Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[clears throat] East Island Township January 8th, 2026 planning commission meeting to order. Please rise for pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. Mr. Daniel, present. Mr. Heming, here. Mr. Mills,

here. All right. First, I'd like to thank everybody for coming on this unusual 1:00 meeting, but due to some constraints we had, uh, again, I'd like to thank everybody for your attendance and and bearing with us. We'll be going back to our normal 7 o'clock time slot starting in February. All right. Uh, first item on the agenda is public comment. Anybody would like to comment on any of the agenda items? Let the record reflect there are no comments. Uh, approval of the minutes from December 4th meeting. I'll make a motion approve the minutes from December 4th. A motion by Norm.

I second. Have second by art. Roll call, please. Mr. Daniel, yes. Mr. Heming, yes. Mr. Mills, yes. The record reflect the motion pass. Three votes to none. All right. The next item is business before the planning commission. The first item is JLF Summer LLC special exception appeal application number for 8465 Airport Road parcel K5128A 0508 please. Thanks. And then state your name and address for the record if you would.

Yeah, we'll do. Um Eric Shock from Fitzpatrick Lson Muba 645 Hamilton Street in Allentown. Lorie Fina, JLF Sumar LLC, 453 Hamlock, Pennsylvania. So, the floor is ours. Yes.

Okay. Thanks. Yeah. So, um as the uh zoning ordinance requires uh a change of a non-conforming use comes before uh the plan commission for uh review. Um there's uh the existing property is a business property that is in a residential zone. Thus the use is non-conforming. Um at least I think about 12 years ago there was an actual the the the township granted a change of non-conforming use to the current uses. Um the township didn't have available in its records that decision. So, I can't give much more detail, but they did have that an application was made and the current owners were permitted to make that change to the current business. Uh, my client is requesting to change that again to what I'll have her go into detail is actually while different in terms of the product, a very similar operation. um with probably the advantage we have in explaining that is that they're moving their existing business. We're not looking to set up a new business and say we think we'll have this, we think we'll have that. She knows exactly what's going to happen at this site and the background investigation she did was talking to the current owners to say what actually goes on in your business because I want to know is it going to work for mine. So, um Lori, why don't you take it away? explain kind of what you do and then you know the discussions you have with the owners and and what will be here and then you have four criteria in the ordinance for a change of non-conforming use. We'll go through and touch on those to the extent relevant after you get that explanation if that works.

That works for us.

Perfect. Um, so my husband and I are joint owners in in um a commercial flooring business called Coke Commercial Flooring located at 302 Sumar Avenue in Allentown. We have owned the business for 9 years. The business, however, has been in existence for 52 years. So, we bought it from the former owner 9 years ago. Um, what we basically do is we purchase flooring material. It gets brought into our facility on Seminar Avenue. We may or may not break down those pallets to then re- ship out on a truck and we send it out into the field to wherever that location may be for its installation. Um, we don't manufacture anything. We don't um, uh, we don't really do much other than we bring for material in, we ship it back out. We have a small office right now which which can hold up to six people on any given day. We have anywhere most of the time three to four people at the max would be six and that's just when all my staff is there first thing in the morning usually by mid morning they're gone. Um my flooring installers will come into the facility either pick up the material and take it out themselves in their own vehicles or we have a small box truck that is 16 ft long. We will load it up and then we will take that material out of the warehouse and deliver it to the job site. You have just that one truck.

We have one box truck. We have one company van, two company vans, and a small pole behind trailer. So those three vehicles would be left on site when not in use. Okay.

Um and based upon uh the the property, there is more than sufficient space for your parking for employees and the storage of those vehicles. It's an excess. Correct. Yeah, we actually have a lot of parking where at this this potential new new location. Um the other thing is we don't have a retail right now. The current owners or current sellers have a retail space or that's retail shop I should say where people come in off the street to to uh purchase some of their products that they sell. We do not have that scenario. So there is no retail um other than just basic visitors coming you know occasionally for stuff. Uh we do have small trucks that do deliver to us pretty much the same exact size as what they currently have hanging deliveries. Um we do once in a while have a larger truck coming onto the property like where we are now. We have larger trucks that come full size tractor trailer. Uh but that's very few. Maybe if you're lucky, you know, eight or 10 a year. Really just depends on what material we're ordering, how big the order is and when we need that. And that's usually in our busy season which is spring and summer.

