Year: 2019

Job fair welcomes both parents and students at Columbia High School | Local News | lancasteronline.com

Columbia Borough School District hosted a job fair, Thursday evening February 28, 2019. Over 150 people took advantage of the program and networked with over 30 different employers to learn about potential job oppritunities.
MORE:

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/job-fair-welcomes-both-parents-and-students-at-columbia-high/article_51d88d30-3bce-11e9-8cd4-7b9602c29918.html

ULI/TAP to evaluate parcels at Hotel Locust/Hotel Columbia and vacant lot

The area being evaluated is anchored by the vacant Hotel Locust and Hotel Columbia buildings, which includes two adjacent underutilized parcels and a vacant lot next to a thriving antiques market. Columbia Borough leaders believe that a redevelopment effort at this location would serve as a catalyst for other redevelopment in the commercial core of this community.

Questions to be addressed by the TAP Panel:

1. What is the potential for infill mixed-use development that would both fulfill an identified market need and establish an anchor for the downtown commercial district?

2. What parking solutions are possible for a significant redevelopment project at this location in the center of the commercial district?

3. What partners and resources can the Borough leverage to make something happen at this site that has sat vacant and deteriorating?

MORE:

https://philadelphia.uli.org/news/now-recruiting-members-for-columbia-borough-tap/

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Columbia News, Views & Reviews previously reported HERE that the Lancaster County Land Bank (of which Columbia Borough is a member) in conjunction with the Columbia Economic Development Corporation was looking to acquire Hotel Locust/Hotel Columbia.

In addition, the relevant section of the minutes of the April 24, 2018 Lancaster County Land Bank Authority read as follows:

1) The Board approved a Resolution authorizing acquisition of 309-315 Locust Street, Columbia, subject to the terms of the Agreement with the Borough of Columbia and Columbia School District. Mr. Sternberg reviewed photos and details of the two properties, Hotel Locust and Hotel Columbia, in an onscreen presentation. 

Columbia Economic Development Company (CEDC) has requested the Land Bank Authority take ownership of the properties from CEDC for redevelopment, as they have been unsuccessful in their marketing efforts over past few years. 

Mr. Jim Eby, Board Chair, provided more insights on the buildings’ condition and potential. He noted that behind the facades, there did not seem to be any historic fabric of interest. He provided insights on the buildings adjacent to the two hotels. 

Finally, he said that in his opinion, it would be an appropriate project to pull into the Land Bank. He answered a question from Mr. Robinson regarding the nearby location of the earlier-mentioned building with the missing façade. 

The motion to approve was made by Mr. Robinson, second by Ms. Lyon Slaymaker, and unanimously carried. (A copy of said Resolution [Apr 18 #3] is attached hereto, 
and made a part hereof). 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of the Lancaster County Land Bank Authority that:

1. The Land Bank is hereby authorized to acquire 309-315 Locust Street, Columbia, PA;
2. Acquisition of this property will be contingent on Land Bank funding, and approval by the Borough of Columbia and the Columbia School District;
3. The Executive Director of the Land Bank is hereby authorized and directed to execute all documents on behalf of the Land Bank which may be necessary or desirable to further the intent of this Resolution.

A few months later, Columbia Borough Council voted not to approve the Land Bank deal.
TO BE CONTINUED

Recording, Roadbotics, and Ruffled Feathers at the February 26 Borough Council Meeting

In another step towards livestreaming, Borough Council recorded Tuesday’s meeting via a cell phone mounted on a small tripod and operated by the borough manager from her seat at the conference table. The tripod proved to be a more stable option than the suction cup used at the previous meeting when the phone fell from its perch above a window ledge and crashed to the floor 15 minutes into the meeting.

