POTTSTOWN >> The Pottstown Cluster of Religious Communities had no more luck garnering support for its expansion on North Franklin Street from the school board Monday night than it did from borough council two weeks ago.
And this despite reversing its previous position and promising to pay 25 percent of the property’s school tax bill in addition to its borough tax bill.
Instead, like borough council did, the school board voted to oppose the Cluster’s zoning board requests rather than support them.
The Cluster of Religious communities operates a food pantry and clothing outreach center in the former American Legion Hall at King and North Franklin streets.
It has recently expanded its services to also include meeting financial and housing education needs.
The school board vote came after school board member Thomas Hylton pointed out that the organization’s tax records show its revenues have jumped from $341,000 in 2008, to $1.8 million in 2014.
“That’s a five-fold increase in revenues, and you’re telling us you can’t afford to pay a $4,000 tax bill?” Hylton asked Cluster attorney Ken Picardi, who made the presentation.
“I can’t go along with that,” said board member Amy Francis.
“We are in the lifting people out of poverty business, nothing does that better than education,” said Hylton adding that if combatting poverty is the Cluster’s mission, the organization should be happy to pay its full school tax bill.
The Cluster has a May 5 date with the Zoning Hearing Board to deal with two comparatively technical matters.
At the Zoning Hearing Board, the Cluster will challenge the interpretation by the borough’s zoning officer that although zoning allows offices at the former Wainman mansion at 61 N. Franklin St., it does not for allow for offices used for a “client-based social service provider.”
Picardi said the Cluster will argue that it is not a “client-based social service provider” as defined by the zoning ordinance. Should it be unsuccessful in making that case, the Cluster will seek a variance from the zoning board to allow the project to go forward.
It has unsuccessfully sought the support of both borough council and the school board in its application.
But the public debate about the Cluster’s zoning requests, has had little to do with those specifics.
For even though the property – purchased by the Cluster July 17, 2015 for $105,000 – was removed from the tax rolls last fall by the Montgomery County Board of Assessment Appeals, the Cluster’s expansion has become a lightning rod for frustration with the high number of tax exempt properties in the borough.
Picardi has pointed out that to his knowledge, the Cluster is the only non-profit in Pottstown that has made any kind of offer to pay any share of its tax bill.
But to date, it has won few converts to its cause.
Picardi has warned that zoning rules would allow for the property to become anything from a boarding house to a group home – which it was for 10 years – or a “social club.”
However those warnings have repeatedly been interpreted by public officials as veiled threats.
Picardi even said that if the building is cut up into apartments – like the buildings around it – and pays its full tax bill, the children it would house would still make it a financial loser for the school district.
At was at that point that school board member Ron Williams indicated he had had enough.
“The way you are beginning to speak now is beginning to disgust me,” Williams said. “I don’t want to hear it.”
