The Morning Call reports (read the article here) that First Industrial PA has purchased property on which plans for a warehouse had previously been submitted and First Industrial plans to do the same.
The proposed facility would be a 700,000 square foot building near routes 248 and 33.
The Planning Commission noted little could be specifically addressed until a conditional use permit was requested by First Industrial.
4 comments:
What another waste of space employing very few unskilled workers.
Imagine if the powers to be would think outside the box and entice larger corporations (perhaps a few that so many residents commute long distances into NJ and NY for)to create satellite offices here in the Valley.
A few benefits? Better job opportunities for our residents, workers to spend their dollars at lunch time in OUR stores and restaurants, increased taxes into our local municipalities, better quality of life for those with long commutes...
Your comment raises a good question, "Who are the power to be?"
Who is responsible for drawing corporate parks and retail to the Nazareth area?
Right now no-one as far as I can tell.
The Nazareth Area 2030 plan was developed to help the municipalities work together to meet zoning requirements and thereby protect some of our natural landscape and environment (my summary, not official line of the plan), but we don't have a Nazareth Economic Development Authority.
You can't blame Supervisors if someone comes to them with a plan that meets zoning requirements (of course you can if variances are given against residents desires).
I think you will start to see businesses move here once enough intellectual capital is in place and if the cost doesn't exceed that to move and what they are leaving.
Ironically, for years industrial areas like our own (steel, cement, and mills) watched their best and brightest go to college with few returning. Now professionals are moving here.
Couple these new residents with the large number of colleges and you've got a tremendous talent pool for business to draw from.
There are opportunities out there, but without a coordinated effort we will continue to see businesses locate to other areas.
Ross, you have pointed out the biggest problem with development in our area. The local governments are not looking for it, only waiting for it to fall in their laps.
LNT has complained about the number of trucks going in and out of the terminal already in place, yet they are looking at adding more of them.
Just because they approached the township with a proposal does not mean they have to say yes to it.
These terminals add little value to the community in jobs, but do add quite a few headaches.
At the rate they are going, our area will soon look like that outside of Allentown along I-78.
I don't disagree that they are going in faster than one can imagine in Lower and they are better than homes from the standpoint of the schools, but I'd much rather have a professional office complex as it is much better for the tax base.
My experience watching Council over the past year or so is that the Council is challenged to meet the obligations of running the borough. They are very much a working body.
Given this it would be difficult for them to additionally perform the duties of an economic development authority.
Further, it is my understanding that if the request meets zoning they can't deny it because they don't like it. There has to be a reason why it doesn't meet zoning.
The Nazareth Area 2030 program took multiple municipalities and tried to take a regional approach to zoning and development/growth.
We don't have a Nazareth Area Economic Development Authority and that is what we need because I don't believe any of these governments will have the resources to do this on their own.
I guess it is an unfortunate reality of the region's growth.
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