And the property as currently laid out certainly can accommodate those on occasion. Is that correct? The new property can accommodate in my opinion that use of a full size tractor trailer if needed. So you're planning on shutting down Sumar Avenue and just moving the whole completely [clears throat] relocating. Yes. Um so so then let's talk about you you talked to the owners to get an idea. Hey, is my business going to work here? just give a brief description of of of you know kind of what what they do and and and albeit a different product how yours compares.

So there's two businesses that are operate out of 8465 Airport Road right now. One is a picture framing business which is the retail side. That's where the people come in and look at the picture frames and then decide what they want. That's the foot traffic part. The other half of the business the gentleman owns and that is a windshield glass replacement company. So he orders his windshields, they come in on a small box truck, they get stored, he does whatever he has to do to make them fit the windshield, and then he puts them in a van, ships them out to the job to wherever the vehicle may be and replaces the windshield. We pretty much do very similar thing just with a different product, which is flooring. Um, it's my understanding that Ideal Glass and the framing shop are not going to be there anymore.

Exactly. This will replace You're going to take the entirety of their space. The reason asking is I live in Stonesboro through I can do business from my house. Yeah. Um yeah. So we're probably telling you some things you know already but um just want to confirm. Yeah. So then let's just talk about the criteria. So um there's there's four with regard to effects and there's one general which is that the that it's not easily convertible to a conforming use. I mean is this property fully developed as now as this business use in the area that is business? Yes. Okay. So, it looks like a business property. It's not Oh, it's not a house that you could turn back into a single family home. That's it's in feasible.

Agreed. Okay. Yes. Um and then the four characteristics are the appearance. Talk it looks like a business. Well, you're not proposing to make any wholesale changes to the exterior, but you'll probably do some touch-up improvements when you buy it. Is that correct? Correct. Correct. We need to do some upgrades to the heating system and the air conditioning system. clean up some outdoor space, that type of stuff. Maybe remove a tree or two just for for personal choice. Um, we have no intentions of remodeling the like we're not putting an addition on. The roof is new. Uh, parking lot's going to stay the same way it is. We're not changing any of that.

So, we'll do some interior changes obviously to accommodate our office staff and our warehousing needs, but even then, that's nothing. It's not going to change the structure of the building. Um, storage and waste disposal, any any impact whatsoever? No. Okay. No, we have nothing that's hazardous that can be that we would be throwing away or putting into just have regular trash, the containers that things come in. Correct. Correct.

Okay. Um like nuisance things like noise, smoke, dust, vibration, glare. Does your your business create any of those? The only thing that we have, so currently the windshield glass company has like um they have two they have air compressors and they have some mechanical tools that they use currently to to maintain and or to fabricate the the windshield for installation. Um that obviously that part would go away. The only additional thing that actually we probably would even be quieter with the exception of we have a forklift. But we already we only run the forklift certain times of the day. We also only get delivery certain times of the day. And those dates and hours can be changed accordingly should that need to be. But our uh our receiving hours right now are from 8 8 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to help eliminate any noise or things like that. So the only thing we're really adding would be a forklift to the building.

And then you've touched on this already, but uh traffic generation. Did you did you talk to the owner? Do you kind of have an idea as to their how it operated in that regard? And then I'm assuming you know exactly what your level of traffic is like how you know how often does someone actually visit the site and how often do you get deliveries and send send product out,

right? So currently they they get some small truck deliveries. Now, um I did witness when we were there on site uh visiting one day where we were waiting for some contract contractors to come and visit to give us some quotes on things. They had a box truck delivery is approximately 20 to 30 feet long already and that is actually ideal to what we currently have. Majority of our deliveries are on those smaller trucks. Um as far as traffic goes, our deliveries come occasionally during the week depending on how busy we are. you know, if they're sometimes they come Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, sometimes just Mondays. It just varies depending on our needs, but if on I have to do an average overall on a weekly basis, you know, maybe two trucks average a week. Sometimes we might get more, sometimes we might get less.

