The Lower Towamensing Township Zoning Hearing Board has more than a month to rule on a special exception sought by Getaway House Inc.

The company is seeking a change of use for a 190-acre property at 205 Stoney Brook Lane to create a campground with 77 cabins. The east side of Wintergreen Road would have 37 campsites and the west side would have 34 campsites. The Lower Towamensing Township ordinance requires a special exception hearing to operate a campground on property zoned residential.

Michael Malloy Jr., an attorney for the company, said the majority of the campsites will be 600 feet or more from the nearest house, and his clients are willing to plant additional vegetation to create a boundary between the campground and neighbors.

“It’s a quiet, subdued sort of environment for people,” Malloy said. “It’s about people coming and camping quietly, enjoying nature and respecting the neighbors.”

Getaway House senior project engineer Scott Levitt said, “Our creed is to create a space that lets people escape and commune with nature.”

The company went before the zoning hearing board on April 17. The board has 45 days to make a ruling.

The ordinance

The issue is in how some residents interpret the zoning ordinance.

Steve Meining, a Lower Towamensing Township resident and a member of the township’s planning commission, said he has a problem with this development falling under the term campground. He thinks it should be considered 77 short-term rental units.

The ordinance defines a campground as “a parcel of land upon which two or more campsites are located for commercial gain, established or maintained for occupancy by camping units of the general public as temporary living quarters for recreation, education or vacation purposes and where acceptable sanitary facilities are provided for each campsite or for the campground as a whole.”

The township ordinance defines a camping unit as “any tent, travel or camping trailer, truck camper, motor home, cabin or similar structure established or maintained and operated in a campground as temporary living quarters for recreation, education or vacation purposes. Meining said

Britannica defines campground as a place where people can put up a tent or park a camper with toilets and showers for campers to use.

“Now we already got testimony from these folks that the tiny houses proposed by Getaway House are owned by them, not the public and therefore, I feel this does not meet the definition of a campground as stated in our zoning ordinance,” Meining said.

The amendment to the zoning ordinance limits short-term rentals to residential properties in low-density residential district (R-1) and the village commercial district (V-C). Short-term rentals are not permitted in the rural conservation district (R-C) or any other zoning district in the township. About 80% of the township lies within the R-C district.

The short-term rental ordinance requires that the owner of the house pay $1,055 per house every year for a permit to operate a short-term rental house. For Getaway House, this would amount to $81,235 per year for 77 units.

National venture

Malloy said the company has 27 outpost campgrounds across the nation. Levitt said there are three styles of cabins that are built off-site and brought to the campground on wheels. One has a single queen sized bed for two people. Another has two queen sized beds placed in a bunk style for four people. And the third is a cabin made accessible to people with disabilities.

The cabins are placed on blocks and attached to a septic system and well water on campsites that are 80 feet long. The cabin sites are placed about 100 feet from each other, and include a small kitchen, bathroom and shower, pans, picnic table, Adirondack chairs, fire wood and fire pit.

The patrons are not allowed to have parties at their campsite, and additional recreation vehicles and tenants are not allowed.