The Eldred Township supervisors addressed the heated topics of the Village Square plans and an overlay district at their meeting Wednesday night.

In October, the supervisors received a petition asking them to hire a professional landscape architect to design the Village Square in the area of the Old Stone Bridge.

Gary Hoffman, the chairman of the supervisors, thanked the 64 residents who signed the petition. He said that after talking with some of them, he thinks they didn’t have a clear understanding of all the project’s details.

Hoffman said the township already has an appointed engineering firm that is “totally qualified to design a plan including but not limited to a landscape architect for this project.” The township also has residents who can volunteer their time and are capable of assisting the township, he said.

“Not long ago, we recognized very quickly that we have talent that has blossomed from within our own Parks and Recreation Committee. We’ve seen numerous artist rendition drawings of what the Smale property could look like with not too much effort or money,” Hoffman said.

“We believe for us to ignore these talents and spend thousands of dollars to hire ‘professionals, including landscape architects’ would be a disservice to the residents, to the committee and certainly not be fiscally prudent.”

Hoffman said the township doesn’t know how many people would use the outdoor space and spending thousands of dollars on it “would not be responsible.”

The supervisors think the design presented to them so far “is an excellent option,” he said. The plan allows for the project to be done in stages, which provides time to secure funding. Plus, the current design can be accomplished by the township’s public works department.

“They too possess hidden skills and talents, and why not apply those to any project we can,” Hoffman said. “Ultimately, it saves us all money.”

The supervisors want the parks and recreation committee to come to a decision backed by a majority vote and present it to them as the final design plan, Hoffman said. Once the supervisors have adopted it and did “our due diligence,” then they will forward the plan to the township’s engineers for review.

As far as the overlay district, the supervisors tabled the idea indefinitely.

The idea for the overlay district came up as a presentation at one of the supervisors regular meetings.

It involved creating an overlay district from the municipal building on Kunkletown Road westward to about Kleintop Lane, and would be referred to as the village of Kunkletown.

The purpose was to prevent unwanted commercial development, such as a large box store, drive-thru restaurant, nightclubs, or billboard signs, in the area zoned commercial, but mostly populated with houses.

There area has about 70 residences, a few empty buildings, and two businesses.

“We believe the concept was done with honorable intentions, however, neither my two colleagues nor I have received any form of interest or positive feedback from residents who lie in the proposed area. That’s who we need to keep in the forefront on any such ideas,” Hoffman said.

The township has received some negative feedback from the residents who live there.

Hoffman said they tried to calm those concerned about it and reassured them that no action was taken on the matter, and that it was simply an idea presented at a public meeting.

Arlene Dunkleburger, a resident who lives in the proposed overlay district, addressed the type of development the overlay district was seeking to prevent.

“I have less than a quarter of an acre. Do you really think that I’m going to sell my house to somebody that’s going to put a drive-thru restaurant on less than a quarter of an acre property? This is ridiculous,” she said.

“I just think that there’s enough restrictions on our properties, and what we can do with them, than to do a zoning overlay. Maybe I don’t know enough about how it works, but this has been going on long enough. … Us as property owner, none of my neighbors are in favor of it. I can tell you that.”