A proposed warehouse for North Whitehall Township was met with skepticism by members of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission’s Comprehensive Planning Committee.
During Tuesday’s virtual meeting, the committee voted to add extra teeth to a draft letter on Trammell Crowe Co.’s proposed 547,500-square-foot building along Route 309 near the intersection with Orefield and Kernsville roads.
“I noticed that from this site, it’s nearly 5 miles to Route 22,” committee member Sunny Ghai said. “It seems to me that where it’s located that far away from any major roads is going to also be problematic for [Route] 309. It just seemed to me that the distance was alarming.”
Before voting to send the letter to the full commission, the committee added an amendment that stated the project “does not conform” with the LVPC’s comprehensive plan, FutureLV.
After getting negative feedback on the project from members of the public, LVPC Treasurer Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen suggested the language be added.
“I think it’s an excellent idea,” said committee Chairperson Stephen Melnick, who reminded the audience that the township will have the final decision on the project.
The final draft of the letter, along with the amendment — which is addressed to North Whitehall Manager Randy Cope — will be taken up by the LVPC on Thursday. Other items that moved along included renovation of the former Dixie Cup factory in Wilson and the extension of Riverside Drive from Allentown into Whitehall Township.
Michael Siegel, who said he was representing Lowhill Township and is a former North Whitehall zoning and code enforcement officer, said that part of North Whitehall should not be part of a light industrial zone.
“The infrastructure is not there to handle a warehouse in this facility,” Siegel said, noting that truck traffic to the warehouse could travel on Kernsville Road through Lowhill.
“There’s a tremendous amount of traffic going to be generated by this one single facility and I would urge the planning commission members not just to take the letter that you have, but actually make this a prime example of why this does not meet the Lehigh Valley comprehensive plan for Lehigh and Northampton counties,” Siegel said. “This goes way beyond this project and goes way beyond a normal stack warehouse in an industrial zone.”
Kim Weinberg, from Northwestern Lehigh Residents for Smart Growth, said the Lehigh Valley doesn’t need more spec warehouses, which are built before a tenant is found.
“This certainly is a square peg in a round hole,” Weinberg said. “Honestly, I think this a big hell no, we should not even entertain this.”
In the draft letter, LVPC planners Joseph Dotta, Jillian Seitz and Brian Hite found issues with development of the 71.1-acre site at 3121 Route 309 that covers four parcels and has a residence along with agricultural land and woods.
The warehouse, which is planned to be 50 feet high, “greatly surpasses the scale of surrounding developments,” the letter said. It noted that the land is zoned light industrial and is in the farmland preservation area in the FutureLV general land plan.
The planners also worried about the infrastructure around the property. Traffic studies found that the warehouse would average more than 900 vehicles, including 300 trucks, daily. There were other concerns about a variety of issues, including a lack of sewer and public water, stormwater and potential sinkholes.
Dixie Cup factory rehabilitation
Skyline Investment Group plans to reconstruct the iconic building that used to manufacture Dixie Cup products from 1921 until the early 1980s, and has been mostly vacant since.
It is proposing an adaptive reuse of the building into 405 apartments with 3,373 square feet of commercial space. The project at 315 S. 24th St. in Wilson is estimated to cost $155 million.
Moritz-Chapelliquen wanted to know about access to the Wilson bike path, which runs along the western side of the property.
“Do we know if the emergency gate there would impede access to the bike path if that were to be added in there?” he asked. “I know there’s a bunch of different types of gates that could be put in so that’s part of the reason why to flag that.”
Neil Griffin, the project’s architect, said the developers have heard the recommendations to add access on the north side of the site from 24th Street.
“Currently, the southwestern portion of the site plan is where we have the existing bike connection and a new sidewalk that actually connects all the way to 24th Street,” Griffin said. Bike storage would be on that southwestern portion in the building.
“So we take the connection between pedestrians on 24th street and people in the building and we’ll be able to use that southwestern connection quite easily,” he said.
Moritz-Chapelliquen said the connection on the southwestern side made sense, though he was still concerned about accessibility from the north end of the property because it may be used by people coming from Wilson High School. He noted that there are multiple trail access points at the nearby Silk Mill complex in Easton.
“The bike path is largely inaccessible for folks,” he said. “I do think that the question of access on the northern side of the site still is a bit unresolved, so I would maybe even underscore that point in the recommendation, particularly thinking about folks who are not necessarily residents of the building having access, recognized that you have that high school immediately to the to the east of the site and the elementary school right after that.”
Riverside Drive extension
The committee also moved a draft letter reviewing the proposed extension of Riverside Drive about 2.3 miles along the Lehigh River, along with a multiuse trail, between Furnace Street in Allentown and Wood Street/Lehigh Avenue in Whitehall.
There would be connections to Route 22 at Fullerton Avenue, as well as Jordan Drive and Kimmet Avenue.
Siegel asked if a pedestrian bridge could be built across the river to connect the trail with the Delaware & Lehigh Trail on the opposite bank.
“If you’re going to invite pedestrians who want to use that trail, there are some people that just cannot walk the entire trail and would like to cross over to the other side,” he said.
LVPC Executive Director Becky Bradley said there are plans to create a trailhead near the Race Street bridge from Catasauqua, but a new bridge isn’t part of it.
“There’s a very large plan that the D&L is the lead on to create loops to both sides of the Lehigh River in a number of locations using existing infrastructure all throughout that route area between Bethlehem, up into Allentown and then into Whitehall, between Catty, Whitehall and Northampton.”
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com .
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