The site of the proposed housing development in Hughesville and Wolf Township. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Although still in its preliminary stages, developers presented the Lycoming County Planning Commission a glimpse of a proposed housing development in the Wolf Township/Hughesville area, which, when built, will help alleviate the county’s housing shortage.

The developers, ILK Family LLC, had obtained a housing initiative grant agreement with the county for a two-phase project with $500,000 for each phase. Housing initiative monies are used for properties that offer fair market housing.

The preliminary draft, which was introduced at this month’s meeting, features 130 separate dwelling units including 80 townhomes, 24 duplexes and 26 single family dwellings northwest of Bodine Park in Hughesville.

The reason that it ended up on the planning commission’s agenda was because it is in the two municipalities.

“We do subdivision reviews for Hughesville Borough, and a portion of it is in Hughesville Borough. The majority is in Wolf Township,” said Shannon Rossman, director of planning and community development.

“The planning commission will have to determine if they want to do a full review of the portion that’s in the borough, or if they want to do just the non-regulatory review and let Wolf Township handle all the regulatory items,” Rossman explained.

Either way, the project has to meet all the ordinance requirements, she noted.

The portion that is in Hughesville contains one of the stormwater management basins and portions of single family dwellings. The majority of the development is in Wolf Township.

Both Rossman and Mark Haas, development services supervisor with the county’s Planning and Community Development department, cautioned that the plans that the developer presented were a concept and that it could be months before the commission will see a preliminary plan.

ILK is projecting that they will be formally submitting something to Wolf Township in March, Haas said.

Initially the developer had approached the county because of the Housing Initiative agreement.

“(They) showed us a concept plan which looks like a very nice development. They did that agreement. Now they’re working through all the background that they have to do to create a preliminary plan” to submit, Rossman said.

The preliminary plan basically shows what is going to be proposed in the stages of development, Haas said.

“This is going to be coming in as a preliminary. This will be open for comments from the public, comments from the municipalities, okay, and the two Planning Commission boards,” Haas said. “This development is what’s called a development of regional significance, according to the Pennsylvania MPC,” he added.

The Municipal Planning Code (MPC) governs all planning in the state. It is “the enabling legislation that allows us to have subdivision land development regulations, zoning regulations,” Rossman said.

“If we have them, we have to follow certain guidelines,” she added.

A development of regional significance is a development that will affect more than one municipality, as far as safety, welfare, health and morals.

“The biggest thing is that it affects more than one municipality,”Haas said.

He noted the various streets and highways both in the borough and in the township and how they will be affected by the development.

“The preliminary plan will have all that information. It will have where are they connecting to water? Where are they connecting to the public sewer? What’s the mathematical analysis for the storm water basin – the size needed, the location, elevations. They’ll have to have their HOP (Highway Occupancy Permit), submitted to PennDOT, and they’ll have to be in the process of that,” Rossman said.

“All that stuff has to be looked at. They’ll have to have, (that) we’re proposing these types of dwelling units and how does that work with the zoning ordinance, the density and all that kind of stuff. They have to have that all set out in their preliminary plan, and then the township and the county and the borough will evaluate that all,” she said.

Addressing the county’s shortage of housing has been a topic for the past few years and this project is larger than most.

“It’s one of the larger ones. Most of the housing developments that we see are usually in the five to ten range. This is right up there with a larger housing development for the area,” Rossman said.

“It is in one of our growth areas because of access to sew, and water – the infrastructure is there. It just has to be appropriately designed to fit in with the area,” she added.