Zoning Exception Approved
3/28/2003
As last night’s East Manchester Township Zoning Hearing Board meeting ended, Charles Rurick approached Lou Castriota, Jr. and shook his hand.
“If I was 30 years younger, I’d be your farmer,” said Rurick, 74.
Moments before, the board had unanimously approved a special exception to the township zoning ordinance, allowing Castriota’s project, Leg Up Farm, to be built on roughly 15 acres at 4248 N. Sherman St. Extended. The farm is an R-2, or medium-density residential zone.
Leg Up Farm, which Castriota’s been working on for five years, will offer traditional and non-traditional therapy in a farm environment to children with disabilities.
The 77,000 square-foot building will offer physical, speech and occupational therapies, as well as hippotherapy (horseback riding), aquatherapy, massage therapy and sensory play.
Besides Rurick, several other residents who live near the proposed site – and who voiced concern about the project during the meeting – pledged their support.
Castriota said he was “extremely excited” about the board’s decision.
“One hurdle down,” he said, taking a deep breath.
The next move is to submit a land development plan to the township within the next six months, said Michael Takacs, landscape architect with First Capital Engineering, a company hired by Leg Up Farm.
His motivation: Addressing the board and audience, Castriota told why he wants to build Leg Up Farm. His voice slightly wavering, he showed a photo of his 7 year-old daughter, Brooke.
“This is my little girl; this is my motivation,” he said.
Brooke suffers from mitochondrial disease, a disease similar to cerebral palsy. Castriota developed the idea for Leg Up Farm when he began seeking various therapies for Brooke and realized it would be a lot simpler if they were all available in one location.
Castriota said he knows of no other facility quite like Leg Up Farm. There are hippotherapy programs, but they don’t offer other therapies; and there are facilities with several kinds of therapies, but in a hospital setting.
“I’ve traveled to Oklahoma City, I’ve traveled to New York to do research to build the ultimate therapy center our children,” he said.
The natural, farm environment will relax and motivate disabled children, he said.
Two years ago, Barbara Warren offered a portion of her 200-acre property on North Sherman Street Extended as a home for Leg Up Farm. Castriota had wanted to open the farm in 2004, but said it might take an additional year, with the country involved in the second Gulf War and a lukewarm economy.
He hopes to raise $4.5 million in a capital campaign and receive a match from the state.
Neighbors wonder: Several neighbors asked Castriota if any of Leg Up Farm’s clients would be able to wander from Warren’s property to theirs.
While Castriota said there were no immediate plans to build a fence around Warren’s property, he didn’t believe that any of the clients – the majority of whom will have physical disabilities – would be able to leave the property, even if they wanted. Besides, the clients will always be with a therapist, he said.
Brenda Culbert of the 100 block of Poplar Lane, Mount Wolf, asked about traffic. Castriota said there would be a maximum of eight to 10 clients at the facility per hour and the state Department of Transportation classified the number of trips in and out of the farm per day as “low-volume.”
Rurick asked Castriota if there would be lighting at the farm’s entrance at night.
“That road had 50 to 60 cars going by in one hour’s time,” he said.
Takacs said there probably would be some lighting that would “extend out of the drive.”
Castriota said he would consider building a lighted entrance sign to illuminate the drive.
By TED CZECH, The York Dispatch/Sunday News