It's shaped like "a box," John Bingham says of the several-square-mile East Hempfield Township region that includes some of Lancaster County's most-traveled roads.

Centerville Road eastward to Rohrerstown Road. And from the bottom up, Columbia Avenue to Marietta Avenue.

Roads and intersections within that box are being studied this year by traffic professionals who are to give a report to Bingham and other East Hempfield officials on ways the township can reduce traffic.

But with the final traffic report still to come, East Hempfield leaders are postponing a decision regarding the study — a decision on one of the township's largest-ever proposed developments.

The East Hempfield supervisors were to announce their decision regarding Cheswicke Towne Centre, a project proposed for just west of Rohrerstown, when they meet Wednesday, Sept. 15.

Township officials announced this week, however, that the Cheswicke decision will be postponed until later this fall.

That will allow the five East Hempfield supervisors time "to make a better-informed decision of what we need to do" with Cheswicke, said Bingham, the township supervisors' chairman.

The study of 27 intersections inside the square-shaped area was approved by the township earlier this year. It's being paid for by developers with the goal of helping the growing suburb see how best to work on its road and intersection needs, East Hempfield officials have said.

Cheswicke is a $150 million mix of residential and commercial development eyed for a 56-acre site bounded by Route 30, Marietta Pike, and Centerville and Running Pump roads.

To build, Cheswicke developer James Nardo and Abbco Real Properties need East Hempfield's permission to rezone the property.

Nardo and his representatives have been holding frequent meetings with neighbors in recent months to hear concerns about traffic and other items.

In March, the developers of another multimillion-dollar project in East Hempfield, one eyed for the 115-acre Lime Spring Farm, also just west of Rohrerstown, pledged to do the traffic study before their project was approved.

A rezoning for the Lime Spring plan, a mixed residential, retail, commercial and light-industrial project, was approved in late 2009.

Lime Spring's Oak Tree Development Group, led by developer Mike O'Brien, agreed to contribute up to $250,000 for the traffic study.

That is the entire cost of the study, township officials said this week.

The Cheswicke rezoning decision most likely will be made in October or even November, East Hempfield officials added.

Bingham said Wednesday he doesn't expect "any of the traffic problems (to be cited in the report) to be a surprise to us."

"But having the full report will still give us an idea of what's going to be needed" to possibly lessen East Hempfield's traffic, he said.

doconnor@lnpnews.com