CRANBERRY TWP — Several residents offered sharp criticism regarding the plan for a potential residential development along Freedom Road during a planning advisory commission meeting Tuesday, Sept. 3.

The commission listened to a presentation from the president of JMS Engineering, John Schleicher, who has taken over the engineering reins of the Summerwind Townhome Development, which would see 65 new townhouse units on about 7 acres.

Commission members raised issues regarding the height and number of floors for each structure. The maximum number of floors permitted is three, however, the presentation detailed that several of those townhouses would be four floors.

“The height is OK, but there’s supposed to be only three floors and they have four, which is a problem,” said chairman James Colella.

One of the main concerns residents raised was the ongoing stormwater problems in the area that already are affecting their properties.

“Stormwater is definitely No. 1,” said Doug Bell, a resident who owns property on Greenwood Drive Extension, which runs south along the proposed development. “The volume of water precipitation has increased every year, and it’s not going to go away. The space would actually really be better used as green space.”

Since each townhouse would come with a two-car garage, residents also were concerned with how the township plans to manage the flow of traffic in the area.

“Flooding is a huge thing, but others brought up the traffic issue,” said resident Vince Merlina, who lives just east of where the townhouses would be built. “I consistently call the cops because of speeders and people cutting through my plan. I was told they do not have the manpower to monitor that. So you’re going to build another 65 homes?”

Merlina said he plans to start an online petition to oppose the residential development’s current plans.

Commission members said they will continue to discuss the issue over the coming months once the plan is reworked to address the issues at hand.

“They (the developers and engineers) have to go back and sharpen their pencils,” added Colella. “We said we’ll continue this when they’re ready to talk to staff and to revise some of this stuff. They’ll bring it back. We’ll have another hearing, and then we’ll see whether or not we want to proceed.”