No fence marks it. No sign along Decker Road tells you which side you're on. But somewhere inside the roughly 43 miles of private roadway that make up Saw Creek Estates, a county line crosses the community, and it changes which office reviews your building plans, which official tests your soil, and how many weeks you wait before a shovel touches the ground.
Most buyers looking at a vacant lot in Saw Creek assume the community's Building and Architectural Committee is the only approval standing between them and a finished home. That committee matters. But it is layered on top of, not instead of, whichever municipal government actually has jurisdiction over the parcel, and Saw Creek Estates sits in two of them at once.
Two Townships, One Gate
Saw Creek Estates' own governing documents describe the community as located in Lehman Township, Pike County, and Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County, covering Mill Pond Townhouses and plotted Sections 1 through 37. That is not a footnote. It means a lot in one section of Saw Creek can answer to a completely different building department than a lot a few streets away.
In Lehman Township, permits are handled through the township building on Municipal Drive in Bushkill, where well and sewage permits use multiple carbon copy forms and the office asks for up to ten days to process an application. The township's building code official, David Hay, is the contact point for confirming what a specific parcel needs before work starts.
Middle Smithfield Township runs its own building department out of its office on Municipal Drive in East Stroudsburg. Its permit checklist is longer on paper: floor plans for every level, a detailed building cross section, elevation drawings for each side of the structure, a plumbing drain-waste-vent diagram, a potable water supply diagram, and documentation proving energy code compliance. Any contractor listed on the application also needs a valid Home Improvement Contractor Registration Number, verified through the state Attorney General's office.
Neither township defers to the other, and neither defers to Saw Creek's homeowners association. A buyer who confirms HOA approval and assumes the rest is paperwork has only cleared one of at least two required reviews.
What the HOA Actually Controls
Saw Creek's own construction guide lays out a separate track entirely. An applicant submits a plot plan drawn to a scale of one inch to twenty feet or less, showing lot boundaries, setbacks, and easements, along with an erosion and sediment control plan describing the site's soil types, slope, and where runoff will drain. The packet also needs a signed Lot Owner Release and Waiver, certificates of insurance for the general contractor and every subcontractor, and payment made by check or money order to the association.
The community's rules and regulations are direct about the order of operations: projects on the list requiring approval need both an SCE Construction Permit and a municipal zoning or building permit. Skipping the municipal half is treated as a violation of SCE's own rules, not a workaround.
If an application comes back denied or approved with conditions the owner doesn't like, there's an appeal process through the Building and Architectural Committee. That process only reaches the merits of the design decision. It has no authority over whatever the township decides on its side.
The Septic Question the Listing Sheet Won't Answer
Here is where the two-township structure stops being a filing detail and starts affecting what a lot is actually worth.
Pike County sits on the Pocono Plateau, where soils tend to be thin and rocky over sandstone and conglomerate bedrock, often with a perched water table close to the surface. That geology frequently rules out a conventional gravity septic system and pushes design toward sand mounds or other elevated alternatives, which cost more to install and take up more of the buildable footprint. Pennsylvania's percolation test standard calls for a minimum of six test holes spaced across the proposed absorption area, each presoaked and measured before a design can even be submitted, so this isn't a same-day formality.
Middle Smithfield Township runs its own on-lot septic approval through a certified Sewage Enforcement Officer, who reviews three copies of the completed septic design and has seven days to approve or deny once the application is complete. The township also owns and operates several municipal sewage treatment plants, including a Fernwood-area plant with a permitted capacity of one million gallons per day, which means some Saw Creek parcels on the Monroe County side may connect to public sewer rather than needing an on-lot system at all.
That distinction shows up directly in what's for sale. A half-acre buildable lot recently marketed in Saw Creek Estates listed public water and sewer as a selling point, at a cash price of fifteen thousand dollars. That framing only makes sense against the alternative: most vacant lots in the community still depend on soil conditions that haven't been tested yet, on a piece of land where the county line, not the HOA, determines who runs that test and how long the answer takes.
A lot that looks identical on a plat map to another lot two sections over can carry a very different construction timeline, depending entirely on which side of that invisible boundary it falls on.
What the Fee Schedule Is Actually Telling You
Saw Creek's 2026 assessment schedule sets the capital transfer fee at 1,869 dollars for improved properties and 934.50 dollars for unimproved lots, roughly half. On its own, that looks like a discount for buying dirt instead of a finished house.
Read against the permitting picture, it reads differently. The lower transfer fee buys entry into the ownership category with the most work still ahead of it: a soil and septic evaluation that hasn't happened yet, a municipal building permit that hasn't been filed, and an SCE construction application that hasn't been submitted. Annual dues don't discriminate the same way. The association's 2026 newsletter lists a combined operating and capital assessment of 2,170 dollars a year, due January 1 regardless of whether a lot has a house on it.
An unimproved lot costs less to transfer because the association is handing over less certainty, not less obligation.
A Sequence That Keeps a Lot Purchase From Stalling
Buyers who move through this in the wrong order tend to fall for a parcel before they know what it will take to build on it. A more protective sequence looks like this:
- Confirm which township the specific parcel sits in before making an offer. Pike County parcels answer to Lehman Township; Monroe County parcels answer to Middle Smithfield Township. The parcel identification number settles this quickly.
- Order a soil and septic evaluation, or confirm public sewer access, before getting attached to a particular lot. This is the single biggest source of surprise cost on Pike County parcels.
- Request Saw Creek's current construction guide and rules and regulations directly from the association, since standards are amended periodically and the version on file matters.
- Budget separately for the SCE construction permit process, the municipal building permit, and the annual assessment, since none of the three offices coordinates payment or timing with the others.
A Few Questions Worth Settling Early
Does approval from Saw Creek's Building and Architectural Committee mean I can start construction? No. It satisfies the association's covenant review. The applicable township still has to issue its own zoning or building permit before work begins.
How do I find out which township a specific lot is in? The parcel identification number on the deed or tax record ties directly to either Pike County or Monroe County. Either township office can confirm jurisdiction over the phone before you make an offer.
Do all lots in Saw Creek Estates require a septic system? No. Some parcels, particularly on the Middle Smithfield Township side, have access to municipal sewer. Others depend on soil conditions that require testing before anyone can say what kind of system, if any, the lot supports.
Buying land in Saw Creek Estates rewards the buyer who treats the county line as real, even though it's invisible on the ground. If you're weighing a specific lot and want to know which township governs it, which permits actually apply, and what a realistic build timeline looks like, Saw Creek Real Estate can walk you through it before you're under contract. Call our office for a personal tour of what's currently available, buildable or otherwise.
