Jaindl Land Co. announced plans to build a 1.8 million-square-foot warehouse on its White Township property where an 800,000-square-foot warehouse is also proposed.
The developer’s attorney said there will not be a third warehouse planned, capping the warehouse development at 2.6 million square feet.
Tuesday night, the White Township Planning Board deemed as administratively complete Jaindl’s subdivision and site plan for the 1.8 million-square-foot, high-cube warehouse. The completeness ruling is conditioned on the township engineer approving several outstanding technical issues with the plan.
The plan will still need to go through the township’s land development planning process and be approved by the White Township Committee.
Jaindl’s 800,000-square-foot warehouse was already being reviewed during an ongoing planning board hearing.
Large crowds of people from White Township and surrounding communities have attended several township meetings and expressed strong opposition to Jaindl’s plans for its 585 acres at Foul Rift and South Foul Rift roads, off Route 519 and along the Delaware River. The land is currently being used for agriculture.
The property is in White’s low-density industrial zoning district and is legally zoned for over 6 million square feet of development. Jaindl attorney Anthony Sposaro said the total proposed 2.6 million square feet will be the limit of industrial development on the property.
“What you see is the totality of what is proposed for here,” Sposaro told the planning board Tuesday. “There will be no further development that is proposed. Period.”
Sposaro said his client will go through county and state agencies to deed-restrict, for agricultural use only, areas east of power lines that bisect the property.
A technical review of the new plan is scheduled at April’s planning board meeting. At a later meeting, a hearing will be held to hear testimony from the developer’s experts for both projects.
Sposaro and the board have agreed to hold the hearing for both proposed warehouses concurrently. The developments abut each other, will use the same sewer and stormwater systems and will feature the same witnesses.
Theresa Chapman, a member of Citizens for Sustainable Development that opposes the development, said township officials should listen to residents’ concerns and deny the development applications.
The group’s members has been urging the township to rezone the area for agricultural use or other uses that promote agriculture. The change would be consistent with the township’s master plan goals, they argue.
Sposaro has said in the past that his client purchased the land because it was zoned for industrial and commercial uses. The township might face a legal challenge if it were to rezone the property now, he said.
John Best is a freelance contributor to lehighvalleylive.com. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
