Union Township warehouse project advances despite water runoff concerns

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The Union Township Board of Supervisors voted 3-0 to approve Burkentine Builders & Sons’ final plans for its PA Jonestown Steel Grid Warehouse on rezoned farmland on state Route 72.

The approval comes despite neighbors’ concerns about water runoff and driveway safety and is conditional, awaiting only a financial security bond from Burkentine.

The conditional approval gives Burkentine 90 days from Wednesday’s meeting to file a financial security bond. Matt Flickinger, the builder’s vice president of land development & entitlement, told the board that Burkentine expects the bond to be issued by the end of the week. (In an email to LebTown Friday afternoon, Flickinger said there was no update.)

The board approved the final plans and granted seven waivers on zoning requirements for the project after neighbors voiced opposition primarily on the grounds that the approximately 250,000-square-foot warehouse would exacerbate stormwater runoff from the property onto theirs. Waivers were approved to drop requirements for easements of right-of-way for drainage and utilities, driveway access, curbing and sidewalks and infiltration feasibility.

“I’m opposed to any kind of changes to the code,” Tammy Boltz, who lives across Route 72 from the project, said in public comments ahead of the votes. “I think that they should have to build to the code. I don’t care if you have any access to it or not. I’m concerned about stormwater management running over into my property, it does right now. And I don’t believe they’re doing anything to make that any better or any worse.”

Six acres of agricultural land for the project was rezoned in 2023 for industrial use. When the Union board considered rezoning additional acres in January 2024, about 100 residents showed up in opposition and the measure was shot down.

Boltz said she was ready to “pounce” on any changes from the approved plans as the project moves forward.

“I have done everything I can possibly do to stress how disappointed I am that the township has gone ahead with this,” she said. “I think it should be as difficult as possible for anyone to build along 72 here.”

Several other audience members backed Boltz in her opposition. Kevin Albert expressed concern about the potential for traffic accidents in front of his house across from the project’s driveway on Route 72 and said the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation should not have approved the driveway location.

Burkentine’s warehouse project has five stormwater management facilities to meet state and municipal requirements for runoff, project manager Bridget Maguire, of the civil engineering firm Kimley-Horn, said in a presentation to the board meeting. They include a significantly sized stormwater detention facility to detain and slowly release water from all storms, a vegetative surface facility and two subsurface tanks to detain all runoff collected from the building and parking lots.

The system will improve groundwater percolation, she said. This is the process in which water moves downward through soil and rock layers until it reaches the groundwater table. Maguire said that one of the subsurface tanks will discharge to the culvert beneath the township police department’s driveway.

“The police department is going to be seeing significantly less runoff than they’re seeing today,” Maguire said. “And then the remainder of the runoff will be directed to the northeast corner of the property to a culvert that runs beneath state Route 72.”

“My property,” Boltz said from the audience, describing the property across from the northeast corner.

Supervisors were supportive of the Burkentine plan’s stormwater mitigation efforts, however.

“The percolation surprised me,” board president Kerry McCrary, who voted against the initial rezoning of the property, said. “After a few days, it’s (stormwater) gone.”

In other news:

• Supervisors will hold a public hearing at its next meeting, Aug. 12, to consider amendments to several ordinances, solicitor Paul Bametzreider said. Included are ordinances for data centers, domestic fowl, roadside stands and the parking of motor vehicles on properties.
• Mohamed Kenz’s attorney, Tucker Hall, has responded with an apparent settlement offer regarding the township’s complaint against Kenz for allegedly failing to restore his property at 11 Wolfe Lane back from commercial to residential use, Bametzreider told the board. The solicitor described Hall’s settlement offer as an apparent stalling tactic. Bametzreider expects a pre-trial hearing to be scheduled within the next couple of months.
• The board approved 3-0 a 90-day extension to Oct. 1 of the final land development plan for MAHG LLC’s 81-room hotel by Akens Engineering, at 3068 and 3078 Route 72.
• The board approved a 90-day extension to Oct. 18 of the preliminary subdivision and land development plan for Jonestown Group LLC’s 55+ Development at 142 Awol Road.