Northpoint Development Rezoning Request Rejected In Falls Township

FALLS TOWNSHIP, PA —A request from NorthPoint Development to rezone South Pennsylvania Avenue to heavy industrial has been rejected by Falls Township supervisors.

At its meeting last week, the supervisors voted 3-1 to deny the developer following a lengthy discussion in which the board said it was focused on public safety and the quality of life of its residents.

“Why is this in the residents’ best interests in NorthPoint’s view?” Supervisor Erin Mullen asked NorthPoint’s representatives prior to the vote.

NorthPoint and a handful of residents who opposed the proposed zoning change had attended the meeting.

Supervisors Mullen, John Palmer, and Jeff Boraski voted to deny the zoning change. Supervisor Brian Galloway was absent. Supervisor Chairman Jeff Dence cast the lone vote against the denial.

“The impact on the residents is pretty negligible. It’s not a very residential area,” said Jeremy Michael, NorthPoint's vice president of development said.

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.”