ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Bascom Avenue is a residential neighborhood in Ross Township, but neighbors say across the street has turned into a commercial tree trimming business with large shipping containers, dump trucks and tree trimming equipment.
“It’s shame it’s coming to this, this neighborhood is coming to ruins,” neighbor Brooke Diederich tells Channel 11. “We do not want this in our neighborhood,” Todd Diederich added.
After neighbors say they filed dozens of complaints, members from the Ross Township Zoning Board came out to the site along Bascom Avenue, to see for themselves Wednesday. Neighbors say this area is zoned residential, but Richard Quigley is running his commercial tree trimming business on the property that he’s renting.
The situation turned heated while the zoning board was there, as a friend of the business owner confronted neighbors who want his business shut down.
“It’s against the law, 100%,” Sandy Bryson added. “Doesn’t matter which way you look at it. He has turned a beautiful hillside, grass and woods, into a dump. There’s shipping containers, those plastic tents, ripped and flapping in the wind.”
Neighbors say they’re livid because of what happened just streets over, on Transvaal Avenue. That neighborhood is zoned residential, but Quigley operated his business there illegally for years.
“Nobody wants to live in a neighborhood like this where you come out to a construction zone,” Diederich added.
In October a judge ordered Quigley to clean up the property after a sewer line was nicked, the creek was contaminated and all the digging from heavy machinery led to a landslide. To this day, the road is still closed.
Neighbors on Bascom Avenue are afraid of the same thing on their street and they’re making their voices heard.
“We’re all confused how it got to this stage to begin with,” Deiderich said.
“All of us are trying to make a living, but you have to do so legally,” Bryson added.
There is a zoning board meeting next Wednesday night, where a resolution to all of this could be handed down.
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