Columbia Borough has enlisted the aid of Roadbotics , a company that assesses road conditions via cell phone and special software. Previously, the assessments were done manually. The borough will use Roadbotics in a one-time contract at a cost of $5,000. The data gathered will be loaded into a program of the borough’s called CSDatum. A previous study was done manually about five years ago, and the borough has since based its road program on this data. Borough Manager Rebecca Denlinger said, “Now it’s time for us to get a new set of data on how the streets are – the conditions of the roads – so that we can put in place a new road program.”
Breakdown in decorum? An exchange between Jim McGinness and Councilman Cleon Berntheizel became a bit heated:

TO BE CONTINUED 

Columbia Life Network building sold, will be rebranded as IGNITE small business center

Pictured, left to right: Don Murphy (Cimarron Investments), Nelson Shertzer (new property owner), Adam Grim (Sparrow Websites Owner), and Justin Rule (Sparrow Websites Owner)


Longtime Lancaster County native, Nelson Shertzer, purchased the Columbia Life Network building, located at 336 Locust Street, with a vision to support Columbia Life Network’s longevity in the community and launch small business and entrepreneurs from downtown Columbia. The new building will be rebranded as the IGNITE Building this Spring.

On Wednesday, February 27, Cimarron Investments sold the property in downtown Columbia to now-owner, Nelson Shertzer. Shertzer’s purchase of the building comes in an effort to provide Columbia Life Network and its partner agencies in the space new opportunities to better serve the people of Columbia. The building will be managed by Columbia based web designer, Sparrow Websites, who will be the core tenant in the building as they expand their growing business.

The IGNITE Building will feature renovated offices and vacancies for new tenants and entrepreneurs and offer coworking spaces, shared conference rooms, and classroom space. Sparrow Websites is renovating the back end of the building to accommodate classroom areas for upcoming trainings and seminars on growing your small business online and digital branding.

New office spaces will be available for rent beginning April 1, 2019. If you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or nonprofit advocate interested in joining this exciting new small business community, visit www.ignitecolumbia.com for availability and more information, or contact Sparrow Websites at 717-537-1311.

Follow along with rebranding efforts of the IGNITE Building and announcements on the upcoming local reveal of the new space at www.ignitecolumbia.com and follow #IgniteColumbia on social media.

[Source: Press Release]

Goodbye Historic District, Hello Las Vegas strip – but who ok'd it?

The LED sign at St. Paul Episcopal Church on Locust Street

St. Paul Episcopal’s LED sign, a source of some recent controversy, is now mounted, wired, and ready to go, most likely on or about March 1, when the current printed calendar out front expires. The church is situated in the borough’s historic district, where such signs are typically a no-no, but the church has fallen back on an obscure law regarding religious land use to justify using the sign. Or has it? The trail of explanations is byzantine, and one can only speculate what is actually in play here.

According to an LNP article dated July 25, 2016, Columbia Borough Council, in a decision supporting the Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB), denied the church permission to install the LED sign:

Council denied a proposed LED-lighted sign at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 340 Locust St. Glenn Shaeffer, Historic Architectural Review Board chairman, asked that council create an amendment not allowing this type of sign in the future. 

“There are no other signs like this in the historic district and allowing it would open the door for others and have an impact on the historic nature of the district,” Shaeffer said. “The historic district should not look like the Las Vegas strip.” 

Council members Kelly Murphy and Cle Berntheizel removed themselves from the vote because they are members of the church. 

However, the church’s intent to go forward with the sign became apparent in October 2017, when it surfaced, mounted on a steel frame, in front of the church building but behind the traditional wooden, freestanding sign. The church was subsequently presented with a “stop work” order from the borough’s zoning enforcement officer Jeff Helm.

Shortly afterwards, the sign and stand were removed, only to resurface this past January – this time mounted to the historic stone and mortar of the church’s front face, using metal support strips secured by a series of large bolts. A posting about the sign on Columbia Spy’s Facebook page elicited these responses from Reverend J. Patrick Peters of St. Paul’s:

“Well. First – we had a permit from the Borough to install as we did. It was posted during installation. If anyone would like to see it – just let me know. Second – we agree that the wooden sign is atrocious but it was the best we could given the misinformation we received before the first installation over a year ago. Third – we have been part of this community for almost 170 years and will respect our neighbors. It would be helpful – out of respect – to confirm the accuracy of information before posting. A quick phone call could have made the Columbia Spy posting accurate.” 

