Horsham council adopts easement to PennDOT for Horsham Road–Lime Pike intersection improvements

Horsham Township Council voted to adopt an ordinance authorizing the grant of an easement to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to facilitate the Horsham Road–Lime Pike intersection improvement.

Mr Walker, presenting the project during a public hearing, said the township began preliminary engineering for the intersection in 2016 and is now in the right-of-way acquisition phase. "It affects 41 private property owners that we have been negotiating and settling for right-of-way," Walker said. He added that the township is down to about three unsettled parcels and that the easement request includes small areas on township-owned land needed for the project.

Walker identified three township locations where the project will place stormwater infrastructure: a detention basin at Cedar Hill Road Park, a detention basin at Deep Meadow Park (near the Challenger league fields), and a small strip adjacent to the police station driveway and parking area. "This is one of the three detention basins that had to be constructed for the project," Walker said, describing where pipe and basins will be sited on township property.

The hearing had been legally advertised; the council closed the hearing and later took a roll-call vote to adopt the ordinance. The transcript records the ordinance vote as passing unanimously.

The ordinance grants PennDOT a limited easement on specified township parcels to construct right-of-way improvements and stormwater facilities for the intersection project. Council materials included maps showing the affected township parcels and the locations of the proposed detention basins. The presentation noted the project’s reliance on negotiated acquisitions from about 41 private property owners; the number of unsettled properties was stated as "about three." The exact terms of the easement (compensation or conditions) were provided in the ordinance packet that accompanied the hearing and are not fully restated in the transcript.

The council’s adoption of the easement means PennDOT can continue planned construction activities once other approvals and any remaining property acquisitions are complete. The ordinance was adopted on a roll-call vote at the same meeting; the transcript records the motion as passing unanimously. The council did not, in the recorded discussion, specify a construction start date or a project cost total.

The council’s action clears a municipal procedural hurdle so the intersection improvement can proceed in coordination with PennDOT and affected property owners. The township indicated the project will require continued right-of-way work and coordination with private owners and that additional construction scheduling and permitting steps remain.