Moore seeks to limit warehouse growth as developer eyes course
“This ordinance is more comprehensive and better protects residents that are contiguous.”
Moore Township officials will attempt to insulate the township from unbridled warehouse encroachment, with a developer eyeing Southmoore Golf Course as a potential site.
Township supervisors Wednesday directed township Solicitor David Backenstoe to advertise an ordinance revision that would allow for warehouses only by conditional use and not by right, as they are currently classified.
Before a gathering of roughly 75 residents at the Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Company, the board voted 3-0 to advertise the revised ordinance for adoption during its Sept. 7 meeting.
The change would require developers to come before the board for approval rather than simply moving forward with their projects, while allowing the township a degree of oversight as to what might and might not be allowed.
“This ordinance is more comprehensive and better protects residents that are contiguous,” Backenstoe said.
Revisions further strengthen those put in place by the township in 2019, he said.
The matter came to a head earlier this year when residents got wind of plans by Water’s Edge at Wind Gap LLC to purchase Southmoore Golf
Course from owner Atul Patel
and convert it into warehouse property, which is allowed as a by right use in the township’s industrial zone.
The plan, provided to the township as a preliminary sketch, calls for two warehouses totaling 800,000 square feet.
In order to better protect residents, the revisions provide strengthened requirements for buffers and berms, including buffers a minimum of 100 feet wide along the street frontage where a warehouse is located, and landscaping with evergreen, flowering and deciduous trees and shrubs that are resistant to diesel exhaust.
It also stipulates precisely how many of each variety of planting must be incorporated, with plantings arranged to provide a visual screening of a minimum of 14 feet tall attained within three years, in addition to the height of the berm, which must reach 14 feet above grade from the side facing away from the property.
Berms will be required along the entire street frontage where a warehouse is placed, and along all property lines that abut residential or agricultural zoning districts, or an existing residential use.
Greater detail was added for traffic study requirements, said Backenstoe, with final results subject to approval by the township and PennDOT should development occur along a state roadway.
Developers will be required to include facility amenities such as lounges, showers and bathrooms for truck drivers; signage prohibiting idling unless required for safety or weather-related reasons; and the installation of mechanical snow scrapers at exit points to remove snow and ice from the rooftops of trucks.
Maximum allowable warehouse height remains unchanged at 44 feet, with 55% impervious coverage permitted.
Gary Bickle, of Beechwood Lane, questioned why another warehouse is needed in Northampton County when so many that have recently been built remain vacant.
And they only create problems once operational, he said.
“We don’t need all of the traffic associated with it and the number of trucks that would come through,” Bickle said.
— Township Solicitor David Backenstoe, about an ordinance revision that would allow for warehouses only by conditional use and not by right