge to decide whether or not Hereford Township will be home to a 2,000-unit continuing care retirement community. 

                And Hereford officials said they hope the judge rules in their favor.

                The community, proposed by Radnor Development Company of Conshohoken, is planned for the K & K Clayton property on 99 acres at Kutztown Road and Route 100.  It is slated to include 15, five-story residential buildings, including a service building, activity building and common building. 

                It will also have 1,819 parking spaces to serve 1,650 independent living units and 412 assisted and skilled nursing units.

                Last month, Radnor filed for a curative amendment to Hereford’s zoning ordinance which designates the area as agricultural.  The property has been used for farming for the last 60 years, according to township records.

                Radnor’s attorney and majority owner, Paul Bucco, said Hereford’s zoning doesn’t allow for a continuing retirement community and is exclusionary.  They first brought up the subject of a curative amendment in June 2008.  

                Bucco argues that because the term “Continuing Care Retirement Community” isn’t in Hereford’s ordinance, the ordinance is invalid.

                Hereford officials contest the use would be suitable in the “mixed use” zone along the Route 29 corridor.  That zoning was designated in December 2008.  They officially ruled in opposition to the plan at their Dec. 15, 2009 meeting.

                “In my view, the township’s ordinances are not legally defective,” said Solicitor Gene Orlando of Orlando Law Offices of Reading.  Orlando said he couldn’t comment further on the case because it was currently in litigation.

                The crux of the township’s case is two-fold, as represented by Orlando and private counsel Terry Parish, also of Reading.  They contend the township’s zoning ordinance is not exclusionary, and does allow for high-density housing in another part of the township.

                Along that line, they also argue that according to several plans, including the Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Plan adopted with Washington Township and Bally Borough and the Berks County Comprehensive Plan, the zoning at the location should stay agricultural and be preserved. 

                Aside from that, the township contends that Radnor Development Company has no rights to file for a curative amendment because they aren’t the “equitable owner” of the property.

                According to an agreement of sale between Radnor and Kathleen Brey, corporate owner of K&K Clayton, the township argues Radnor’s rights to the property expired on August 27, 2009, 18 months after the expiration of the inspection period.  They are no longer the landowner, thus making their curative amendment challenge moot, officials said.

                Township officials contend the proposed plan would bring more traffic and increase Hereford’s population by 60-70 percent. 

                Expert witnesses for Radnor testified in September the development would require sewage treatment facilities to handle 175,000 gallons per day.  A water storage tank would also need to be installed.  The installation of additional infrastructure could also be necessary.

                In their written ruling from December, Hereford officials said Radnor’s proposal is “excessive, completely out of character with the rural nature of Hereford Township…and completely disproportionate in size and scope to the needs of the township and indeed the needs of Berks County.”

                Planning Commission member Karen Wright, also of the land preservation group the Lorax Foundation, noted that changing the zoning to allow for a particular use undermines the integrity of the township’s zoning, especially when there is no hardship and the zoning allows for the use elsewhere.

                “I think actually dealing with the infrastructure issues responsibly would be prohibitively costly to the developer and/or local taxpayers,” Wright noted. 

                She added that the character of the Butter Valley would also suffer with the construction of large-scale, high-density development.   

                “Our hope is that the Court of Common Pleas agrees that the Radnor case does not have any merit and we are confident that the township will prevail,” said Supervisors’ Chairman John Membrino of the case.