Car dealer wants room at the inn
Business seeks zoning exception from East Allen Township board.
A Nazareth car dealer will open a second location at the former Timberline Inn if East Allen Township grants approvals.
Pennsylvania Venture Capital will lease the former restaurant to Caulfield's Family Auto Sales as a used car sales location if it can secure a special exception to go from one nonconforming use as a restaurant and banquet hall to another for used car sales in the township's agricultural-rural-residential zone.
East Allen's Zoning Hearing Board will consider whether to grant approval during a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the municipal building at 5344 NorBath Boulevard.
There are no plans to expand the existing 17,058-square-foot building at 7191 Beth Bath Pike/ Route 512, Mickey Thompson, chief operating officer for Pennsylvania Venture Capital, told the township Planning Commission on Thursday.
He said he will return with a more detailed site plan if zoners grant the special exception request. The Board of Supervisors will have the final say.
Whitehall developer Abe Atiyeh, owner of Pennsylvania Venture Capital, purchased the property in 2017.
In order to be granted a special exception, the applicant will have to convince zoners that the proposed use is a less-intensive nonconformity than what was in place before, said Joseph Piperato III, township solicitor.
“The use will be a lot less intensive than as a restaurant and banquet hall with late hours and liquor sales; it's a very low-intensity use,” said Thompson.
Jeffrey Caulfield, who owns the Nazareth business, will maintain that location while using the former Timberline Inn site as a showcase for used inventory, Thompson said.
Cars for sale will be driven to the site individually and not transported by trucks, he said.
Two existing apartment units on the second floor will remain, with tenants using the first-floor garage for their vehicles.
The business won't ever have more than three employees working at any one time and will be closed on Sundays per state law, Thompson said, and will only be for used car sales, with no service, repair, body work or auto detailing conducted.
That condition was among several which the Planning Commission attached as conditions for recommending a special exception to the zoning board.
Others include the placement of a barrier along Route 512 to direct cars to enter and exit from a driveway to the rear of the property and to prevent pedestrians from wandering onto the road; no storage of hazardous materials; interconnectivity of alarms between the business and the apartments; placement of signage limiting customer parking on-site and prohibiting it on Route 512 and Locust Road; preventing lighting from illuminating beyond the property; and no use of the existing kitchen.
Thompson said there are no plans to repave the gravel lot after Commissioner Robert Mills voiced concern over stormwater runoff from impervious surface.
Kevin Duffy is a freelance writer.