The Lower Towamensing Township Zoning Hearing Board met Tuesday night regarding a zoning appeal sought by the Carbon County Lion/Lioness Fair Association.

The hearing barely got started when it was apparent that it wasn't going to last long.Holly Heintzelman, the solicitor for the zoning hearing board, asked Robert Silliman, president of the Carbon County Fair Association, and Michael Muffley, an engineer with Hanover Engineering in Bartonsville, if they posted the property with notice of the hearing.Both men said they didn't know anything about a requirement to post the land with notices."There's nothing in the instruction sheet saying I have to post it," Silliman said.Duane Dellecker, zoning officer for Lower Towamensing Township, looked at the ordinance and the instruction sheet.He confirmed that the ordinance states the land must be posted at least one week before the zoning hearing, but the instruction sheet does not tell the appellant to post the land."We don't have proper posting," Heintzelman told the zoning hearing board."If there is an appeal, the court could throw (the zoning hearing board's decision) out."To go forward with the hearing would be "depriving the people of the right to be at the hearing," said zoning hearing board member Keith George.SubdivisionThe Carbon County Lion/Lioness Fair Association is seeking to subdivide 682.94 acres of land at 2645 Little Gap Road, Palmerton.The property is located on the south side of the railroad tracks running to the south of Little Gap Road.It is in a rural conservation zoning district, which requires a minimum lot width of 200 feet along the front lot line next to the street.The zoning ordinance also requires lots to abut a street in order to meet the design criteria within the state Subdivision and Land Division Ordinance.The fair association is seeking variances regarding these two requirements.None of the proposed lots meet the zoning requirement for the minimum lot width of road frontage. Dellecker said in a letter to the fair association that he could not approve the subdivision, because the zoning ordinance prohibits creating a lot that does not abut a street.When there is no road frontage, the property becomes land locked.Hanover Engineering said in the zoning hearing board appeal application that the fair has two legal easements across adjoining lands to access the parcels in question.The engineering firm also contends that the parcel and its two easements were created before the zoning ordinance went into effect.The firm said in the appeal that the access it currently has meets the definition of an access drive, which is not a driveway but instead "an improved travelway designed and constructed to provide for vehicular movement between a street and a tract or tracts of land" that do not have a single-family house on it.The access drive can serve up to three lots and still meet SALDO requirements.The access drives are at Stoney Ridge Materials and Ampal Inc. Stoney Ridge operates on land owned by the Horsehead Corp.That access drive is also used by the Environmental Protection Agency for environmental remediation activities on one of the fair's parcels and Horsehead land.The fair association is working on getting a Highway Occupancy Permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for the access drive on the northeast corner of Ampal's property.A temporary access was approved by PennDOT and construction on a road began earlier this year. This drive would provide access to Lot 3 in the proposed subdivision.The zoning hearing board checked to make sure that all certified mail cards that inform residents near the property were notified of the land subdivision plans. This step was met.A new hearing is scheduled at 7 p.m. Aug. 1.