Washington Township scraps planning commission, hires administrator

Washington Township officials are dissolving the township’s planning commission in favor of a planning administrator. 

The township supervisors last week approved an agreement with the Municipal Authority of Washington Township that effectively takes that action. Supervisors Chairman Rich Gardner said the authority must still approve the agreement under which both bodies share an employee.

Jennifer Bombalski, secretary and office manager for the authority, has been hired as a full-time employee working for both the township and the authority, Gardner said.

“It’s working out very good for the township and the authority,” he said. “Neither of us were in a situation where we could afford to hire an employee full time.”

While Bombalski remains secretary and office manager for the authority, she will become the township’s planning administrator overseeing the planning department, Gardner said.

Bombalski will take over the job of reviewing plans submitted for developments and checking them against ordinance requirements. She will then recommend approval or revision of the plans to the supervisors, just as the five-member planning commission did.

After working for the authority for 15 years, Gardner said reviewing plans is something familiar to Bombalski and supervisors are confident she can handle her new duties.

He said the authority and the township will share the cost of her full-time salary. The township will begin paying Bombalski a flat rate of $30,000 a year.

“We’re buying so much of her time,” Gardner said. “We’re estimating 25 hours a week for the authority and about 15 hours for the township.”

Township officials came up with the idea in January, Gardner said.

Solicitor Wes Long said other townships seem to be following this trend. In 2018, Fawn supervisors dissolved their township’s planning commission after a member abruptly resigned.

“It’s becoming a lot more efficient to have a planning department under a full-time administrator,” Long said.

Gardner said that instead of having to get five commissioners for a meeting once a month to review plans and having residents come before the board perhaps several times to iron out issues, the process will be easier.

“It will be a lot more serviceable for our residents because they know she will be in the authority office 40 hours per week,” he said. “This way, things can move along as slowly or as rapidly as (developers) want to move.”

Although the new arrangement actually went into practice at the start of February, it is expected to become official when the supervisors approve an amendment to the township’s land-use ordinance at the March 12 meeting, Gardner said.

There was no objection from the planning commission members, Gardner said.

“They actually thought it was a good idea,” he said.

Doug Murray, who served as chairman of the commission, said he thinks the agreement will be an overall positive change for community members.

“It might streamline things a bit for people to come in and figure out what they need,” Murray said.

Most of the citizens who appeared before the planning commission were property owners hoping to deviate from established township ordinances, Murray said. The planning commission’s role was to prepare the property owner to go before supervisors. The planning commission made recommendations to supervisors, Murray said, but supervisors had final authority.

In this way, Murray doesn’t believe eliminating the planning commission will have any effect on transparency.

“I hadn’t considered that,” Murray said. “I just think the majority of people that come before planning came with pretty straightforward requests and opposition would usually come up at the supervisors’ meeting.”