LONDONDERRY TWP., Pa. – Hundreds of people in attendance were not enough to sway the Londonderry Township Board of Supervisors from approving a controversial plan that would shut down vacation homes on islands in the Susquehanna River in September 2017.
“It feels like you’re somewhere totally different when you’re down here,” Derek Krehling, president of the Lake Frederick Homeowners Association, said.
Shelly and Bashore Islands may be a world away for those who maintain vacation homes there, but they were dealt a blow Monday, potentially costing revenue for the township and businesses.
“It seems minimal but it really adds up and if you look at what people spend in a season as a group for all the islands it’s into the millions,” Krehling said.
It was an issue pushed to Monday night after lease holders complained last month they did not have time to review it. They wanted more time to negotiate with the landowners, but the township went ahead with the plan anyway.
The York Haven Power Company owns much of Shelly Island and all of Bashore Island. Due to increased floodplain enforcement from the federal government, York Haven decided to stop offering the leases, proposing the compliance plan with FEMA and the township to shut them down by September 2017. Several attempts to contact the company for comment have gone unanswered.
“York Haven props their feet up, they celebrate and they high five because you did the dirty work for them,” Alan Schaefer, a lease holder, told supervisors Monday. “You have done what they wanted you to do. They are laughing in your faces.”
Those who lease lots from York Haven asked the board for 180 days to continue negotiating with York Haven, which the residents say will still happen.
“What we want to do is come into compliance and want to be sure that these lots continue for these families they had these for generations and they’d like to continue to use them,” Dwight Yoder, an attorney representing the lease holders, said.
FEMA had pressured Londonderry Township to maintain strict code enforcement on the islands, threatening to suspend the ability of residents to purchase flood insurance unless something was done about the islands.
Township officials pushed for the plan, saying failure to do so would mean the leases would expire at the end of April instead of September 2017.
“FEMA has not bought into the idea of stretch it out and do whatever you want until 2017,” Jim Diamond, the township solicitor, told supervisors Monday. “Their buy-in was specific to this proposal by York Haven.”
Township officials left the meeting hall immediately after the conclusion of the meeting, before reporters could ask them any questions about the vote.
