Two Newbury BZA Members Resign, Cite ‘Lack of Trust’ from Officials
Two longtime Newbury Township Board of Zoning Appeals members resigned Jan. 28, citing what they described as a lack of trust from township trustees.
Two longtime Newbury Township Board of Zoning Appeals members resigned Jan. 28, citing what they described as a lack of trust from township trustees.
“My time has come to retire from the zoning commission,” said Ed Deluliis in his letter of resignation.
Deluliis and Steve Boughner, who each served about 10 years on the BZA, recently submitted their resignations following comments Newbury Township Trustees made during a Jan. 21 trustees meeting.
“I’m not really impressed with our zoning commission,” said Trustee Greg Tropf Jan. 21.
Trustee Carly Sayre added, “I want to discuss more with the zoning board … about their level of interest and engagement and what their thoughts are moving forward because I’m just not happy with zoning either.”
Sayre said in a Feb. 13 interview, she believed the BZA rushed a decision Nov. 19 to amend zoning language to allow landscape business as a permitted use.
“When I was asking questions, a lot of people couldn’t answer my questions about why we were rushing to update the landscaping (amendment),” she said, adding trustees wanted “conditional use” at a minimum.
The amendment language was vague and needed more conditions, Sayre said.
Boughner said in a Feb. 13 interview that zoning recommendations are often rejected by trustees without explanation.
“I’ve been on the zoning commission for quite some time — 10-plus years — and it’s been a regular detail for them that anything that we submit … it’s just been routinely rejected,” he said.
The fact the township lacks a land use plan also makes it hard for BZA members to have a “blueprint for growth and development,” he said in his letter of resignation.
“There’s no land use plan, there’s no plan in Newbury for anything,” Boughner said. “It’s a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ every day.”
In his resignation letter, Boughner said the relationship between trustees and zoning officials had been injured.
“It is my opinion that the Newbury board of trustees cannot undo the irreparable damage that the untrue allegations have inflicted on the zoning commission, as well as the irreparable damage caused to the reputation of the Newbury Township Board of Zoning Commissioners,” Boughner wrote. “My hope is that residents in Newbury Township understand that the volunteers who work to support the ordered growth and wellbeing of Newbury Township and the township zoning resolution do so taking their roles and duties very seriously.”
Tropf said Feb. 13 the resignations come as township leadership changes.
“I think it just comes with — it’s a change of the guard,” Tropf said. “We have a new trustee (Sayre), the boards are being realigned and (it’s) just the way it happened.”
Trustees are seeking new zoning commission members, Tropf added.
“We have about five or six applicants for the new zoning commission that I’m really excited about because it’s people in the community that want to get involved,” Sayre said Feb. 13.
Deluliis did not respond to a request for further comment prior to press deadline.
