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Franklin Twp. tables fishing camp approval

The final hurdle for a proposed fishing camp on a 100-acre property in Franklin Township remains under review.

Township supervisors on a 2-0 vote Tuesday tabled final approval to the Fazenda Fishing Camp Land Development Plan at the former Kriss Pines site, 460 Forest St.

All comments and outside agencies requirements were completed.

Last December, supervisors gave conditional plan approval to the plan based on all comments being addressed from Carbon Engineering and from all outside agencies.

The owner/developer, Crazy Trout LLC, plans to develop an area of the 100-acre parcel for a private (members only) fishing camp.

According to the plans submitted to the township, the camp would be limited to 50 members and employ five people.

The development would consist of a lodge (with kitchen facilities and bar) and 10 private cabins.

The existing office, fishing ponds and other outbuilding are to remain.

The existing building (old Klecka Store and office) would be utilized as the office.

The complex would utilize a private well and on-lot septic system.

There would be existing parking and additional parking to accommodate 50 guests and five employees, as the plan states 55 parking spaces.

Joe Craig, the builder of the lodge, said there would be no guests, and that it would be a members-only club in which they would have to pay an initiation fee.

Craig said the developers are from Philadelphia, and are of Ukrainian descent.

Resident Thomas Lawler, of Mill Run Drive in the Sawmill Run Development, discussed the project with the board last December.

Lawler said at that time descriptions of the cabins had changed, and that plans now call for up to two bedrooms and a loft, meaning double or triple occupancy, and added at no times has there been any answer as to how many guests will be allowed with the 50 members.

Lawler said that representatives of the fish camp said they would have their own security and would try their best to adhere to a respectful quite time starting at 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and 11 p.m. on weekends.

Lawler said that code enforcement ”is a great concern as well.”

Lawler said that if, indeed, the private membership will cost between $10,000 to $15,000 each per 50 members how much will the township, county, even state, receive in taxation.

James Bestider, who lives in Sawmill Run, thanked the owners of the property who invited them to tour the site and see the layout and blueprints.

Bestider then asked the board why the township doesn’t have a noise ordinance.

Board Chairman Fred Kemmerer Jr. said at that time the township’s police department feels “that right now what’s in place is sufficient.”