The property owners of 556 Friends Creek Trail, Michael Capone and Mary Jo Vincent, look to swap an adjacent property lot with the borough in order to provide an access point to a second road in the event of ford flooding.

"We want to be able to get in and out of our property," he said. The only way in and out of the 556 Friends Creek Trail property right now is a concrete ford across the creek which is prone to flooding.

The couple purchased the property in October 2019 and didn’t realize until January 2020 how the creek could overflow preventing them from crossing it. "Now its happening more frequently to us…. we have no other way to get out when the water rises and are basically stuck," Vincent said.

The applicants have been working for the past two years to find an alternate route and considered the borough’s lot adjacent to their property a perfect access point, she said. Swapping the lots will provide the property owners an additional access point to the main property in the event of flooding of Friends Creek, Capone said. The secondary access point provided by the lot swap would not be a ‘road’ and would affect a miniscule number of people and only in times of creek flooding, he said.

The potential lot swap involves a lot owned by Capone and Vincent at 66 Ranch Trail of .54 acres and .64 acre lot on 82 Tom’s Creek Trail which is owned by the Borough. Appraisal review found both parcels to be of equal value of approximately $4,000.

At the public comment period of the council meeting, residents asked the council to deny the lot swap, raising concern for the surrounding areas and potential damage to existing bridges and roadways. Residents spoke up about marked trees on the Capone & Vincent property and raised concern about logging of trees on the property.

Capone said he loves his property and called the accusations of "clear cutting the mountain" from fellow residents "absurd" and was "disappointed" to see discussion come this far.

Trees suggested to be removed due to age had been marked on the property by a forester months ago, according to Capone, "but I had no idea they were going to mark trees," noting the two did not desire to log their current property or the potential swapped property. "I don’t need to timber that property," he said.

Melanie Simpson of Two Lower Trail, and adjacent property owner did not see the lot swap as a benefit to the borough, citing a decrease of surrounding property value, destruction of the ecosystem, and worried it would increase traffic. Simpson questioned why the couple didn't realize the possibility of flooding before purchasing the property.

At the conclusion of discussion, the council approved a motion to have borough staff and Solicitor Zachary Rice collaborate and come back with options and conditions appropriate in the event of moving forward with a lot swap resolution.