And then obviously you have your employees coming and going, correct? And then very, very limited other traffic from visitors to the site. Correct. Yep. Sales people show up to to sell product to us and that's really about it. You know, basic UPS, FedEx, that type of stuff. Okay. Um I think I don't I then say we would rest and open it up to any further questions because we try I think we covered everything we need to under your ordinance or try to So I was looking at Google Maps. Um it looked like there's a residence on the back portion of this. Is that do I understand? There's an apartment above the warehouse garage area. Yes. Is that going to be sustained as an apartment? Yes.

Yeah. Are you are you buying the property? Yes. So, it will be your property and you're going to rent that out then. That's correct. That that Yeah. Identical to what's today? It's that apartment stays and and that obviously that's not part of the the approval simply because it's permitted in a residential district. It it is. Um but if it's been 12 years since something was done there, we need to make sure that we're we know everything we're getting into. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, and I'm assuming there's no loading dock here. So, anything that you're, that's why you have your forklift, it's going to be running around the property, driveway, whatever it is to unload a tractor, trailer, or whatever the case may be. Trucks are unloaded one one of two ways. Either by forklift or by lift gate,

right? So, yeah, it can be pallet jacked in and or it could be forklift into the building. Yes. Right. Now, so you go out and you install these floors. Do you bring the the the material do you bring old material back to this facility? Sometimes we do. Okay. And then you have the provisions to discard that whatever needs to be dumpster wise or whatever the case may be. Yeah, we would provide obviously we would have accurate size different dumpsters and what are there now, but we also have the means to recycle a lot of that material.

Okay. So it can either be taken a lot of our material when we remove it from a site is put into a dumpster that from a company be hired on site. So we have a dumpster placed on site. It gets put in there and it gets hauled away. Very little of it comes back to our facility itself and and thrown into a dumpster. Okay.

[clears throat] Norm Art, questions. Jill, do you have any questions? No, I'm familiar with the place. Is the kitchen still in it? Yes. Very nice kitchen, by the way. Um, do you I don't sure if you mentioned, but how many employees would you have on site? We have a we have a total of six employees in the office. Some of them work part-time and some of them are only in for a few hours in the morning and then they leave for the day, including myself. I'm not there all the time. That would be the max, right? For for So one to three is average most days.

Okay. And then your large tractor trailer, if they were if it's accessing it, would it be coming just in through like obviously off of the main road, but would it be coming to the front of the building or would it have to go back around? No, to the front of the building. Okay. So, it wouldn't have to go to the back and try to maneuver back there. Okay. So, it basically would come in one entrance and come follow through and go out the other entrance. Okay. Do you know how many just if parking site plan shows you know parking areas do do you know approximately how many parking spaces you have available there?

They're not clearly defined at the current property but I would estimate six to eight parking spots in the back depending on how you park in the front. I don't think we would even park out front because we would leave that for any type of delivery whatever it may be. Okay. And then I'm not that familiar with the site as far as where the apartment building's located. Um, but do you have designated parking spaces for that apartment? Yes, they're right next to their entrance to the apartment, the steps that go upstairs. They're allowed two parking spots. Two parking spaces. So that would that would in those two parking spots would probably be included in the six to eight that I just mentioned.

Okay. So, six to eight, but you may have six employees on site. Is there any need, do you think, to expand the parking area at any point? No. If we ran out of space or something, we would just park out front or as people come and go. Yeah, there is space there to put more. It's your thought was until we see if we would need them because six is more theoretical than anything else because they're never all there. But you would have the space if needed to put the car extra cars out front. Sure. I mean, they have parking out front now, Jill. People do park out front today.

