NORTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — Plans for a broadly opposed 501,000-square-foot warehouse at Route 309 and Orefield Road was denied approval by North Whitehall Township supervisors Monday.
The supervisors gave no specific reasons for their decision ahead of the 3-0 vote to reject the plan.
Developer Trammell Crow sought land development approval for the project, called Nexus 78. It would require no zoning variances or other special permissions from township officials; warehouses are allowed by right on the site.
“If a plan complies with the objective provisions of the applicable [Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance], the plan must be approved. Only objective, legitimate, substantive planning issues can support a plan denial. There is no legal basis for denial of the [Nexus 78] plan.”Kate Durso, an attorney representing developers Trammell Crow,
The company likely will appeal the supervisors’ decision. Kate Durso, an attorney representing Trammell Crow, told board members Monday they have no legal right to reject the project.
“If a plan complies with the objective provisions of the applicable [Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance], the plan must be approved," Durso said.
"Only objective, legitimate, substantive planning issues can support a plan denial. There is no legal basis for denial of the [Nexus 78] plan.”
As in previous meetings dealing with the proposal, much of the friction between township residents, officials and the developer came from traffic.
North Whitehall’s traffic engineering consultant, Scott Pasterski, wrote in a review letter that tractor-trailers should not be allowed to turn left out of the warehouse’s driveway onto Route 309.
While the current design is not “quote-unquote unsafe” and meets state minimum requirements, he said, drivers would be safer with the restriction in place.
Durso told township planners that her client would not accept the restriction as a condition of land development approval.
Because Route 309 is a state road overseen by that state Transportation Department, she argued, township officials cannot impose restrictions related to highway access.
Traffic studies
Traffic studies submitted to PennDOT as part of the highway occupancy permitting process — and which the agency accepted — did not include such a restriction, Durso said.
Ben Guthrie, a traffic engineer with Traffic Planning and Design working for Tramell Crow, said the developer’s traffic study found that the level of delay at 309 and Orefield Road, expressed as an A-F letter grade, would not change after the warehouse opens and PennDOT concludes its Route 309 improvement project.
North Whitehall’s traffic engineer said that if the warehouse begins operation before the improvement project wraps up, resulting traffic could create more significant delays than PennDOT would accept.
PennDOT will review the plans as part of the highway occupancy permitting process, according to representatives for the developer.
Project has drawn residents' ire
Monday night’s decision represented a major victory for dozens of people filling nearly every available seat in the Lehigh Carbon Community College meeting room where the board of supervisors convened.
Above all, the commenters raised concerns about what additional heavy truck traffic could mean for travel times and residents’ safety.
“The increased tractor-trailer traffic that is assumed to be seen with this project… directly impacts the safe transport of children to and from school on a daily basis. This plan has the potential to impede the district to safely transport the 10,000-plus children of Parkland School District.”Parkland School District Assistant Superintendent Timothy Chorones
To a lesser extent, they criticized possible noise, light and air pollution from the warehouse and trucks loading or unloading there.
Much of residents’ ire stems from experience with the enormous 1.3 million-square-foot UNFI warehouse in Schnecksville — and the traffic, noise and pollution it creates.
Several of Monday’s speakers contended that the Nexus 78 project would only make those problems worse.
During public comment, Parkland School District Assistant Superintendent Timothy Chorones told supervisors the district opposes the proposed warehouse.
Chorones cited nearby Orefield Middle School and district transportation infrastructure.
“The increased tractor-trailer traffic that is assumed to be seen with this project… directly impacts the safe transport of children to and from school on a daily basis,” Chorones said.
“This plan has the potential to impede the district to safely transport the 10,000-plus children of Parkland School District.”
Once North Whitehall issues a written denial of Tramell Crow’s plans, lawyers for the company have 30 days to file an appeal in the Lehigh County Court.
