Not too late
The city of Connellsville began in 2001 working with Widewaters Development to convert land at the intersection of Routes 119 and 201 into a complex that would bring the city a strip mall, grocery store and eventually a motel. Connellsville shoppers probably thought by now that they would be pushing buggies through aisles rather than sloshing through yet another news story announcing yet another delay that threatens to scuttle the project.
This isn’t the first project that the New York-based Widewaters has put together in Fayette County. Nor is it the first one to become bound in red tape.
At stake this time is the issuance of a construction permit by the Connellsville Planning Commission, which its solicitor said can’t be approved until Widewaters submits a final site plan and obtains a number of permits from local, state and federal authorities, including a highway occupancy permit by PennDOT. Similar problems arose when Widewaters first sought to develop a South Union Township property for a Home Depot store.
Widewaters attorney is blaming the planning commission for placing unnecessary demands. The planning commission claims that it isn’t. What has happened is that instead of working together on this project, the city, which owns part of the land, and the developer have become adversaries. That need not have happened. It isn’t too late to salvage the project if city officials and Widewaters sit down and figure out how they can work together to get passed the pushing paper stage and into moving dirt.
Once that’s accomplished, Connellsville might want to review how it could better handle developers, possibly by having a checklist of necessary permits, applications and timetables prepared in advance.