Salisbury’s proposed new zoning ordinance has stung a township couple who have been beekeepers for the last three years.
Richard and Norma Cusick objected to proposed restrictions on beekeeping during a public hearing on the proposed ordinance Thursday night.
Mrs. Cusick argued township officials should encourage beekeeping “because there’s been an awful lot of colony collapse in the world. We’d just like to have one or two beehives so we can help with keeping bees alive here in the Lehigh Valley.”
The new ordinance would prohibit keeping any beehives within 30 feet of a street, property line or neighboring house.
If hives are kept between 30 and 60 feet from such features, the new law would require erecting a solid, six-foot-high fence between them and the hives.
No fence would be required for hives kept at least 60 feet away from a property line, street or neighboring homes.
“You cannot find a beekeeper in Salisbury or in the Lehigh Valley who would approve of this,” declared Cusick.
“This is too restrictive. Sixty feet doesn’t make sense to me. It sounds like a phobia. It’s just not biologically real.”
He said honeybees are not yellow jackets. “They do not attack people. They do not attack dogs. Our grandchildren go with us when we tend the bees.”
Saying the township will make beekeeping too expensive, Cusick said it would cost $10,000 to erect a 300-foot-long fence between their property and their neighbor.
“If this legislation goes through the way it is, we will not keep our bees,” he said. “The dimensions are too constrictive and a fence is too expensive.”
Cusick said they have lived in their home along Emmaus Avenue for more than 42 years.
Mrs. Cusick requested the township change the proposed ordinance so a solid fence, or even just a hedge, would be required only if hives are within 30 feet of the edge of a property.
“Thirty feet would be reasonable,” said Mrs. Cusick.
“We’ll consider that,” promised both Atty. John Ashley, the township’s solicitor, and James Brown, president of the five commissioners.
Beekeeping expert weighs in
The Cusicks were supported by Steve Finke, president of Lehigh Valley Beekeepers Association and a vice president of the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association.
“Honeybees have all the activity within 20 feet of the hive,” Finke told commissioners.
“Outside of 20 feet, it’s hard to see the bees. They are above head height. They’re off going to wherever they’re going.
“Beyond 30 feet, there’s really no issue with honey bees affecting a property line or a building.
“If you want to have them within 30 feet, then you need a fence to make sure they’re up and away.”
Finke said other existing ordinances require a fence only if someone wants to keep bees within 25 feet of a property line “to make sure the bees go up and over, above head height.”
“Bees do not have tendency to attack nor do they have a tendency to fly horizontally —they’re usually vertical fliers,” said Cynthia Sopka, Salisbury’s planning and zoning director.
Sopka told commissioners she didn’t understand the reason that 60-foot setback requirement for unfenced hives was in the proposed ordinance when it was presented to township staff.
“Is there a reason we want to have a fence between 30 and 60 feet?” asked Commissioner Debra Brinton.
Ashley promised to look into the origin of that proposed requirement, saying: “We’ve talked about it sometime in the last two years. I remember there being a fairly lengthy bee discussion and this came from that discussion.”
Fence won’t stop bees
Brinton’s colleagues said her understanding is correct that a six-foot-high fence is to keep people out, not to keep the bees in.
Said Brinton: “I don’t care what size fence you have, the bee’s going to go where the bee wants to go.”
Charles Beck, chairman of the planning commission, defended the proposed ordinance, saying if any kids go near beehives, “the kids are going to be roasted by the bees.”
Sopka said there’s been “real momentum” from the state’s Department of Agriculture for people to become trained beekeepers. She indicated honey is considered an agricultural product.
She said beekeeping classes are held at Lehigh Carbon Community College, adding: “I do know that the classes have been sold out.”
Sopka said she’s aware of several other beekeepers in Salisbury, later adding that beekeeping is permitted in all zoning districts in the township.
Too late to change proposed ordinance?
While the purpose of Thursday’s hearing was to get public input on the proposed zoning ordinance, some township officials expressed concern that the Cusicks' request would constitute a substantial change in that law.
“If we make any substantial change, we have to redo the process,” said township manager Randy Soriano. “We’ll have to redo everything.”
“But the plan still has not been adopted,” countered Mrs. Cusick, who is a former township commissioner.
If a change is made, Ashley elaborated, the proposal has to go back to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission for review and both the township planning commission and commissioners will have to hold additional public hearings on the ordinance.
“Okay,” replied Mrs. Cusick. “That’s why you have this meeting.”
“I am asking for a substantive change,” said her husband.
“It should be made in light of what your own zoning officer said. There is a need to recognize that people can make a difference by raising just a couple colonies of bees.
“Millions and millions of bees have disappeared all over Pennsylvania and all over the United States.”
Soriano suggested the Cusicks should have raised their concerns when the zoning ordinance was being developed by the township planning commission.
Despite holding the required public hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance, township officials were hoping to enact the ordinance at their March 26 meeting.
Partly because only three of the five commissioners were at Thursday night’s meeting, Ashley suggested commissioners wait until that meeting to make a decision on the Cusicks’ request.
“Nothing’s going to be voted on this evening,” Brown told the couple. “We’re just taking suggestions and comments. We will take this under advisement.”
Other possible solutions
After the Cusicks left the township meeting, Ashley said the couple’s beehives might be “grandfathered in” —meaning the new law would not apply to them because they had the hives before it was enacted.
“That way, this would be for new beekeepers,” said Commissioner Joanne Ackerman, who asked the solicitor about that option.
Ashley said another possibility would be for the Cusicks to go before the zoning hearing board to request a variance if the law is adopted as written.
Other zoning changes requested
The Cusicks and Finke were not the only ones to address commissioners about the zoning ordinance.
Atty. Tim Siegfried, representing Lehigh Valley Hospital, briefly stood to ask that a few minor changes be made to the proposed ordinance.
Ashley said the changes requested by Siegfried do not appear to constitute substantive changes that would require redoing the review process for the ordinance.
Soriano said development of the zoning ordinance has been going on for more two years. “We’re anxious to get this finalized.”
Urban Research & Development Corporation of Bethlehem was paid $21,350 to create a new zoning ordinance, along with the planning director and the township planning commission.
URDC also updated the township’s comprehensive plan, for $35,050.
Leonard Policelli of URDC said his company initially was hired to revise the comprehensive plan.
“When you make changes to a comprehensive plan, that ripples to other documents” including the zoning ordinance, said Policelli.
That would have been a “semi-minor task,” he said, but as they looked at the zoning ordinance they found more things they wanted to do.
“The township took that opportunity to really sift through the ordinance and do a complete overhaul of it. What you have now is a new zoning ordinance.”
Soriano said the majority of zoning changes involves an overlay district around Lehigh Valley Hospital and other changes are being made in residential areas along Emmaus Avenue.
He said no significant changes are proposed in the rest of the township.
Other business
Only three commissioners attended Thursday night’s meeting where the public hearing on the new zoning ordinance was held.
Commissioners Robert Martucci and James Seagreaves were absent.
Also during the meeting, the three commissioners voted to amend two Salisbury firearms laws to compile with Pennsylvania Act 192 and avoid the possibility of what Soriano called “frivolous” civil lawsuits.
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