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Draft:Phil Ehlinger Jr.

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Phil Ehlinger Jr. is an American municipal planner, former Doylestown Borough deputy manager, and inventor from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Over more than 30 years with Doylestown Borough government, he worked on a range of planning, zoning, and public-works projects, including Broad Commons Park, and he is also known for inventing and patenting the Hic-Cup, a stainless-steel drinking cup marketed as a hiccup remedy.[1][2] He was named among "Bucks County's most prominent people" in a 2026 retrospective series published by the Bucks County Courier Times marking the 250th anniversary of the United States.[3]

Municipal career

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Ehlinger spent more than 30 years in Doylestown Borough government, ultimately serving as deputy borough manager and director of planning and public works before retiring in 2024.[1] A certified planner (AICP), he was part of the leadership team that oversaw redevelopment of the Broad Street corridor, in which a former PennDOT maintenance facility was converted into the borough's administrative offices and headquarters for the Central Bucks Regional Police Department.[4][5]

While heading the Zoning and Planning department he was involved in the planning of the Bucks County Justice Center and the county's adjoining parking garages, as well as the Lantern Hill and Belvedere housing developments in Doylestown Borough.[1] Lantern Hill, a mixed-use infill project completed in the early 2000s under a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) zoning ordinance, has been cited by planning organizations, including the Congress for the New Urbanism, as a notable example of walkable, neo-traditional infill development.[6][7]

On June 18, 2007, Doylestown Borough Council adopted Resolution 2007-10, establishing the borough's Green Points building-permit-fee incentive program during Ehlinger's tenure in the planning department.[8] The program amended the borough's fee schedule to offer a 60 percent reduction in building permit fees for new commercial and residential construction, additions, and interior remodels earning LEED Silver certification or better, with smaller reductions available to non-LEED-certified projects meeting lower point thresholds.[8] A similarly structured Green Points program was later adopted by neighboring Doylestown Township in 2019,[9] and the Chester County Planning Commission's ordinance toolkit for municipalities cites Doylestown's Green Points system as a model example for local governments considering green-building incentive ordinances.[10]

Broad Commons Park

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Ehlinger is credited by borough officials with much of the design of Broad Commons Park, a public park created as part of the Broad Street corridor redevelopment.[11] Before the park could be built, the borough carried out environmental remediation of the former PennDOT maintenance facility site, where soil was found to be contaminated with cadmium, chromium, arsenic, beryllium, and benzo(a)pyrene.[12] Under Pennsylvania's Act 2 land recycling program, engineering firm Gilmore & Associates submitted a Remedial Investigation Report and Cleanup Plan on Ehlinger's behalf as the borough's responsible official; the state Department of Environmental Protection approved the report on April 13, 2020, confirming the site had been remediated to meet Statewide Health Standards.[12] The borough's Public Works Department, working under Ehlinger's leadership, also carried out site-clearing and topsoil work as part of the park's construction.[5]

The park includes a Doylestown-themed playground, opened in 2022, featuring a replica of Henry Chapman Mercer's Fonthill Castle and Mercer tile motifs.[11][13] Borough manager John Davis credited Ehlinger with much of the park's overall design, and council president Jack O'Brien credited Ehlinger with the idea of incorporating the Fonthill Castle and Mercer Tile Works theme into the playground.[11]

Pennsylvania Association of Zoning Officials

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Business and nonprofit registries list Ehlinger as the founder and principal officer of the Pennsylvania Association of Zoning Officials (PAAZO), a statewide nonprofit for municipal zoning and planning officials that provides training and professional certification, and its founding year is recorded as 2009.[14] The organization is today managed by the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS), which lists it among the five professional associations it operates for township officials and consultants, alongside groups for township solicitors, engineers, planners, and emergency management officials.[15][16]

Town Planning Partnership

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Ehlinger was a principal of Town Planning Partnership LLC, a Doylestown-based planning and design consultancy he co-led with fellow planner Mark Evans.[17] According to the firm's description, it was founded in 2010 and provides community visioning, placemaking, land planning, and implementation services to public- and private-sector clients throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, with both principals — Mark Evans, AICP, PP, RA, and Ehlinger, AICP, CZO — each credited with more than 20 years of experience in downtown revitalization, traditional neighborhood design, master planning, community visioning, and design guidelines.[17] The firm's project work has included serving as a planning consultant within Renaissance Downtowns LLC's "Unified Development Approach" for the redevelopment of Huntington Station, New York, where Renaissance served as master developer under a public-private partnership with the Town of Huntington beginning in 2012.[18] Ehlinger retired from the firm in 2017.

Community involvement

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CB Cares / BC Cares Educational Foundation

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Alongside his municipal career, Ehlinger served as president of CB Cares Educational Foundation, a Doylestown-based nonprofit founded in 1996 that partnered with the Central Bucks School District, Doylestown Health, and local businesses to fund youth-development grants and programs, including the annual Pumpkinfest event.[19][20] Republicans won a 6–3 majority on the Central Bucks School Board in the November 2021 election, and the new board went on to adopt a series of contested policies, including a library-materials policy critics characterized as a book-banning policy, that drew national media attention and a U.S. Department of Education civil rights investigation.[21] In March 2022, Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh notified CB Cares that the district was severing its 25-year partnership with the organization, citing the nonprofit's "political affiliations" and "disruptive messaging."[19] Ehlinger, as CB Cares president, publicly disputed the district's characterization of the split, and he and other CB Cares officials said they believed CB Cares mask-donation-drive assistance and the concurrent controversy over the removal of LGBTQ-related books from school libraries, which were funded by a grant from CB Cares, was the reason.[19] The organization later rebranded as BC Cares Educational Foundation, expanding its focus to serve Bucks County more broadly rather than the Central Bucks school community specifically.[20][22] Central Bucks voters ousted the Republican school board majority in the November 2023 election, flipping the board to a 6–3 Democratic majority.[23][24]

