Bell & Evans gets green light for Bethel Twp. processing and packaging facility

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The Bethel Township Zoning Board voted on May 22 to approve a use variance request from Bell & Evans concerning its 241 Blue Mountain Road property, which currently is farmland.

The granted variance will allow for the processing, packaging, and storage of agricultural products at that location once two facilities are constructed there. One would be for cold storage of products while the other would be a tray-packing operation.

The variance request was in addition to several others for the nearly 63-acre property that were also approved by the township’s zoning board.  

Beth Kohl, the company’s real estate attorney, provided to the zoning board an overview of the proposed use variance, a special exception request for the height of one building and the widening of the driveway on Blue Mountain Road, the latter having “enough width at the property line for proper truck movements at that location.”

“In addition to the use variance, and to be clear, that property is currently in the agricultural zoning district, and so we are seeking to have this use on that property,” Kohl said. “We subsequently, if that is approved, we’d be looking for relief in the form of a special exception to allow height above 35 feet with a variance to have the building height for the facility at a height of 75 feet.”

In April 2023, the company purchased the 62.69-acre farm at 241 Blue Mountain Road for $2.5 million. The company recently announced their planned expansion would include a processing and storage facility for its poultry products processed at Plant 3, which is located adjacent to the Blue Mountain Road farm.

Kohl asked Michael Bracrella, chief operating officer of Bell & Evans, how his employer plans to utilize the farm property on Blue Mountain Road given its proximity to Plant 3.

“We would consolidate our shipping areas and we would store finished products there. So that would kind of be where we would cross-dock from and it would be our intentions to physically connect the existing Plant 3 site and the future Plant 4 site by conveyor to directly transfer product over to that warehouse … to eliminate trucks,” Bracrella said. “And the tray pack facility would also be connected in such a way and this would support what goes on at Plant 2 right now.”

He also provided an estimated timetable for the company’s future growth in the Fredericksburg area, particularly with the cold storage facility.

“To give you some idea of timing, you know, the cold storage we’d be looking to get going on pretty soon here. Our hope would be to have that up and going sometime in 2027 and the tray pack facility would be a little bit down the road, probably 2030 or 2031,” said Bracrella, who gave the caveat that those dates are a “best estimate” at this time.

Bracrella told Kohl that he knows the township is undergoing a review of its zoning ordinances, but is seeking the use variance now since they are “in a little bit of a timing situation” depending upon when the new zoning proposal would be implemented.

At a separate hearing just prior to this one, township zoning officer Jackie Hollenbach made a similar comment, noting the township’s zoning ordinances are being revised and include a proposal to encourage various agricultural uses within the predominantly zoned agricultural municipality. A date for a vote on the proposal has not yet been set. 

“We would seek this variance so we could develop this a little bit sooner than we think that zoning change would happen,” stated Bracrella. It is unknown when the changes will be presented to the township supervisors for approval.

Concerning the current entrance onto the farm on Blue Mountain Road near Chestnut Hill Road, Bracrella told Kohl when asked that the entrance would only be used in a certain scenario.

“The truck entrance that we are showing on Blue Mountain Road, we would change that to be an emergency use only and our proposal would be that all traffic onto the campus would enter and exit through the current Plant 3 entrances and exits and that would apply to team members and trucks,” said Bracrella, who confirmed for Kohl that Plant 3 is located to the west of the Blue Mountain Road property.  

Bracrella added that the company is going to go to “some pretty decent extent” to “keep trucks and vehicles on our campus and keep them off the road.” He later confirmed when asked by Kohl that the plan would minimize truck traffic overall between their plants.

“We’re literally gonna build a tunnel there so we can get the team members under to this rear parking lot when we further develop the site and pass the trucks over top. So we’re doing our best to keep our traffic off of Chestnut Hill Road especially,” Bracrella said.

It was stated during the hearing that Plant 4 will be built in the future in proximity to Plant 3.

