Jackson Twp. upholds warehouse rejection in agreement with residents

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

The Jackson Township Board of Supervisors on July 21 rejected an appeal regarding the application for warehouses at 50 S. Ramona Road after almost 40 minutes of public comments urging them to do so.

The unusually full room erupted into applause at the decision.

“I think it just reinforces that we’re always listening to the residents of the township,” supervisor Thomas Houtz said.

Leed Equities Group LLC submitted its initial application and plan to build several warehouses on the Ramona Road property on May 16, solicitor Paul Bametzreider said at the last meeting. On May 19, supervisors approved an ordinance regulating warehouses and truck terminals in the township and then rejected the warehouse application on May 27.

Leed Equities’ representation was at the first July meeting to explain their decision to appeal the board’s rejection. Attorney Esch McCombie questioned the ordinance process and said it seemed to target the plan for the Ramona Road project — a claim Jackson Township officials have denied.

Read More: Jackson Twp. receives appeal for South Ramona warehouse application rejection

McCombie said his client has put a lot of work into the project and doesn’t plan on going anywhere else. He said their willingness to edit plans has shown a willingness to work with the township.

There was no legal representative for Leed Equitites Group at the July 21 meeting.

The warehousing proposal has brought months of public comments disagreeing with the possible development on the plot. They’ve raised concerns about the nearby Jackson Elementary School, environmental impacts and, most commonly, increased truck traffic.

Township resident Allen Kohl was one of 10 residents who spoke up during public comment regarding the development. He said many others were worried about truck traffic, but there were many other concerns that should be addressed, also.

“There are issues, as far as I’m concerned, for air pollution issues with the diesel trucks and so forth. We don’t know the increase in those kinds of elements that are emitting pollutants into the air,” Kohl said. “Noise pollution — we don’t know, as far as I know, what kind of noise. Is it going to be 24/7? Is it just daylight? There’s a lot of issues like this that I think we need the impact studies to really know just what the impact’s going to be on the community.”

Houtz said they still don’t know who or what would be going into the warehousing if it’s built.

“What we’ve been told so far is this would be a speculative development, so they don’t have a tenant in mind,” he said. “It would be a build it and they will come kind of mentality, or build it and then it will sit empty until they come.”

Even with the appeal’s rejection, the discussion isn’t quite over yet. Bametzreider said the prospective developers are taking further legal action.

“They have filed an appeal with the Court of Common Pleas, appealing the adoption of the ordinance, challenging various procedural aspects,” he said. “We’re waiting for that to get going.”

Bametzreider said the timeline for the appeal process would depend on whether there is a discovery phase. He said it will likely take several months until they have a final answer.

In other business, supervisors:

• Heard a report from Pennsylvania State Police Sgt. Robert Maher about police statistics for the first half of 2025. He said they had 429 calls for service compared to 409 during the same time frame last year. However, he said overall crime was down from 109 calls last year to 77 this year.
• Approved the sale of a 2007 John Deere tractor for $25,700 and a 2011 John Deere backhoe for $35,200.

The Jackson Township Board of Supervisors will meet next at 60 N. Ramona Road on Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m.