Lower Southampton zoning records are in such disarray that it could be expensive to perform a deeper dive into department operations than a recent, two-year review that found “irregularities,” according to a township supervisor.
The township paid Keystone $5,000 to review a sample of subdivision and land development plan files and zoning permits following the February retirement of zoning officer Carol Drioli, who headed the department for 16 years. The supervisors stated at the time Drioli’s retirement presented an opportunity to verify compliance with state building codes and identify where improvements could be made.
Keystone randomly chose seven subdivision and land development applications and 19 zoning and building permit applications between 2015 and last year, and found many contained sloppy record-keeping, including the failure to keep all building, zoning and land development records associated with a property together. The consultant also said there were misplaced or missing land development plans, missing inspector signatures, missing inspection reports, missing permit applications and “numerous” projects improperly issued permits without going through the land development approval process, which adds time and expense to a project.
[Supervisor Kim Koutsouradis] said he’s concerned about the cost of further analysis, but he also wants to know if the mistakes revealed in the Keystone report are anomalies or represent a pattern that should be looked at further, and if the township could face any liability.
“A big fear of mine is we may not ever know exactly what the damage was done to the township financially. But I do feel we just can’t sit on our hands and do absolutely nothing about it. We owe it to our residents to at least look into this further than what we already have,” he said.
Township Solicitor Francis Dillon declined to comment on if the township could be held legally liable for any deficiencies in the zoning department property files.
“I will not answer your questions. I answer to my client,” Dillon said.
A half dozen residents last month called on the board to conduct a further review of previous zoning department records following a presentation on Keystone Municipal Services’ findings.
“Our fear is that while this exercise reviewed a sampling of applications there were many applications that were not reviewed that will contain similar irregularities,” Keystone Municipal President Richard O’Brien wrote in the report.
“Permits establish a record so a township knows what ... is going on,” [Herman Slaybaugh, co-chairman of the Pennsylvania Municipal Planning Education Institute] said. “If you can’t find out what you’ve done, that is pretty sloppy bookkeeping. The whole purpose of having permits is to verify a property was built in compliance. If you can’t index that and go back and find it, that was an exercise in futility.”
O’Brien told the board last month that the review didn’t find any “malfeasance.”
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