A proposed housing development in Franklin Township needs a lot more work before plans could be approved, Carbon County officials said.

On Tuesday, the county planning commission reviewed a major subdivision plan from Cedar Realty Investment LLC for the Market Hill Estates, located at the intersection of Market Street and Long Run Road.

The plans call for creating 18 lots on 6.7935 acres, with one of those lots designated for a stormwater detention basin, while the other lots would be for single-family houses. The area of the proposed subdivision is in a zoned residential district.

Ivan O. Meixell, county planner, reviewed the plans, noting that the application previously came before the board in 2007 and received a conditional preliminary plan approval pending the mitigation of several plan discrepancies required by the township’s Subdivision and Land Development Ordinances that had been effect at that time.

“To date, the Carbon County Planning Commission has not received and reviewed a revised preliminary plan nor received any documentation from the applicant or his engineer confirming preliminary plan approval by the Franklin Township Board of Supervisors,” Meixell noted in his review, adding that because of this, the commission was now reviewing the plans per the new township SALDO adopted on Feb. 20, 2024.

The reviewed outlined 69 deficiencies that must be addressed before the plans can move forward, including a highway occupancy permit being secured; several sewage disposal, stormwater and soil erosion plans; providing site concept and site analysis plans and rights of way and connections for water.

The commission wrote that “in reviewing the above major subdivision plan, (it) believes we found several major areas of non-conformance with the Franklin Township Land Development Ordinance that precludes any recommendation for approval of this subdivision plan at this time as submitted for our review. We also noted that this subdivision plan as proposed will require reviews/approvals and permitting by county and state agencies.”

The review will now be sent to the Franklin Township supervisors, planning commission, the applicant and surveyor/engineer to be included in further discussion.

“If the above noted comments cannot be adequately addressed or adequately mitigated before preliminary plan approval, we recommend plan rejection of the project as proposed,” the planning commission concluded.

Other reviews

The county planning commission also reviewed two additional proposed subdivision/lot line revisions.

• Karen A. Arner and the late Arthur L. Arner received conditional plan approval for a proposed subdivision at 116 Sawmill Road, Franklin Township. The plans call for subdividing one of two lots and combining one of those new lots with another lot to create a 1.6802-acre lot.

• Cara Lynn Serfass received conditional plan approval for a proposed minor subdivision at 376 Wagner St., Franklin Township. The plans call for subdividing one of two lots and combining one of those new lots with another lot to create a 5.39-acre lot.