It has been a five-year odyssey for Charter Homes, as it tries to develop a farm at routes 23 and 30, next to Grandview Heights in Manheim Township.

The company has proposed at least three developments, with anywhere from 70 to 207 homes and a variety of commercial and retail plans, for the 45-acre tract. None has gotten off the ground.

Now it has another plan.

But it is not revealing what it is.

At Monday night's township commissioner meeting, Charter submitted two rezoning petitions for the land. One would increase the residential density of part of the tract; the other would allow offices, parks and community facilities on the other section.

Through an assistant Monday afternoon, Charter CEO Robert Bowman declined to comment on what his company has planned for the site.

No one from Charter attended Monday's meeting, which is not unusual at this stage of the planning process, township officials said.

The first time township residents will hear details of Charter's latest proposal will be next month, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, when the plan will go before the township planning commission. The plan also will go before the county planning commission, and then go to a public hearing, likely in January.

Township Commissioner Carol Simpson said Charter has a seven-year history with the tract, known as the Gammache farm, which is owned by Lancaster Catholic High School.

"The first time they walked that property was Sept. 12, 2001," she noted, which was the day after the terrorist attacks.

Township officials have taken a cautious approach to rezoning proposals for the land.

"We are looking at what the possibilities are," Simpson said, noting that township officials make a rezoning decision based on whether the rezoning makes sense for the tract, not necessarily on what a developer says it is planning.

"Even under the best of intentions, plans change, circumstances change, the economy changes," she said. "Once that land is rezoned, Charter Homes could sell it, sell part of it, they could do a number of things."

The farm began its journey toward development more than 10 years ago, in 1997.

That's when the tract was bequeathed to Lancaster Catholic High School by the Gammache family. Jacques and Vincent Gammache graduated from the school in the 1940s. Vincent Gammache lived on the land until he died in 2001.

Two years later, in 2003, Charter Homes held its first meeting with nearby residents about its plans for the land.

Those original plans called for 125 duplexes, condominiums and single-family homes that Charter planned to market mostly to people age 55 and older.

The plans also called for 140,000 square feet of commercial and professional space, to be divided among several buildings resembling historical Lancaster County businesses, such as tobacco warehouses and grist mills. The idea was to make it a planned residential development, similar to the Brighton development off Fruitville Pike in the the township.

Two years later, in 2005, Charter Homes modified and enlarged its plans. It wanted to build 207 housing units, including 85 single-family homes, 48 condominiums and 74 apartments.

The apartments would have been above retail stores also earmarked for the site.

Residents and township officials expressed concerns about traffic and access to the development, which is near the ramps connecting Route 30 and New Holland Pike.

Earlier this year, Charter came back with a scaled-back plan for 70 homes and 40,000 square feet in commercial space, a compromise it said it worked out with township officials and neighboring Grandview Heights residents.

A few weeks later, Charter asked the commissioners for an extension on the plan, saying that its new proposal was not complete. It is not known if this is the plan that Charter will put forward in November.


Staff writer Cindy Stauffer can be reached at cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024.