With an eye on public safety and residents’ quality of life, the Falls Supervisors on Monday denied a request from NorthPoint Development to rezone South Pennsylvania Avenue to heavy industrial.
Following a lengthy discussion with the board, NorthPoint representatives and a handful of residents who opposed the proposed zoning change, the board voted 3-1 to deny rezoning the riverfront district to heavy industrial. Supervisors Erin Mullen, John Palmer and Jeff Boraski voted in favor of the denial. Supervisor Brian Galloway was absent. Supervisor Chairman Jeff Dence cast the lone vote against the denial.
“Why is this in the residents’ best intersets in NorthPoint’s view?” Mullen asked NorthPoint’s representatives prior to the vote.
NorthPoint VP of Development Jeremy Michael said, “the impact to the residents is pretty negligible. It’s not a very residential area.”
Meanwhile residents spoke out against heavy truck traffic, which they feared would worsen with a change in zoning, as well as additional noise, dirt and proximity to waterways.
Attorney Michael Meginniss said the rezoning request was prompted by the need to relocate a tenant to South Pennsvylania Avenue so construction could continue on NorthPoint’s multi-phase warehouse project undeterred. With the denial, NorthPoint will likely have to relocate Harsco, a metal and mineral company, to another location within the 1,800-acre Keystone Trade Center, Meginniss said. Doing so “decreases yield” of warehousing operations and could “cause substantial delay,” he said.
Once the former U.S. Steel site is redeveloped, NorthPoint said the warehouse operations would total up to 15 million square feet and create 5,000 to 10,000 new jobs.
Meginniss noted that “this is a rezoning petition, not a land development.”
Since NorthPoint referenced Harsco throughout the discussion, Supervisors inquired before the vote about the company’s plans should it move to South Pennsylvania Avenue. Even though Meginniss showed colorful renderings of what Harsco’s site could look like, the board has not received land development plans and is therefore not tasked with making a determination on any site relocations or modifications.
Calling it an “odd meeting,” Boraski said it felt like the board was reviewing a land development plan.
“I would feel more comfortable rezoning the area knowing what was going in,” said Boraski, who made a motion - which failed for a lack of a second - to table the discussion. “I don’t see heavy industrial when I drive down Pennsylvania Avenue. I see more commercial regardless of what it says it’s zoned as.”