They just wouldn't use it if they didn't need to. Do Grant, do we need to do anything with the apartment at all? Like inspect it or anything? Is it since it's a if we're changing something over now and rules have changed since the last 12 years? Is there anything we need to think because it's not involving anything with the current use. I I don't think it would be subject to any recommendations unless there was a concern of the impact of the this business versus what's there today that there would be a concern of but I would not see any issues. I believe that was part of the nonconformity at one point as well in the application for

a prior recommendation from the planning commission because we don't again we don't have the decision your prior recommendation recommended approval including the business and the apartment but but that's all I have okay whatever reason the decision is not it was alto together at one point that everything was done at the last time it went before the zoning hearing board okay all right um any other questions or comments Um, I take it the other tenants's going to be moving out, taking all the paint with them. Oh, the current Yeah. Talk about the ten in the apartment. Well, the last sentence on this letter that we have says current use is office space and paint storage.

That the paint storage part is not correct, but that's windshield used to be it used to be a paint place years ago back in the 90s. Oh, it should have been glass storage. Glass storage. Yes. That's that's just a they'll be moving everything out. That was a carryover from the last. What type of flooring are you going to have there? What type of flooring? Yeah. So, what's considered commercial flooring is carpet squares 24 by 24 in rolls of carpet 12 ft. Luxury vinyl plank, luxury vinyl tile, um vinyl composition, industrial use. I'm sorry. All industrial use. Commercial. Or industrial. Yes. Ceramic tile. That type of stuff. Okay. That's all I have. Joe.

Okay. Any questions from anybody the public? All right. Someone like to make a recommendation.

Ask Joe for help on this one. Oh, I think it's it's pretty straightforward. Uh or it would just be to recommend the grant of the requested special exception by JLF summer LLC um subject to the testimony that's been presented to the applicant today. So moved. Second. I have a motion on the floor by got a love. A second by Norm. Roll call, please. Mr. Daniel, yes. Mr. Heming, yes. Mr. Mills, yes. Let the record reflect the motion pass. Three votes to none. Thanks a lot for your time. Thank you. Good luck at the zoning. Good luck. Welcome to the neighborhood. Thank you. Appreciate that.

All right. Okay. The next item on the agenda, moving on, is Nwood major subdivision preliminary plan review number 7, Salo 2023-0000. Come on down. appreciate if you could state your names and addresses for the record.

My name is Philip Albbright. I'm with Lehi Engineering Associates. for the engineer. All right. Well, um, would you like to open? I I guess the the board uh is or at least was familiar with the project. We've been before the board before, although it's been quite a while. Um it's for the property basically just across the street over here.

Um it's um they're proposing 15 residential lots in there with a single entrance and a loop road. Um it's on lot sew on lot septic um on lot water single family houses. All right. Um in reviewing the materials provided to us I noticed that uh the county conservation district there was a submission made to them. Um there was a statement in that submission that you guys needed to respond to them by January 15th. Has that been done yet? Uh, no. I believe that's in the works though.

Okay. Yeah. So, that will be done. Right. You guys need because they'll then make their determination based on what you guys respond to their comments and letters and whatnot. Right. Yes. Okay. And we do have LB PC consistently C letter that we've received already. Um, I was looking through your um, letter of waiver and deferrals and I think it is not correct. Um, it makes reference or statement to the fact of two driveways accessing Abraham Way. I believe based on your latest revised plan, there's only one

Well, here you access driveway accessing Abraham Way, which technically should be better, right? That's correct. I mean, you're correct about that. We didn't But but your waiver letter lists two driveways accessing Abraham

Emergency comes off like 10. norththeast northwestern corner. Mhm. Question that would be considered second from the plans that I saw that that emergency access went all the way down the property and it so you you basically go in and you have your storm water your first home here that access came up and went in between the first home and the second home on the curve. It didn't actually access onto Abraham way because Right. Right. Right. Right.

I didn't realize we changed things. Yeah. One access on paper. Right. So that would need to be that letter would need to be revised, right? To correct that. Um like I said, it's actually better for you guys to only have one access onto there to have to deal with as far as people potentially parking on. Um

and the reason the reason So that that is is you know when when you apply the truck template the truck turning template especially for the the the WB62 I guess it was you know the tractor trailer truck um that you can't you can't make it through there without going into the other lane and if there's parking on one side you run into difficulties there and create a hazard for other vehicles coming the other direction. Right. I think your one plan showed the Yes. the radiuses of trucks coming in around that.

