One of the goals of White Township’s master plan is to “preserve and enhance the rural character” of the township.
The township’s planning board took steps last week to achieve that goal.
On Tuesday, Dec. 29, the White Township Planning Board approved an amendment to the township’s guiding planning document.
The amendment significantly reduces the allowable size of developments in the township’s industrial zoning districts from building up to 35% of a property’s square footage to a maximum of 5% building coverage.
Also, the overall maximum lot coverage has been reduced from 60% to 15% and the maximum building height has been reduced from 90 feet to 40 feet.
A Maser Consulting report for the township stated that up to 17.4 million square feet of floor area could potentially have been built in the industrial districts under the old plan.
Route 519, which has one travel lane in each direction that runs through the township, has a capacity to accommodate about 1,200 vehicles per hour in each direction, according to Maser Consulting.
A full buildout of the industrial districts at 35% coverage would need to accommodate over 25,000 peak hour trips for office development, 12,000 peak hour trips for light industrial or manufacturing uses, 8,500 peak hour trips for research and development uses, or 2,300 peak hour trips for warehousing uses.
“This would necessitate substantial infrastructure improvements to accommodate the number of peak hour trips for those permitted uses,” according to the report, “including roadway widening from two lanes to four lanes and signalized traffic control at several intersections.”
The newly approved coverage maximum of 5% significantly reduces the potential traffic on township roads.
“Under the proposed zoning scheme, the peak hours trips at full buildout is projected at between 1,800 and 2,900 trips,” the report states. “While these trips at full buildout would eventually exceed the existing roadway capacity, the immediate impacts are greatly reduced.”
Existing development plans that have already been submitted to the township, like the 1,800,000-square-foot and 800,000-square-foot warehouses proposed by developer Jaindl Land Co., would not be required to adhere to the new amendment.
At the request of another developer, the amendment also added self-storage facilities as a permitted use on the land north of Route 46 near Upper Sarepta Road.
John Best is a freelance contributor to lehighvalleylive.com. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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