READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0A process that began in 2020 has reached its final step before Reading City Council considers an ordinance to accept the dedication of Kings Way and Queens Court in the Castlewood development.<\/p>\n
The Castlewood development was approved as a subdivision in 1989 when the intent was to have the two roads remain private and be maintained by the Castlewood Homeowner\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n
Council solicitor Michael Gombar said the association filed a petition with the city in 2020 asking that the roads be dedicated and maintained as a part of the city\u2019s system of streets and roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe matter was reviewed on numerous occasions by the city planning commission because it did require a revision to the actual subdivision plan to remove the streets from the private section and move them into the public section of the city road system,\u201d Gombar explained.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOn June 25th, 2024, the planning commission did approve the revised plan which removed the condition that the streets would be privately owned,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the conditions of approval was the execution of a stormwater management agreement by the property owners within the subdivision to accept responsibility for maintenance of the stormwater facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gombar said that was completed on May 26 of this year when the planning commission authorized execution of the stormwater management agreements with the property owners.<\/p>\n
A required public hearing is the final step before council can approve the dedication of the streets, he said.<\/p>\n
Castlewood is located off Glen Road, which council accepted for dedication in 2024.\u00a0Glen Road connects Hill Road with Mineral Spring Road.<\/p>\n
Both Councilmembers Raymond Baker and Donna Reed said they were not pleased that the planning staff was not present for the public hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my line of work, that is never acceptable not to show up to an evidentiary hearing,\u201d Baker said. \u201cBut I don’t think we should punish the people of Kings Way or Queens Court because planning didn’t show up to this hearing. This appears to be straightforward. They are taxpayers in our city and should have the same access to utilities and road resurfacing that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philip Rabena, a resident of the development and a member of the zoning hearing board, thanked council for getting the request to this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been a long road for all of us,\u201d Rabena said. \u201cThere had been things with Glen Road that you’ve been able to resolve, and there are things with us that we’ve been able to resolve. And now we’re fully part of the city, and we thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gombar said council will vote on the ordinance at either its July 13 or July 27 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0A process that began in 2020 has reached its final step before Reading City Council considers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100138,100141,2716,100140,1093,100139,39316,128,1095,130,129],"class_list":["post-231536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-castlewood","tag-castlewood-homeowners-association","tag-donna-reed","tag-kings-way-and-queens-court","tag-michael-gombar","tag-philip-rabena","tag-raymond-baker","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-council","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}