About 75 residents packed a hearing in Lower Nazareth Township
concerning the latest proposal for a massive warehouse project.
Industrial Developments International needs conditional-use
approval for an 822,000-square-foot warehouse project between Hecktown and
Newburg roads. Six years ago, the company proposed a similar project of three
warehouses totaling 1.2 million square feet at Newburg Road and Northwood
Avenue.
Residents from Lower Nazareth and Palmer townships raised
concerns about lighting, noise and air pollution, water issues and decreased
property values.
Palmer Township resident Ginger Buchser worried that winds
will send the diesel soot into the community, noting the American Cancer
Society links lung cancer to exposure of diesel fuel particles. Attorney
Nicholas Noel, representing residents George Cortelyou and Margaret and Ian
Schofield, also questioned both Industrial Developments International Regional
Managing Director Frank Petkunas and project engineer Brian Evans on the diesel
fuel concerns.
Petkunas said he was unaware of it ever being a problem in
his time with the company. When asked if he thought it would be an issue, Evans
said, "If I stand on top of a smoke stack and sniff it, yes."
Petkunas assured Newburg Road resident Melissa Garcsar that
laws limiting truck idling time would be enforced. Evans told her he couldn’t
guarantee the project will be sinkhole-free.
"If there are sinkholes during construction, there will
be repairs," Evans said.
Evans said berms will shield neighbors from lights at the
complex. All lights will point down, he said, but admitted some noise could get
over the walls.
"The design is intended to hide the trucks," Evans
said.
Six years ago, supervisors approved the larger version of
the project but mandated the developer complete an air-quality study, upgrade a
connector road, screen buildings and lights from neighbors and limit the hours
of outside activity to between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Following a failed Northampton County court appeal of the
township-imposed restrictions in 2009, IDI returned with plans for a single
warehouse next to the Milham Automotive Group on Hecktown Road. The sites for
both projects are zoned light industrial and are comprised of farmland.
Supervisors did not take action and continued the five-hour
hearing at Lower Nazareth Elementary School to 4 p.m. Feb. 10, which also will
be held at the school.
Petkunas testified the tenant will likely be a Fortune 500
distributor of consumer products. Petkunas said the new project will have 170
trucking bays and significantly less truck traffic than the first one.
He said trucks would make about 500 trips a day and admitted
it likely would be a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation. He estimated the
township, Northampton County and schools would receive $800,000 annually in
revenue from a development with no impact on the school system, police,
emergency services or public works.
"It's a completely different project," Petkunas
said. "It's immediately adjacent to the interchange. The Route 33 corridor
was designed to accommodate economic development."
The developer’s attorney, Blake Marles, said the new plan
has 34 percent fewer square feet than the old one. It has 211 parking spaces
versus 633, fewer truck and car trips and will be subject to a new state law
that forces trucks not to idle more than five minutes per hour. Marles said the
closest residence to the new project is 940 feet away. There are several others
that are closer but are zoned for industrial use, Marles said.
Source: LehighValleyLive.com
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