page_64 < previous page page_64 next page > Page 64 reviewing the proposed sewer treatment plant as part of its Department of Environmental Resources (DER) approval process. While the extent of the Commission's ability to influence the final outcome of the project is uncertain at this time, National Register eligibility will certainly improve chances of directing growth away from the valley. The location of the sewer plant and how it will impact the Mill Creek Valley will ultimately be determined by DER. At this point, the township's proposed 537 amendment has not been favorably received. The Lancaster County Planning Commission issued eight pages of comments detailing inconsistencies between the plan, the County's Comprehensive Plan, and most other publicly adopted planning documentsincluding those of Earl Township itself. 9 After months of more criticism, controversy, revision, and recommendation, Earl Township's Act 537 plan eventually included something called an "Agricultural Preserve Non-Service" designation for Mill Creek Valley. The DER notified the township that within this "non-service area" it could "neither receive nor process planning modules for future service," severely limiting future development of farmland inside the area. The Eberly farm had been rezoned to its original status once alternative sites for Garden Spot Village were found. Now, as before, about eighty acres of the Eberly farm were zoned rural and twenty-eight acres rural-residential. Given how easily zoning had been changedand changed againmany Earl Township residents wanted to make certain the Eberly farm was part of the restricted "agricultural non-service area." On maps prepared for Earl Township in October 1993 by township consultants Rettew Associates, the 114-acre Eberly farm appeared on the township's 537 draft plan "with the northern portion zoned RA-Rural Residence District (28 acres) and the remaining majority of the property zoned RU-Rural District. In addition, the maps depicted only the RU-zoned portion of the property as within the Agricultural Preserve-Non-Service Area."10 Then a general meeting was held at the Pennsylvania Historic Museum Commission (PHMC) on November 23, 1993. On hand were representatives from PHMC, the Department of Environmental Resources (DER), Earl Township, Rettew Associates, the Lancaster County Planning Commissionand Republican Senator Noah Wenger of the 36th District. By February 1994, Rettew Associates drafted a letter to the DER indicating that the Agricultural Preserve Non-Service Areas had been "expanded and revised."11 On March 11, 1994, the DER announced reluctant approval of Earl Township's Act 537 sewage treatment plan. At the time, township solicitor Pete Schannauer was quoted as saying, "We're all glad this is over."12 In the finally approved Earl Township 537 plan, the Eberly farm was pulled  < previous page page_64 next page >