Track Access Focus of Union Session
By Rebecca Vandermeulen, Reading Eagle, Pa.
May 2–Arguments regarding Louis J. Mascaro’s plan to build a racetrack and campground complex in Union Township focused mainly on whether an access route can be established on land owned by the Schuylkill River Heritage Area.
Mascaro wants to create four racetracks, 226 campsites and a car museum at the proposed Liberty Bell Motorsports Park on 668 acres he owns along Route 724 east of Birdsboro.
About 10 people attended a Union Township zoning meeting Monday at Daniel Boone High School, where lawyers argued the finer points of the Mascaro plan.
A controversial zoning hearing ended in January after stretching over five years.
Monday’s meeting gave opposing attorneys a chance to argue their cases before the zoning board, which will decide whether Mascaro can build.
After three hours, the session was continued until May 23 at 6 p.m. in the high school.
Mascaro’s lawyer, William F. Fox Jr., said Monday that the Schuylkill River preservation group wants to wait until the zoning board rules before deciding on whether to allow access through its property.
Fox said that Mascaro’s company, Ethan-Michael Inc., would agree to obtain that permission as a condition of the plan approval.
No one from the Schuylkill River organization attended Monday’s session, and the group’s executive director, Kurt D. Zwikl, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Attorney Josele Cleary, representing the township, said the access issue shouldn’t even be considered because Ethan-Michael Inc. doesn’t own the land and doesn’t have permission to use it.
"You don’t have a right to build a road over property that you do not own," Cleary said. "There’s no evidence that they even asked the (Schuylkill River Heritage Area) for their consent."
Fox argued that Mascaro’s proposal fits with Union’s agricultural-preservation zoning since much of the 668-acre property would remain as open space.
And township noise regulations would not apply to the Mascaro tract, Fox said, because it doesn’t touch a commercial or industrial parcel or fall anywhere near a residential zone.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Reading Eagle, Pa.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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