“Columbia Spy the permit was signed by Jeff Helm you can ask him. My lawyer worked on this over the last year. Apparently an internally lit sign on the wall of a business is permitted under the zoning at the time of the permit application and thus does not need to go through anyone but the zoning officer. Freestanding internally lit signs were not permitted and that’s where we were misinformed a year ago. Jeff has all the information.”

When questioned about the sign issue at a council meeting earlier this year, borough officials seemed perplexed, but at the February 12, 2019 council meeting, Borough Manager Rebecca Denlinger said the sign is permissible based on a religious land use statute. Denlinger said the information should have been communicated to HARB via the zoning officer (Helm). “If it hasn’t, it should have been, and it will be if it wasn’t,” Denlinger said. (A HARB representative told Columbia Spy today that no such communication was received by the board.)

Regarding council’s decision to support HARB, Denlinger said, “I don’t think that they were aware that that’s what the church was going to come back – and what they did was that they came with their attorney weighing in, again with this religious land use act that said that borough was not able to deny the construction on that particular signage.” Denlinger explained that although council voted to support HARB, it did so in error, not knowing about the religious land use statute, “and so we had to reverse that decision, and we did that administratively.” An administrative reversal of a council decision seems peculiar because traditionally it would require a majority vote by council to reverse one of its decisions. In addition, HARB routinely bases its decisions on Secretary of Interior standards, bringing into question the assertion of an error.

Columbia News, Views & Reviews recently shined some light on the issue with a post that reads:

“St. Paul Church LED sign | Turns out the question about the inconsistent signage on the downtown church (reported by Columbia Spy here may have some legal standing under the “The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.” Meeting participants learned that last night as the borough manager said the church has argued it has special land use prerogatives under the act. “

The post contains a link to information on religious land use, which can be downloaded HERE. To the layman, however, the statute appears to offer scant support for allowing a church to install an LED sign.

According to HARB, the application that was originally reviewed and then denied by both HARB and Council was for a freestanding sign, and the church should have applied for the sign to be wall-mounted. Reportedly, this did not happen.

To summarize, the church chose to override a 2016 decision by HARB and borough council by mounting the sign on a metal stand in October 2017. The borough then posted a “stop work” order, and the sign and stand were removed. In January 2019, the sign was mounted to the church building’s exterior. Reverend Peters stated that the zoning officer had signed a permit allowing the sign to be wall-mounted, because borough ordinance restricts only freestanding internally lit signs. However, according to the borough manager, the justification for allowing the sign is based on a religious land use statute. In addition, the decision by HARB and Council was reversed “administratively,” an apparent break from proper protocol.

Furthermore, allowing the sign based on a religious land use statute may open the door to a grievance from the Haitian Maranatha Church on the next block down, which was prevented by borough officials from painting its building’s concrete trim blue last summer.

Police seek info on alleged shooting incident at 3rd & Chestnut – Victim treated and released

On 2/23/19 at approximately 12:33 a.m. an Officer from a neighboring jurisdiction stopped a vehicle on Rt. 30 just outside of Columbia and discovered a shooting victim inside the car.  The victim, an 18-year-old Columbia resident, sustained an apparent gunshot wound to the hand.  Immediately, officers performed first aid and requested an ambulance.  The victim was transported to a local hospital where he was treated for his injury and released.  The injury was not life threatening and the victim is expected to make a full recovery.  During the investigation, Columbia Borough Police officers received information that the incident occurred in the area of Third and Chestnut St. in Columbia.  It was reported that a group approached the victim and his companion while walking North on Third St. in the area of Chestnut St. at which time a shot was fired striking the victim.  Neither the victim nor the witness provided suspect descriptions.  The Columbia Borough Police Department is seeking assistance from the Community with this investigation.  Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Officer Bryan Keyser at 717/684-7735. Source:  Columbia Borough Police Department 

Sourced via CRIMEWATCH®: https://lancaster.crimewatchpa.com/columbiapd/10552/post/shooting-incident-02-23-19

https://lancaster.crimewatchpa.com/columbiapd/10552/post/shooting-incident-02-23-19