The borough manager and council president have said that the proposed Station Project will be built no matter what. They say the process is proceeding normally. It is not. What is happening here is not normal, not right. Moreover, the construction of these buildings will destroy Gettysburg’s historic charm and integrity, it will create traffic gridlock, overwhelm our infrastructure and be incredibly damaging to tourism.
The borough manager and others in borough government have pressured HARB to not consider the size and mass of the proposed seven story building. At the last council meeting December 9, the council president claimed HARB has no right to review the size and mass of this high rise building because it is zoned to allow it. That is not true. HARB has the right, the duty, to review the size and mass using the HARB ordinance and federal design standards, regardless of the zoning ordinance. HARB then makes a recommendation to Council. Council can either act or override HARB’s decision. That is how the ordinance is written, how it’s supposed to work. Council was also supposed to consider the same design factors as HARB before voting to approve the project. There was none of that and public comment period was limited to 4 minutes instead of the usual 5 and to a total of 30 minutes. Then the council president and a council member both sarcastically mocked the presence of the citizens who packed the council chamber. It was an insult to all the people in that room and to every citizen in the borough. This too is not normal, not right.
We have been told several times by the HARB Chairman that HARB has worked on this plan for a year and a half when in fact the developer presented his concept plan just two times, July and September, prior to the vote in November. In fact, the final approved version dated October 1 was never presented to or reviewed by HARB. And at that same November HARB meeting after the vote was taken and public comment was closed and most citizens had left council chambers, the Chairman allowed further public comment by borough staff, a former council member and a HARB board member, including personally attacking and questioning the motives of citizens who are opposed to the project and who spoke that evening. None of this is normal and it’s not right.