Union Township supervisors vote down rezoning for larger warehouse

The Union Township Board of Supervisors voted against rezoning an 8.67-acre tract of land on Bohn's Lane from Agricultural to Industrial during the Jan. 10 meeting following a nearly two-hour public hearing on the matter.

Supervisor Dennis Firestone was not able to attend the meeting due to medical reasons.

Mickey Thompson, vice president of land development and in-house counsel for Burkentine Builders, engineer for civil engineering firm Kimley-Horn Justin Moceri, and the developer's attorney David Tshudy gave some background on the subject at the start of the hearing.

Tshudy explained that during the Feb. 8, 2023 board meeting, the supervisors passed ordinance #185, which rezoned a 6-acre portion of property known as the Mease farm from Agriculture to Industrial, which Burkentine was looking to move forward with a development project on. One portion of the Mease property was originally zoned Agricultural, while the larger portion was zoned Industrial.

The property to be be rezoned in the hearing located at 30 Bohn's Lane is right next to the Mease farm property and would have connected the industrial site to Bohn's Lane. It would have also allowed the builders to build a larger warehouse on the site.

Thompson said that that Burkentine Builders had no intention of doing anything other than rezoning that portion of the Mease farm and build a warehouse on that tract, but it was brought to their attention that the Shuey family's property would be significantly impacted by the warehouse simply because they shared a boundary line.

"One of the member supervisors suggested we speak with the Shuey's, and we did, and one of the supervisors actually said they could not support underlying requests for a zoning map amendment unless the Shuey property or Shuey tract was included in that request," Thompson said. "So I met personally with the Shuey family and we had several discussions and thankfully we were able to write an agreement of sale which is contingent upon rezoning of, or the map amendment of this property."

"That's the nexus of why we're here. This wasn't planned."

Moceri and Thompson presented a sketch plan, drawn up by Kimley-Horn, showing the maximum size of a warehouse they could put on the property if the rezoning ordinance was passed. Moceri said the sketch represented a warehouse approximately 400,000 to 450,000 square feet.

Moceri also mentioned that if the property was developed as shown on their sketch plan, it could provide $2,532 in tax revenue for the township and an additional $167,793 to the school district in tax revenue.

Thompson said the sketch plan was created to show not only the maximum size of a warehouse and what kind of setback there would be, but how by rezoning the Shuey property they could address some of the concerns raised by residents such as traffic, lights, noise and idling of tractor trailers.

In the sketch plan, the side of the warehouse facing Interstate 81 would be where truck docking and parking would be, and the side facing State Route 72, facing the residential area, would be for employee parking. Tractor trailers would be coming off Bohn's Lane and into the back of the warehouse, rather than from SR-72. Thompson explained that they would not be able to do that with the original plan.

Thompson said after the meeting that they plan to continue with their plan to put a warehouse on the Mease property.

What did the people say?

There was standing room only at the township office during the hearing, with residents largely in opposition to the proposed rezoning.

A dozen residents expressed their concerns about the impacts that a warehouse would have, ranging from how it would affect neighboring homes to the impact additional tractor trailer traffic could have on the safety of their roads to how additional pollutants from trucks could impact the health of the community and its proximity to the Swatara Rail Trail and Appalachian Trail.

Lisa Boltz spoke on behalf of her mother, Tammy Boltz, who was sick and not able to attend the meeting. She explained that her mother had recently purchased a home right across from the land proposed to be rezoned, saying that had they known the warehouse was coming, they would have never invested their money into Union Township. Her deepest concerns were how the warehouse could impact their and their neighbor's property, the safety of the roads and an increase of trash and debris on the roads from the increased truck traffic.

"And not to mention, when we're talking about safety, we're talking about fatalities," Boltz said. "Are you going to seriously sit here and tell me that for $2,500 to you and $167,000 to the school is worth a human life, your constituent's possibile life?"

Boltz requested that a show of hands be included in the minutes showing how many constituents in the room were against the rezoning of the property, with the overwhelming majority raising their hands. Several residents in the room also handed the board petitions to be submitted for consideration.

Marty Finlan, who also lives near the land, questioned whether the proposed changes really help with traffic, saying that truckers would still take SR-72 rather than I-81 because it's closer for them.

"There's only two people in the room that want this because their backs are against the wall now. Nobody in this room wants this, nobody," said Finlan. "I don't understand this. I asked Dennis, how many people does it take to change your minds, how many? If this doesn't change your minds, there's something wrong."

Supervisor Gary Longenecker responded by saying the township has 3,000 people in it, which caused an uproar in the crowd.

Thomas Phelan raised the issue of overnight truck parking. Phelan presented the hypothetical of a driver who, in the middle of the night, had run out of hours and is required to stop for 10 consecutive hours under federal law.

"The Love's Truck Stop is filled, the Grantville rest areas are filled, why do you see all of these trucks parked all over the highway and the entrance and exits ramps up and down 81 and 78?" Phelan said. "It's because of that exact scenario where municipalities all over Central Pennsylvania have approved this type of use without taking into account the needs for the overnight parking."

Longenecker said after the vote that he decided to vote against the rezoning because of the community turnout that he saw and that he agreed with some of the points made during public comment, adding that had the seen this kind of turnout during the the meetings to rezone the Mease property, maybe the supervisors would have chosen a different outcome.

Supervisor Kerry McCrary, who voted against the rezoning of the Mease property, said that he didn't believe it was a good idea, and didn't think this rezoning would be a good idea either, that adding more truck traffic would have negative effects on the township.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Union Twp. PA supervisors vote down rezoning of Bohn's Lane property