LOWER MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. — A light manufacturing facility proposed in Lower Macungie Township is one step closer to reality after the township planning commission Tuesday recommended approving the project.
NP Land Holdings, the company behind the project, plans to build the 55,000-square-foot structure on 7.5 acres at 7428 Industrial Way, near Schoeneck and Alburtis roads.
Because the site falls within Lower Macungie’s Office, Research and Light Industrial Center district, township zoning rules allow light industry there by right.
“The most recent submission that was made did address the comments that were remaining from the planning department. We do believe that those can be managed.”Lower Macungie Township Planner Nathan Jones
Current plans call for a building with seven tractor-trailer receiving docks and parking for nine trucks in all, plus 63 standard parking spaces.
It will use existing stormwater basins at the site, which is otherwise an “open field,” according to township Planner Nathan Jones.
NP Land Holdings will address a handful of concerns raised by township staff, officials said, in part by adding more crosswalks and planning to seed native plants in the site’s stormwater basins.
“The most recent submission that was made did address the comments that were remaining from the planning department,” Jones said. “We do believe that those can be managed.”
Unanimous vote
The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend final land development approval for the project.
The body also recommended waivers allowing steeper walls in its detention ponds, fewer street trees and different stormwater pipe materials than township land development rules typically permit.
The developer has not yet found a tenant for the site, NP Land Holdings co-owner Lisa Pektor told the planning commission, and does not plan to start construction until it identifies one or two companies looking to buy.
“It's really expensive to buy the land, do all the site work, build the building, and then just have it sit there vacant,” Pektor said.
“We like to have somebody identified before we undertake building a nine-million-dollar building and getting a loan for such construction.”
However, most prospective tenants looking to build a new facility prefer a site with all the necessary permits already in place, Pektor said, so the developer will continue working through the land development approval process.
Though the exact use is not yet clear, the finished building could house “light manufacturing including general, metal, electronics or wood products, ultra-light manufacturing, or packaging of products,” township Engineer Bryan McAdam wrote in his review letter.
With the planning commission's recommendation in hand, NP Land Holdings’s next stop is the Lower Macungie board of commissioners for final land development approval.
The developer would need township permission to make major changes to the project after officials sign off.
