Mixed reaction to truck stop plan

Turkey Hill off I-78 near Easton border would be expanded

PROPERTIES TO BE INCLUDED IN TURKEY HILL EXPANSION

A Turkey Hill on Morgan Hill Road near the border of Easton’s South Side would expand into a truck stop with two fast food restaurants, a car wash and temporary parking for tractor-trailers exiting Interstate 78, according to a plan pending before Williams Township officials.

The expansion of the Turkey Hill Minit Market at 55 Morgan Hill Road would necessitate buying four neighboring parcels of vacant property totaling nearly 9 acres, according to plans filed with the township.

The Turkey Hill would be expanded into an 11,908-squarefoot building that would include two fast food restaurants. The first restaurant would be 1,930 square feet with 40 seats, and the second would be 1,750 square feet with 20 seats.

There would be a separate, 3,000-square-foot car wash on the property and gas pumps.

The plans also depict a traffic circle from the facility with access onto Morgan Hill Road and Belmont Street.

The preliminary plan received conditional approval from the township’s Zoning Hearing Board at its meeting last month, township Supervisor Ray Abert said.

The Planning Commission must now review the plans before they are sent to the Board of Supervisors for final approval. The next commission meeting is in September, but so far township officials haven’t received an updated plan from Turkey Hill.

A spokesman for Turkey Hill did not return requests for comment Thursday and Friday, nor did the engineer for the project, George Albert of G & Albert Consultants of WilkesBarre.

Township zoners requested the number of tractor-trailers allowed to park at the property be reduced from 40 to 30. They required overnight security at the 24-hour facility, and imposed a three-hour parking limit prohibiting tractor-trailers from staying overnight, zoning board member George Washburn said.

Even without overnight parking, the truck stop would be a welcome addition to the I-78 corridor, said Kevin Stewart, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association.

“There is absolutely a lack of stops along 78. When you look at the 78 corridor, there has been some real growth there with warehousing. There’s been an increase in truck traffic without an increase in parking,” he said.

Truck drivers face regulatory requirements about when they must take breaks, so the lack of parking becomes a real challenge.

A truck driver typically works a 14-hour day. For every eight hours worked, the driver must take at least a 30-minute break, Stewart explained.

“Even though the driver may not park there for more than three hours at a time, that may be all a driver needs to establish a valid rest break, so again, it’s very helpful whenever we have an expansion in truck parking inventory,” Stewart said.

Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., however, said the project is “very concerning,” and traffic is just one of several issues it will bring to the area.

The Turkey Hill is only a few hundred feet from Easton’s South Side. The expanded facility would also back up to St. Joseph Cemetery.

Panto noted stormwater runoff and light pollution as concerns.

“I don’t think it will drive more traffic into the city. I think people will get back on the highway, but certainly it will make that immediate area more congested than it is today,” he said.

The city has no control over the project since it’s outside of Easton’s jurisdiction, but Panto said he’s been following the plan closely and was pleased with some of the restrictions the township zoning board imposed.

From a supervisor’s perspective, Abert sees the expansion as a “win-win situation for the township and school district.”

It would create tax revenue without putting a burden on the district by bringing in more students, which could have been the case if a housing developer bought the surrounding properties, Abert said.

Northampton County property records show the parcels on the plans are owned by Natalie and Anthony Amato, Richard Smith and Michael Agosta.

Christina Tatu can be reached at 610-820-6583 or ctatu@mcall.com