Multiple White Township residents told their planning board that they are not afraid of being sued if the township rezones industrial districts to prevent millions of square feet of warehouses that may be built.
White Township’s Planning Board has been reviewing its master plan and zoning ordinances for the last several months.
After Jaindl Land Co. announced plans in April to develop 585 acres along the Delaware River in Warren County, many residents of the townships and surrounding communities asked the board to revise and update the master plan.
An 800,000-square-foot warehouse on the property is currently in the process of a land development hearing and the township has received a second application from Jaindl for a 1.7 million-square-foot warehouse, according to Board Chairman Tim Matthews.
Members of Citizens for Sustainable Development have proposed rezoning the industrial and low-density industrial, or LDI, districts south of Belvidere, where the Jaindl property is located, to be limited to agricultural uses.
In October, the board did not go that far but discussed rezoning the areas for residential housing only.
Developer David Jaindl has said that he purchased the property because it was zoned for commercial and industrial use. Jaindl’s lawyer Anthony Sposaro vaguely threatened that a change to disallow warehouses would be a problem.
“If you continue to march forward,” Sposaro warned in October, “you are going to have one giant mess on your hands.”
In January, the board discussed a revised plan that would limit the industrial districts to high-cube warehouses, which are highly automated and generate less traffic, according to board engineer Paul Sterbenz.
Sposaro said his client would be agreeable to that change since the proposed development would be built for use as a high-cube warehouse.
However, after feedback from residents and several board members, a further revised master plan was proposed at Wednesday’s board meeting.
The latest iteration of the amended plan would eliminate warehouses and office buildings, except as accessory uses, in the 1496 acres zoned industrial south of Belvidere.
“We eliminated warehouses and offices from the LDI district altogether because they are major traffic generators,” Sterbenz said.
A special overlay district, which mostly encompasses the Jaindl property, would allow high-cube warehouses with stricter limitations. The current zoning ordinance restricts a building’s footprint to be 35% of the property’s area. The amended ordinance would reduce that to 10%.
Also, the total lot coverage of a property, including parking lots and driveways, currently has a maximum coverage of 60%. That would be reduced to 25%.
The “downzoning” would limit a potential of over 9 million square feet of warehousing to 2.6 million square feet, Sterbenz said.
However, many of the nearly 150 residents in attendance Wednesday said that limited warehouses would still affect the rural character of the community. Many said they object to a specially created “Jaindl overlay district.”
Matthews told the crowd that since Jaindl’s applications have already been received, the township cannot legally change the zoning for that property.
“They already have the applications in,” Matthews said. “Changing to an agricultural zone won’t make a single bit of difference.”
“If someone hands you a conforming application, you have one answer, yes,” Board member Drew Kiszonak said.
Kacy Manahan, a lawyer from the Delaware Riverkeepers Network, challenged that assertion. The board should not consider one applicant’s desire to develop when looking at the master plan.
Changing the zoning to agricultural would be consistent with the current master plan’s goal to preserve and enhance the rural character of the township, Manahan said.
Resident Elain Reichart said the board has legal standing to change zoning to disallow warehouses.
“You have an obligation as a planning board to follow the master plan,” Reichart said. “The community rules over individual applications if it doesn’t fit with community goals. It’s legally been proven.”
Resident Christine Compton urged the board to fight for the will of the people who do not want overdevelopment.
“On the record, I’m not afraid of a lawsuit,” Compton said.
Others in the audience said they agreed that the township should fight development even if it means getting sued.
“We will support you and whatever mess gets thrown on us,” resident Linda Belstra said.
The board is scheduled to continue the Jaindl land development hearing on March 10.
John Best is a freelance contributor to lehighvalleylive.com. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
