Bethel Twp. zoning board allows variances requested by poultry producer

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

Bethel Township Zoning Hearing Board members on Thursday unanimously approved several variance requests for poultry producer Bell & Evans. 

The variances involve planned projects at Legionnaire Drive, across the street from Fredericksburg Legion Post 915, and new construction on the company’s Plant 3 property at 568 Chestnut Hill Road.

The company requested several variances during the first of two hearings before the board involving the construction of a grain mill operation along Legionnaire Drive and near U.S. Route 22.

The board approved three height variances for this project. One allows the grain distribution building to be up to a height of 175 feet, grain silos to be up to 110 feet, and the bridge, or grain transfer elevator, to rise to 150 feet.

Prior to the vote, board chairman Gary Lentz, who was re-appointed to that position at the start of the meeting, said the height variance requests are in line with other grain silos in the area. 

All three members – Lentz, Wesley Harding Jr., and board alternate Dale Bevans – approved the measure. Bevans replaced Richard Rabuck, who is the third board member, after he recused himself from the hearing since he is a Bell & Evans employee.

In summarizing the poultry producer’s position, Barley Snyder attorney Beth M. Kohl said the request was reasonable given the height of communication towers and other structures that must be that high to operate, noting the same is true for grain mills.

“This is the maximum height necessary to enable the … reasonable and satisfactory operation of the facility. So your ordinance does contemplate the possibility of things being at higher heights … and we would suggest that feed mills are sort of one of those tall things that reasonably necessitate gravity and elevation simply to allow them to function as they need to,” she said.

Township zoning hearing officer Jackie Hollenbach asked Bell & Evans CEO Mike Bracrella about the number of trucks that would be using the facility once it is operational. 

“I don’t remember what’s in our study, but … let’s say about three an hour. It will be a 24-hour operation,” said Bracrella, adding that the company would provide traffic studies during the land development process. 

Kohl said the main building is not projected to be constructed entirely at 175 feet, also noting that their request is for the entire building to be granted a height variance. 

“Yes, for the whole building. Even though the entire building won’t be at that height, I don’t want to pin down exact parts that will or won’t be at that height,” she said.

Bracrella told LebTown after the hearing the purpose for each of the structures, as shown in an artist’s rendering produced by the grain mill company that has designed the system for this site.

“If you think about this, this is like raw storage (the silos). Corn, soybeans, we’ll store them out there. And then when we need them, we’ll bring them in (via the elevator), drop that down,” Bracrella said. “I’ll weigh out exactly what I need. I’ll put that in a blender. I’ll blend it all together in a specific ratio. I’ll pelletize it. Maybe I’ll break the pellets, maybe I won’t. Then I’ll store the pellets in another series of silos and then I’ll load those onto trucks.”

The driveway as noted on the drawing is to the north side of the property and contains one entrance. Trucks will enter one side of the main grain mill building and exit via a second doorway before leaving the facility.

Bracrella also said the feed is intended for its customers. The company’s website notes that their chickens are given organic feeds. 

“We would still use outside people. This (building) is really for growth,” Bracrella told LebTown.

568 Chestnut Hill Road project

Company growth was cited by Kohl as the reason for what she called a “very minor dimensional variance” being requested at this location. The unanimously approved setback was for 38 feet to the rear property line and 10 feet along a side property line. The required township ordinance for a setback is 50 feet. 

Bracrella explained the reason for this request is a nearby stormwater basin that prevents the company from meeting the setback requirement to the rear of the property.  

“This property contains an area in which animal byproducts are processed,” said Kohl, who also noted the same board granted a variance in 2020 to allow the byproduct building to be “located within the side and rear yard setbacks.”

Kohl added this was to allow the building to be closer to Plant 3 because it essentially serves the operations at that plant. “The closer it is, the more efficient, the less potential issues,” she said. “We are now with the continued growth of Bell & Evans operations, looking to expand that because there’s a need for more processing space in that building. And so there’s currently a subdivision and land development plan pending before the township that includes modification of the lot line for this property to annex a small chunk of land from what I’ll call the Plant 3 property onto the southern end of this property and to then accommodate this small building expansion.”

Kohl added that this expansion compliments the planned cold storage warehouse/packing facility being built in an area to the east end of Plant 3.  

“It is to be east of Plant 3 and the rest of that plan that’s currently pending includes a cold storage warehouse and the tray pack facility that are also kind of going to go hand-in-hand,” she said. And so this does form sort of a linear progression of these properties, one to the next for different processing purposes.”

Bracrella explained to the board how the company uses the byproducts building.

“This building, when we built it for Plant 3, we can lay all of the byproducts from Plant 3 to this building through an underground flume. We pump the feathers, we pump the blood, and then we transfer the awful items with a water flume down to this building, and then we separate it in this building to a trailer, and it obviously goes to the rendering plant to get rendered,” he said.

The requested annexation through previously submitted plans supports future company growth.

“This annexation is to support future Plant 4. That’s why it’s a part of the site development plan for the warehouse. Obviously having this in close proximity, that’s right where we want that. We don’t want to be trucking that around and it all stays on that site,” said Bracrella, adding the expansion location is essential for the conveyor system to serve it properly.

Other board action

The board rehired Michael J. Gombar Jr., as zoning hearing board solicitor. The township supervisors will set his rate of pay for 2026 at their February meeting.