{"id":607,"date":"2012-03-07T10:46:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T15:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=607"},"modified":"2012-03-07T10:46:28","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T15:46:28","slug":"w-brandywine-residents-voice-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=607","title":{"rendered":"W. Brandywine residents voice concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ordinance on property inspection questioned as too invasive; supervisors agree to limit scope<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Jamie Richard<\/strong>, Staff Writer, CoatesvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>WEST BRANDYWINE \u2013 Residents spoke out in protest of a real estate ordinance at Thursday\u2019s board of supervisors meeting.<\/p>\n

The ordinance was brought to public attention at last month\u2019s board of supervisors meeting.\u00a0 As part of the International Property Maintenance Code, the ordinance has been on record for several years but has remained unenforced.\u00a0 Currently, the ordinance requires the township to conduct inspections on properties.<\/p>\n

Vice Chairman Thomas J. McCaffrey reiterated his position on the ordinance, stating that it was not the place of government to be involved in private business transactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is supposed to be here to do things that we can not do for ourselves,\u201d said McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

Residents agreed with McCaffrey, expressing concern that the ordinance was an overstepping of the township\u2019s boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat business is it of the township\u2019s?\u00a0 If someone is buying a home they get an inspection, that\u2019s on them,\u201d said resident Bonney Ruggeria.<\/p>\n

Former board supervisor Carl Lindborg attended the meeting and expressed his own concerns over the ordinance, which he had previously voted on not enforcing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bad omen when the township is considering getting into people\u2019s business when there\u2019s no reason and no benefit to them,\u201d said Lindborg.<\/p>\n

Board supervisor William E. Webb brought forth an amended draft of the ordinance that produced a specific list of items that must be met before sale, transfer or rental.\u00a0 The revised ordinance does include special exemptions for \u201cas-is\u201d sales and homes with an age of 150 years or more in hopes of making the ordinance less restrictive to sellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is actually a lot less restrictive than what West Brandywine currently has,\u201d said Webb.<\/p>\n

Residents, however, were unimpressed by the revisions.\u00a0 Many felt that, rather than revising, the ordinance should be completely repealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s setting a bad precedent.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want it, just get rid of it,\u201d said resident Sun Bowar.<\/p>\n

Township Manager Ronald A. Rambo Jr. reminded the audience that the township must still comply with the International Property Maintenance Code, specifically in relation to the use of sump pumps and sewer systems.<\/p>\n

After much debate, the board eventually decided to consider repealing the ordinance and to draft new ordinances that comply solely with the requirements outlined within the International Property Maintenance Code.<\/p>\n

Despite the charged debate in the room, residents felt optimistic about the board\u2019s decision, applauding their willingness to listen to and cooperate with residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people came here tonight to express their opinions, the board was flexible, I think we can leave here tonight feeling good about this,\u201d said Lindborg.<\/p>\n

The West Brandywine Board of Supervisors will hold their next meeting on Mar. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ordinance on property inspection questioned as too invasive; supervisors agree to limit scope By Jamie Richard, Staff Writer, CoatesvilleTimes.com WEST BRANDYWINE \u2013 Residents spoke out in protest of a real estate ordinance at Thursday\u2019s board of supervisors meeting. The ordinance was brought to public attention at last month\u2019s board of supervisors meeting.\u00a0 As part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[132,181,116],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-inspections","tag-township-supervisors","tag-west-brandywine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}