We, the undersigned, as taxpayers, property owners, business owners, hunters, conservationists, environmental stewards, residents of White Valley, the Municipality of Murrysville and adjacent neighborhoods and communities, formally register our opposition to any and all developments being proposed for construction in White Valley, including, but not limited to: the large-scale rental apartment complex that Redstone Co. intends to shoehorn into a steep hillside situated between Westmoreland Farms and Pedora Park; the large assisted living facility proposed to be sandwiched between the power substation, Lindsey Lane and Utah Court; the large gas station proposed to be built off Manor Road.
Our opposition is based upon our collective desire to preserve: the rural character of our community (which is based on a harmonious, ecologically friendly balance of limited human population to the land, permanent housing and commercial development) that has existed for more than 100 years; safe roads and a safe living environment for our families; a vital habitat for wildlife; important progress made in environmental protection efforts for waterways and wetlands. We believe that:
THESE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENTS RUN CONTRARY TO DECADES OF ACCEPTED LOCAL GOVERNANCE; Franklin Township and its successor organization, the Municipality of Murrysville, was conceived and governed through prescient ordinances as a long-term, family living environment – one founded upon home ownership and a place in which people could sink roots, raise families and retire in relative peace and quiet – not as a rental community for transients, a location for a large hospital-style campus or multiple gas stations ala Breezewood, Pa.
THESE DEVELOPMENTS ARE BOTH IMPRACTICAL AND UNSAFE FROM AN ENVIRONMENTAL AND CONSTRUCTION PERSPECTIVE given extensive coal mining activity which took place under this land in the last century.
EACH OF THESE DEVELOPMENTS IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN; the installation of countless acres of paved asphalt and concrete on high ground will deliver deluges of storm water runoff into Turtle Creek, inundate our sewage system which is already operating at max capacity, negate the flood protection afforded communities downstream through the new, $13 million dollar Export flood control project and jeopardize the planned mine acid water treatment facility on Borland Farm Rd. These proposed developments will further ruin our living space with unwanted light and noise pollution.
THE ADDITION OF A GIANT APARTMENT COMPLEX, LARGE MEDICAL CAMPUS AND SPRAWLING FUEL STATION IN THIS TINY AREA WILL CREATE A CATASTROPHIC DISRUPTION OF EVERYDAY LIFE FOR CURRENT RESIDENTS. It would quintuple the current residency of the White Valley area, which does not possess the infrastructure needed to adequately handle the increase in traffic. All methods of ingress/egress are windy, two-lane thoroughfares already overwhelmed with traffic from motorists, delivery vehicles and trucks circumventing congestion on New Rt. 22. Motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and small children would be placed at high risk from hundreds of additional vehicles.
THE REMOVAL OF LONG-STANDING WETLANDS AND WOODLANDS WILL DEPRIVE WILDLIFE OF LIVING SPACE, creating even more dangerous driving conditions on Wilson Rd. and Old Rt. 22, already some of the most dangerous roads for deer hits in Westmoreland County.
We respectfully ask this council to represent the people they were elected to serve – US – not out-of-state developers, future renters/medical patients, transient truck drivers and motorists and immediately cancel all issued permits as well as all plans for construction of said developments forthwith on the basis of a threat to environmental disruption and public safety.