Motorsports

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Outside his municipal and consulting work, a Phil Ehlinger has competed in amateur endurance car racing. Beginning around 2012, Ehlinger built and campaigned a 1975 AMC Hornet in the 24 Hours of Lemons series, an amateur endurance racing circuit.[25][26] Forum documentation of the build describes a turbocharged AMC 258 engine with a blow-through carburator in a .50 caliber ammo box intake setup, and the car was later fitted with a 4.0-liter AMC inline-six engine.[25] The car's race history included an "Index of Effluency" award, a "Heroic Fix" award, and Class C and Class B wins at New Jersey Motorsports Park events, and it was featured in a 2013 Car and Driver video from the 24 Hours of Lemons "There Goes the Neighborhood" race at Monticello Motor Club.[25][27][26]

Driver profiles on American Endurance Racing (AER), a separate amateur endurance racing series, shows Phil Ehlinger racing since June 2015 across 11 events, 43 driving stints, and 1,021 completed laps.[28] That profile lists him driving a 1995 BMW 318ti for the "Rally Baby Tequila Petról" team at events including races at PittRace, New Jersey Motorsports Park, VIR, Daytona, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, and Summit Point.[28]

The Hic-Cup

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Ehlinger is also known as the inventor of the Hic-Cup, a patented stainless-steel and brass drinking cup he said was developed after his wife, Michele, experienced hiccups during pregnancy.[2] He was granted a U.S. patent for the device in June 2006 and began selling it online the following month.[2] The cup was registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.[2] Promotional materials describe the device as working through a mild electrical effect from galvanic current on the vagus and phrenic nerves.[2] Michele Ehlinger served as president of the associated company, Hic-Cup Ltd., based in Doylestown.[29][30]

Recognition

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In 2026, as part of a 10-part Bucks County Courier Times series profiling notable figures connected to Bucks County to mark America's 250th anniversary, Ehlinger was included as an inventor who developed and patented the Hic-Cup device, and as a long serving Doylestown Public Administrator .[3]

See also

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  • Doylestown, Pennsylvania
  • Bucks County Justice Center
  • Traditional neighborhood development
  • BC Cares Educational Foundation

References

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  1. 1 2 3 "Doylestown's deputy borough manager abruptly retires". Bucks County Herald. 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Cup takes hiccups to task". Phys.org. September 27, 2006.
  3. 1 2 "Bucks County's most prominent people of the past 250 years, Part II". Bucks County Courier Times.
  4. ↑ "Work underway at former site of The Intelligencer". Bucks County Herald.
  5. 1 2 "Twenty years in the making, the transformation of Doylestown's Broad Street corridor has begun". Heritage Conservancy.
  6. ↑ "The plan for Lantern Hill". Congress for the New Urbanism.
  7. ↑ "Lantern Hill TND". Thomas Comitta Associates.
  8. 1 2 "Green Points Incentive Program policy listing (Doylestown, PA)" (PDF). U.S. Green Building Council.
  9. ↑ "Township of Doylestown, PA — Chapter 101 Green Points Program". eCode360.
  10. ↑ "Ordinance Toolkit for Local Municipalities — Green Building Certifications / Design Features". Chester County Planning Commission.
  11. 1 2 3 "One-of-a-kind Doylestown-inspired playground opens". Bucks County Herald.
  12. 1 2 "Final Actions Taken for NPDES Permits and WQM Permits — PennDOT Doylestown Maintenance Facility (Act 2 Remediation)". Pennsylvania Bulletin.
  13. ↑ "Doylestown Borough Cuts Ribbon On Broad Commons Playground". Patch.
  14. ↑ "Pennsylvania Association of Zoning Officials profile". GuideStar.
  15. ↑ "About PSATS, the Pa. State Association of Township Supervisors" (PDF). Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
  16. ↑ "PA Zoning Officials Association Seminars". PSATS.
  17. 1 2 "Town Planning Partnership LLC profile". LeadIQ.
  18. ↑ "Huntington Station Development Strategy". Renaissance Downtowns – via SlideShare.
  19. 1 2 3 "CB Cares fights for its future as Central Bucks cuts ties". Bucks County Courier Times. Yahoo News.
  20. 1 2 "CB Cares Pumpkinfest cancelled, will return to Doylestown next year". Bucks County Courier Times. Yahoo News.
  21. ↑ "Voters should prioritize education and student well-being in Central Bucks school board race". The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 9, 2023.
  22. ↑ "CB Cares Becomes BC Cares!". BC Cares Educational Foundation.
  23. ↑ "How Democrats flipped a Central Bucks School Board embroiled in controversy". WHYY.
  24. ↑ "This school board made news for banning books. Voters flipped it to majority Democrat". NPR. November 11, 2023.
  25. 1 2 3 "Behind the Bonnet: Infographic of IOE winning Turbo Whorenet". 24 Hours of Lemons Forums.
  26. 1 2 "1975 AMC Hornet @ 24 Hours of Lemons – Monticello Motor Club". YouTube. 2013.
  27. ↑ "Rally Baby AMC Whorenet at NJMP". 24 Hours of Lemons Forums.
  28. 1 2 "Phil Ehlinger — Driver Statistics". American Endurance Racing.
  29. ↑ "The 'Hic-Cup' hiccup-curing gadget". Engadget. August 3, 2006.
  30. ↑ "Hic Cup: The Anti Hiccup Cup". Neatorama. August 3, 2006.
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