“Just to point out, the processing Plant 4 is already an approved subdivision from that original land development plan for Plant 3. We could draw a building permit for that and we need to do some additional traffic studies and things but we’re free to move (forward) there,” said Bracrella.

Kohl asked if Bell & Evans officials were aware that there are traffic safety concerns regarding Blue Mountain and Chestnut Hill roads. Township officials have fielded those concerns from residents at various meetings.

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Prior attempts by the poultry producer to change the zoning on the farm from agricultural to manufacturing have been denied by township officials until the company makes traffic safety improvements they previously agreed to implement along those two roadways, which include limited sight distances there.

“We’ve been working with the township and the township’s traffic engineer to study Chestnut Hill Road and all the surrounding roads and we have a proposal on the table and we’re just waiting for the study to be done so that we could present that for some potential changes on Chestnut Hill Road,” Bracrella said. “The studies are based on the full build-out on this site (Blue Mountain Road farm) as we’re depicting.”

He said Bell & Evans would be agreeable to a condition of approval providing the company would work with the township “through the land development process for this site to ensure that any necessary traffic and roadway changes are implemented.”

Bracrella confirmed for the zoning hearing board that the company plans to continue to grade below the roadway level along Chestnut Hill Road to limit lights from shining into neighboring properties. 

“If you’re familiar with the Plant 3 site … we’re below grade of Chestnut Hill Road and that was very intentional for us to do that. We could have quite easily stayed higher on that road and it would be our intention to follow that same theme as we continue to go east and stay below the grade of Chestnut Hill Road,” he said. 

There’s also a plan to install a visual buffer along Blue Mountain Road, Bracrella said.

“So we’ve received approval from the conservation district. We haven’t formally proposed this to the township yet. We’re looking to do a 10-foot burn on the east side of the property, parallel with Blue Mountain Road, and we would burn that whole entire end of the property,” Bracrella said, adding that it would include a necessary cutout for an emergency access driveway. 

“We would, right now, just cut where that existing driveway is that goes back to the farm, and then we would go back and modify it at a later date,” he said. “The widening of the entrance along Blue Mountain Road that was granted is to allow fire trucks to have better access to the property in case of an emergency.”

Bracrella answered “correct” when asked about a requirement that would apply to the special exception for the building height to exceed 35 feet and a variance to exceed the 50 feet up to a height of 75 feet for the building. The requirement is that the company will provide a setback of one additional foot for every foot of height above 35 feet. 

Additionally, he answered in the affirmative twice when asked if he’s discussed with the Fredericksburg fire chief if there is adequate equipment and water pressure to handle an emergency at the cold storage facility. He noted there are no issues with the nearby airport for a structure that tall.

Kohl asked Bracrella if there were potentially other variance requests concerning this facility the company would anticipate in the future, and he answered there may be. 

“We’re in the very early stages of design for the cold storage specifically and there’s a chance we would come back and request a further height variance but just not far enough in the design to give that height yet. We think it’s going to be in the 120- to 130-foot neighborhood,” Bracrella said. “We’re considering a very automated freezer with these automatic retrieval cranes.”

Bracrella said the use of automated equipment is common. 

“Typically when we do that we like to go higher. Specifically we would do that. We try to never put team members that have to work in a freezer all day. So these newer units we would put robots in there, the robot cranks would do all the picking and it keeps the team member out of the sub-zero temperatures. So we’re just still early on this design,” he added.

Bracrella informed the zoning hearing board that the new cold storage and tray packing buildings would only be used for Bell & Evans products and that the broilers would be processed through their facilities, specifically at Plant 3 and at Plant 4 once it is built. 

It was asked prior to the vote if it was explicitly stated that the site would be used for the processing and packaging for agricultural and animal products. It is, and the board noted that it “always includes a condition that the approval must remain consistent with the evidence and testimony that was presented at the hearing.”

The vote to grant the variance was 2-1 with board chairman Gary Lentz and member Richard Rabuck approving the request and Wesley Harding Jr. voting no. The other requests were all unanimous votes of the board.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of attorney Beth Kohl. We sincerely regret the error.