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In another twist to the increasingly complicated, increasingly heated battle over the proposed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the township, neighbors are appealing the supervisors' recent approval of the church's final plan.
The panel that will be considering the appeal?
The East Hempfield supervisors.
The appeal has been scheduled for Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. at the East Hempfield Township building in Landisville.
This is the first such appeal to the supervisors in East Hempfield that township representatives can remember.
The nearby residents who oppose the planned church at 1136 Sunwood Lane, just off Harrisburg Pike, say they don't want it due to what it would mean for traffic.
The residents will "present their reasons for why they believe the board's decision was an error," Supervisor Brett Miller said.
The residents have the option of appealing directly to the East Hempfield supervisors — or to Lancaster County Common Pleas Court, where it's believed all previous appeals have gone.
The supervisors had voted Oct. 7 to give the church the go-ahead, reversing a vote they had made in September to not approve the church's final plan.
Told they were not in fact following the law after denying the final church plan at a Sept. 16 meeting — after earlier this year approving the preliminary plan — the supervisors then approved that final plan.
The nearly 26,000-square-foot church has been in the works for several years.
After turning down the final plan in September, the East Hempfield supervisors were told that boards are not allowed to approve a preliminary plan and then turn down a final plan with no substantial changes to it.
Also concerning the LDS church proposal, East Hempfield's zoning board recently had voted to grant church officials until Nov. 19, 2011, to obtain all the needed permits from the township and exactly one year beyond that to complete the construction.
This was a two-year extension for both the permits and the construction timetable.
