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Upper Macungie resident calls for supervisors to take more control over warehouse development

Kevin Duffy

Fri Mar 06 2020 17:01:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Sunny Ghai, a nearby resident and chairman of the township’s Good Neighbor Coalition, said supervisors need to be more proactive when developers’ appeals come before the zoners. He also called for a review of the composition of the current zoning board and replace members whose views do not align with their own.

The fear of unbridled warehouse development has Upper Macungie Township officials working toward safeguards to guard against them.

AmeriCold’s desire to expand its existing facility at 7150 Ambassador Drive with a warehouse as high as 135 feet has rattled the community and prompted township leaders to seek protection from future appeals.

The zoning hearing board’s decision last September to allow AmeriCold the increased height should never have been left in the hands of an unelected body, a former planning commission member told the board of supervisors Thursday.

Sunny Ghai, a nearby resident and chairman of the township’s Good Neighbor Coalition, said supervisors need to be more proactive when developers’ appeals come before the zoners. He also called for a review of the composition of the current zoning board and replace members whose views do not align with their own.

According to state law, zoning board members can only be removed for malfeasance, Solicitor Andrew Schantz said.

Ghai referenced a June 2017 change in zoning approval rules in the township that made warehouses a special exception rather than conditional use. This change provides a chance for the township to act as an objector to a plan or project it finds problematic.

But the township didn’t oppose the AmeriCold height increase. Ghai said this was a missed opportunity since the township has gone on to sue zoners over the decision.

“I believe that the township lost the opening to have the zoning hearing board deny the zoning variance request from the onset,” he said in prepared remarks. “Instead of using the appeal process as the last resort, we are now in the undesirable position to rely on it as the only resort.”

The change, he said, “resulted in a decision solely made by the zoning hearing board,” a nonelected body that raised the possibility of litigation.

Supervisors should have had representation at the September hearing as objectors rather than simply as observers, said Ghai.

The decision to shift from conditional use to special exception was meant as a placeholder as the township began revising its comprehensive plan and was never intended to be permanent, Community Development Director Daren Martocci said.

He said it was made to afford the township greater power in rebutting facts presented by developers in their proposals.

The special exception process, he said, requires developers “to meet a higher standard” than that allowed by conditional use.

The shift has given the township time to establish reasonable conditions to establish warehouses as well as maintain the property rights of landowners, he said.

Once complete, warehouses will once again be allowed solely as a conditional use, Martocci said.
Schantz, who attended the September hearing along with Martocci, said AmeriCold’s request required them to go through the land development process and seek waivers as an expansion of their current use.

Supervisors last month turned away a proposal by the Atlanta-based, temperature-controlled goods provider to amend their ordinance to allow for the increased height.

Supervisor Sean Gil said zoners are expected to follow their ordinance carefully in making their decisions.

“We want them to follow our ordinance as written,” he said.

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