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Chester County Press

Franklin Supervisors OK winery conditional use for Fox Chase Farm

02/20/2017 01:00PM ● By J. Chambless

By John Chambless
Staff Writer

At their Feb. 15 meeting, the Franklin Township Board of Supervisors approved the conditional use application from the owners of Fox Chase Farm in the township, who are seeking to open a winery on their property.

Two Boys LLC and a local winery, 1723, are proposing a winery in the barn, which is not currently being used. The supervisors established one condition for waiving the land development requirement for the project – the applicant must remove some large pieces of concrete from the Geoghegan Trail and put down soil and seed as necessary. The motion passed unanimously.

Guy Swift, a two-time president of the Avondale Fire Company, presented some statistics to the board about fire and emergency services in the township. Avondale Fire Company covers about 10 percent of the township. Swift said that, out of thousands of fundraising letters the fire company sends out, only about a tenth get responses. Swift asked about Act 172, which allows townships to reduce taxes of active volunteers, and the board members said they were authorizing that ordinance to be advertised for passage in April.

Several residents in the Thompson Estates neighborhood discussed a neighbor, who had applied for a home occupation license to sell firearms on the internet. They have concerns about the number of visits to the home this would generate, and the amount of merchandise the homeowner would be able to keep in his house according to the ordinance. Township manager Joan McVaugh will discuss the situation with zoning officer Jeff Vogels, and the residents will be updated once their review is completed.

Resident Cyndi Yurkovich and her two boys, Nick and Eric, have volunteered to head the Great American Clean Up on Saturday, April 22, with a rain date of April 23. Yurkovich’s Brownie Girl Scout troop got the township involved in the clean-up six years ago. This year, the township will be sending out a hard copy township update to residents, and the event will be publicized in that issue. Yard signs will be placed, as well as Facebook postings, and the supervisors will make sure that homeowner associations are notified.

The board authorized the advertising of Ordinance 2017-02, which will provide 100 percent of the EIT and 20 percent of municipal real estate tax relief for residents who are active volunteers of fire companies and non-profit emergency medical services agencies. This ordinance will be enacted after a public hearing at the April 19 Board of Supervisors meeting.

For more information and updates, visit www.franklintownship.us.

To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, email [email protected].