North Huntingdon votes to table decision on housing project road

The Westmoreland County Housing Authority’s plan to build a 50-unit senior citizen apartment building in Irwin hit a snag this week when the North Huntingdon commissioners tabled a vote on approving the project’s 1,300 foot road intended to connect the site to a township street.

The commissioners voted 4-3 to table approval of the road to would connect Laurel Avenue to the proposed Grand View Senior Residences project. Commissioners Zachary Haigis, in whose ward the housing project would be built, was joined by Eric Gass, Jason Atwood and Virginia Stump in voting to table the matter until the May meeting, when they can get more information. Commissioners Rich Gray, Lyndsay Wengrzyn and Ronald Zona opposed delaying a vote.

Michael Washowich, housing authority executive director, could not be reached for comment. Erik Spiegel, director of architecture and engineering services for the housing authority, declined to comment. Spiegel was accompanied by an attorney for the housing authority.

All three commissioners who opposed tabling the vote said that if North Huntingdon doesn’t approve the site plan for the road, the county housing authority most certainly would appeal to Common Pleas court, costing the township legal fees.

Wengrzyn said she believed the authority had met all of the conditions needed for approval.

None of the commissioners who voted to table the project or residents who oppose the road said they were against housing for senior citizens, but questioned the location and the need to cut into a hillside to build it.

Brian Lust, a Deerfield Drive resident whose backyard could be impacted by the apartment building, said he feared the hillside would erode further when it is cut for the building. Lust said he has lost five feet from his backyard due to erosion caused by a drain pipe that gushes water during a storm.

“It’s just a nightmare in that area,” Lust said.

John Frydrych, a consulting engineer for the authority, said the slope would be cut on an angle that meets the township’s regulations. Grass would be planted on the hillside to mitigate erosion and all drain pipes on the hillside would be connected to a stormwater management system containing underground storage tanks to release the water at a slower rate than currently occurs at the site. Some trees also could be planted there, he said.