Sewage plans were a major concern for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission as it reviewed projects in Lowhill and Lower Nazareth townships.
In a joint virtual meeting between the LVPC’s Environmental and Comprehensive committees Tuesday, members were presented with draft letters regarding a warehouse proposed for 2951 Betz Court in Lowhill and for an apartment complex at Route 191 and Newburg Road in Lower Nazareth.
Both projects lack public utility infrastructure, such as public sewers.
The Lowhill warehouse, which is planned to be 299,800 square feet, has been part of a long debate in the township over three warehouses that has included litigation for all of them.
The developer, CRG, has filed a private request to the township to include it as part of its Act 537 plan, which is the state’s sewage facilities law. The request was filed in July, and the township has until Monday to respond before it gets sent to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The LVPC was invited to comment on the DEP correspondence. According to township officials, CRG wants the township to allow just one septic field, instead of two.
“Based on assessment of the proposal and its potential impacts, the LVPC believes that expanding public utility infrastructure in this context would be detrimental to the Township and region,” LVPC planners Susan Myerov, Jill Seitz and Corinne Ruggiero wrote in a draft letter.
LVPC Chair Chris Amato said adding services to such businesses in rural townships can be costly. Furing his time with the Lehigh Township government, he saw it first hand, he said.
“We put a municipal service into an area where it didn’t really belong, and it was an oversized facility,” Amato said. “It’s in the middle of the country and, to this day, doesn’t really run all that efficiently. We have among the highest sewage bills in the state because we have municipal services that don’t belong. I would hate to see that repeated in another township.
“I think the idea of foisting urban infrastructure on the backs of the people of Lowhill Township is a very ill-conceived idea.”
Curtis Dietrich, chair of the Lowhill Board of Supervisors, said the Act 537 request does not meet the criteria for the LVPC’s comprehensive plan — FutureLV — and the Northern Lehigh Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Plan .
“We have carefully considered the request, and we will be filing some paperwork with the Department of Environmental Protection in that the request does not meet the criteria in our mind to compel the township to agree with this development,” Dietrich said.
The Lower Nazareth project, dubbed the Evergreen Farms Apartments, was also found to lack “necessary public infrastructure to accommodate the scale of the proposal. Public sewer access is not available, resulting in half of the site to be used to accommodate septic systems serving the development,” according to the draft letter.
The project consists of six garden apartment buildings totaling 144 units and a 2,800-square-foot community center.
The developer wants nine primary septic areas, covering more than 101,000 square feet and give replacement areas covering more than 32,500 square feet.
The letter said developments like this should only be built in areas with public sewer capacity. That area along Route 191 was not intended for such developments, it said.
“Although the region has a substantial housing need, development cannot occur at the expense of the public health, safety, welfare and general interest,” the letter said. “If the proposal moves forward for development the LVPC strongly recommends reducing the size of the development to buildings with roadway frontage to better align with the context of the area and what infrastructure can handle.”
Another potential problem is the frequency of sinkholes in the area, the letter said.
LVPC Commissioner John Gallagher, who is also a Bethlehem Township commissioner, brought up potential traffic problems, as the intersection of Route 191 and Newburg Road has a tendency to back up.
“That intersection at 191 and Newburg Road is already a nightmare intersection,” Gallagher said. “Northbound traffic on 191 sometimes backs up all the way down to Hecktown Road, which is just over half a mile, because traffic wanting to make a left turn to go west on Newburg Road.”
Gallagher suggested adding more forceful language to the letter on the intersection.
Both issues will be discussed at Thursday’s full meeting of the LVPC.
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com .
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