From the Scranton Times-Tribune Editorial Board—a great summary of this week's Dunmore Planning Commission meeting which was the saddest form of local governance one could see.
THE EDITORIAL BOARD / PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 8, 2019
A narrow majority of the Dunmore Planning Commission dutifully rolled over Thursday for a powerful private interest at the expense of the public good.
The borough’s zoning law exists to regulate development and protect residents’ property rights and values, and other elements of the public interest, including public health.
But by a 3-2 vote, the craven board majority recommended that the borough government alter its zoning law to suit the needs of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, which is owned by economically and politically powerfully borough resident Louis DeNaples.
The borough zoning law precludes structures over 50 feet high, but the landfill’s expansion plan calls for it to climb several times beyond that limit to accommodate more than 100 million more tons of mostly out-of-state garbage over the next 40 years.
Court precedent stands in way
State appellate courts already have ruled in a case involving a Mercer County landfill that landfills — complex, highly engineered facilities — are indeed structures for the purpose of zoning regulation. It will be difficult for Keystone to overcome that precedent in a case before the Commonwealth Court that has been brought by Dunmore residents who oppose the landfill expansion.
So the landfill has called an end run, relying on lap dog Dunmore politicians to alter the zoning law in its favor by specifically stating that landfills are not structures.
The planning commission’s decision to be the lead blockers on that end run is predictable yet shocking. It is an egregious, bald-faced abandonment of the public interest and the worst sort of special-interest pandering.
But it is just a recommendation. Dunmore Borough Council should find the spine to reject the recommendation or send its integrity to the landfill for permanent disposal.