Developer looking to build nearly 1.3 million square feet of warehouses in New Kingstown

SILVER SPRING TOWNSHIP—Two sketch plans presented to the Silver Spring Township Planning Commission on Thursday night included the construction of nearly 1.3 million square feet of warehouse space in the village of New Kingstown.

Exeter Property Group is proposing a 176,000-square-foot expansion on the east side of a currently existing warehouse building, the former Hershey building, off Dauphin Drive.

Brian Evans, with Evans Engineering, said the originally approved design for the building included this expansion.

To the south of this expansion, along Fry Drive, Exeter is looking to build more than 1.1 million-square-feet of new warehouse space.

Though the two warehouse proposals are close in proximity, they are separate projects, Evans said.

The new warehouse will be a distribution center, Evans said, but the name of the tenant looking to locate there is not yet allowed to be revealed.

What he could share was that the goods that would be housed there are "domestic-type products you have in your house."

Evans said he hopes to be able to share the name of the tenant in the coming months, as the plan moves along in the approval process.

Kathy Pifer, with New Kingstown Vision, said she was grateful that Evans took the time to sit down with the group to discuss their concerns, which especially center on increased truck and train traffic in and near the village, and additional bright lighting around the warehouses.

"We're not always against warehouses," she said, "as long as they're where they are supposed to be."

This area is specifically zoned for industrial use, and is already inhabited by several other warehouses.

Residents weren't nearly as ready to accept a sketch plan presented by Key Development Group last year that would have required an amendment to the zoning ordinance.

Exeter owns 36 acres of land to the south of this proposed new warehouse, Evans said, and plans will likely include storm water drainage into a basin on this agricultural-zoned property, which he said the developer does not plan to develop.

Evans said they are open to subdividing a southern portion of this 36-acre property to donate to the township for another use at a later date.

The same presentation of the sketch plans is scheduled for the board of supervisors meeting at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 17 at the administrative building, 8 Flowers Drive.

Evans said a preliminary plan, which must first proceed through the conditional use process in this particular zoning area, is scheduled to be submitted next month, and the developer has asked for a public hearing date before the board of supervisors on Feb. 25.

Source: PennLive