Supervisors Give Nod to 'First Park 33' Conditional-Use Application

With little fanfare and no public comment, the  on Wednesday approved a conditional-use application for First Park 33, a warehouse project , opposite ProLogis Parkway.

The proposed project includes two warehouses with a combined area of nearly 600,000 square feet. The two buildings will face each other with loading docks running the length of the warehouses, which do not have tenants yet.

The approval, however, was handed down with seven conditions, all of which are meant to help reduce the impact on neighbors who live on Country Club Road -- some of whom turned out at the June 28 meeting to complain that the project would harm their quality of life and property values.

The conditions are:

• Lower the building floor elevation by 2 feet. Raise the berm by 2 feet.

• Plant a variety of evergreen trees. The species of trees will be approved during the land development stage.

• Install a visual screen (solid fence) that is not less than 8 feet high at the top of the berm closest to the building.

• On the residential side of the berm, plant a minimum of 50 large deciduous trees with at least a 3-inch caliper (average height of 15 feet). The trees should be planted every 75 feet.
  
  Between each of the large trees: large shrubs (average height of 8 feet) and a minimum of 100 smaller caliper deciduous trees (average height of 4 to 5 feet at time of planting). The goal: four to five plantings between each large tree.

• The berm should be continued along the northern property line of the third lot.

• All plantings will be maintained and replaced in perpetuity. A dead tree must be replaced with the same species of tree. The new tree can be no less than 50 percent the size of the one it replaced.

• All of these conditions must be included in the land development plan.

Supervisor Martin Boucher abstained from Wednesday night's vote because he was not able to read the full 90-page transcript from the June 28 meeting, in which neighbors of the proposed warehouse complex complained the project could harm their quality of life and property values.

Supervisor Robert Kucsan, however, certified for the record that he read the full transcript, and he was permitted to vote.

Both Boucher and Kucsan were absent from the June 28 meeting.

Before voting took place, Supervisor Gerald Green addressed the handful of residents in the audience.

"We are kind of limited to what we are allowed to do," he said, adding, "Our zoning ordinances allow for the warehouse to go in there. But if the developer does its best to do some of these things, I don’t know what else to say about it. I think all of these [conditions] mentioned are a good idea."

Supervisor James Pennington commended representatives from First Industrial Realty Trust Inc., the company that owns the property, for trying "to minimize the effect on the community."

Neighbors have previously been outspoken about how they may be affected by noise and fumes from whatever company leases the two proposed warehouses.

They also did not like the idea of looking out their windows and seeing large industrial buildings, despite project developers' plans to build a 5-foot-high, tree-lined berm and a 6-foot-high fence to separate the warehouses from neighboring homes.

One woman, a resident of Country Club Road, said the plan -- in particular the proposed wall -- brings back unpleasant memories of growing up in Germany.

“Growing up next to the wall in Berlin ... I'm going to face that again,” she said at the June 28 meeting. “I'm going backwards in time.”

But there is still work to do. A land development plan for First Park 33 will eventually make its way past the township Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. That, too, will need approval before construction can begin.