In the News

When: East Lampeter Township Board of Supervisors meeting, Aug. 18. Supervisor Corey Meyer was absent.

What happened: Work will soon resume at The Shops at Rockvale after supervisors unanimously approved the project’s $120 million land development plan pending a stormwater agreement with the East Lampeter Sewer Authority.

Quotable: “We are expecting the (demolition) to continue as well as commencing site work for the 1st phase of 128 apartments right after Labor Day,” developer Jeffrey Fernbach wrote in an email after the meeting. “The agreement that we reached with the township is the final piece that was missing to allows us to undertake the entire development,” wrote Fernbach, president of New Jersey-based Fernmoor Homes, the private company turning the former Shops at Rockvale into a mixed-use development of residences and retail.

Background: Fernmoor notified the township June 16 it had halted work on the 65-acre project after executives learned that replacing faulty sewer pipes would cost the company an extra $3 million. Attorney Claudia Shank then asked the township for two financial concessions, which supervisors approved Aug. 4.

What changed: Supervisors voted to allow Fernmoor to use the $440,000 it owed to the township’s parks and recreation fund to pay for streetscape improvements. In addition, supervisors waived a traffic study in lieu of a $20,000 payment.

Quotable: “We are going forward full steam ahead,” Fernbach said in the email.

New zoning: Supervisors approved creating an integrated business campus zone after holding a public hearing.