By Denise Larive

The Amity Township Board of Supervisors is expected to adopt, on Oct. 7, a zoning amendment that would require at least five acres of land in the low density residential zoning district for building a nursing, retirement or convalescent home.

Other bulk requirements would be similar to those adopted by the board last August for age restrictive and continuing care communities.

They expect to adopt, on Oct. 21, a zoning ordinance that would no longer allow a special exception approval by the zoning board to build a nursing, retirement or convalescent home on a non-conforming lot.

The zoning amendment and the ordinance have been forwarded to the Berks County Planning Commission for review and comments.

The board will render a decision within 30 days on the conditional use hearing held Sept. 16 for the proposed 20 lot Blacksmith subdivision east of the Amity Primary Center at Old Swede and Blacksmith roads.

Ralph Yocom, principal of JLR Partnership, Collegeville, plans to build 18 semi-detached units on the 5.1 acre site.

The two existing stone farmhouses would remain. One would continue to be a residence and the other was approved by the zoning board last May to be the new site for Salon 256, pending approved land development plans.

The subdivision’s Brody Lane would provide access from the Amity Primary Center to Old Swede Road.

A traffic signal would be installed at the new four-way intersection with Blacksmith Road.

The new access road into Blacksmith would also eliminate driveway accesses on Old Swede Road.

In other business news:

• The board approved hiring John Coe, Jr., and Justin Schlottman to the Amity Township Police Department with benefits pending successful completion of physical and psychological evaluations.

• Following an executive session, the board assigned its insurance carrier, MRM Trust, to determine whether it can represent the township in court on a suit filed Sept. 16 by D. Keith Dixon and Heather Merritt-Dixon, 639 Old Airport Road, Douglassville.

If it cannot, the township’s solicitor, Brian F. Boland, would represent the township.

The Dixons are seeking a declaratory judgment by Berks County Common Pleas Court that the mandates and regulations of the Clean Streams Law and Act 537, which form the foundation of the township’s Sewer Management Ordinance, do not apply to their private and personal property septage system, and that the ordinance is thus invalid and unconstitutional.

The Dixons did not allow a required inspection of their on-lot sewage disposal system by the township’s sewer inspector and code enforcement officer in 2008 or 2009.

The board voted unanimously on July 1 to deny the sewer inspection appeal filed by the Dixons and said the Dixons are in violation of the township’s Ordinance 221 regarding On-Lot Sewage Disposal Systems.

Supervisors Richard L. Gokey and Scott Stepp were absent from the meeting.