Actually, there's three plans. There's one, I think, for the garbage truck, one for the fire truck, and one for the trailer. Actually, I'm looking for Yeah, there's the LDPC. I'm actually looking for the letter, the waiver request letter. Oh, here it is. Okay, I got it. Yeah, I think that gets corrected. There's no reason not to approve the wave brand or the deferral. I don't I don't I don't see a reason. You guys have any questions or Jill, do you have any issues with those?

No.

Yes. Yeah. I do believe trucking templates cross these two lots have adequate off street park right a ramway these two lots have adequate parking off street parking

yeah there there there no issues with that either the waiver or the deferral okay Um, gentlemen, questions please. Joe um the Pendot you guys have submitted now to Pendot. Have you gotten any responses back from Pendot at all? Not a response.

Okay. We anticipate that there would be no initially there was the most likely would require a left turn lane, but that was with 20 units. Now that we're down to 15, it looks like that that we should be able to just have no left turn lane, not have to widen 329. A left turn. Yeah, the left turn into the into the site from eastbound. Yeah. Oh, coming this way. Oh, okay. Well, Unfortunately, there's a lot of volume of tra volume of traffic. So, I who knows what pendot's going to do.

It' be nice to have one, but that's pend. Yeah. And speed limits. You never know. Well, that that that's I guess that's going to be kind of important to get some feedback because I'm sure there's going to be multiple communication through Pendod. So I suspect a meeting with Pendot is probably after his comments because there's a number of issues involved in terms of right maybe even a scoping meeting. Okay,

Jill. Um, with your the letter from Northampton County Conservation District for your NPDS permit, was there any issues or comments that will require you to make any type of changes to the plan as we've been reviewing it? Not to my knowledge.

Okay. And then with PennDOT though, um what I'll say is without having PENDOT's initial comments back in what may or may not be required um along 329. Um, you know, we're still not sure as far as the legal right away and if they would be requiring any additional and that would affect your lot lines potentially and your um building setbacks, right?

So, I think you know until we get that initial comments uh and I think once again we think we made the comment in our letter that we didn't what's being shown now I think is 15 feet total. Um, but you know, typically we would be seeing 12 foot traveling lane and then an 8 foot Excel DEL. So, we're not quite sure what you're showing on your PENDOT plans or I'll just say we don't agree with what's being shown. Um, so we would like to see what PENDO comes back with. Also, I said that's one of those issues where there needs to be a joint. Correct.

Correct. And where I'm going with it is as far as you um any type of recommendation for plumary plan approval at this point until we have that kind of situated um and Pendot's initial comments back to make sure there aren't going to be requiring any significant changes along 329 that may affect your design of your um lots and lot areas. You know, right now I would say we're not quite at the point that I would feel comfortable with the planning commission making a recommendation on this plan.

Also, I'm going to add the deficiencies listed in the Northampton County Conservation District got to be addressed before anything is done. There's too many questions there. Okay. And then as well as um your sewage facility planning module. So, that has not been submitted. I realize all the testing has been done but the sewage facility planning module has not been submitted to the okay okay

I suspect that was affected by the state issue state level shut down so I probably

okay all right and then um what we would request too is that if it is the intent ion for the roadway storm sewer within the roadway um to be dedicated to the township meaning the township responsible for maintenance operation and I'll say even if it's the homeowners association um just to kind of review the storm system um because we made the comment before that there's at least one or a couple places at least one where um I think we need to make um changes to the system because it is excessively deep. Um we're recommending at least the one place instead of putting an inlet which probably would be filled up with grass anyway. So I think and you have the roads up and you have a bank coming down

seems like um a head wall may be more appropriate and then that inlet can be lifted instead of being 10 and a half we might be at seven feet. Um, but if you can just review those situations, you know, once again and make sure everything is definitely where it has to be and there's no opportunity to raise it. Um, just for maintenance reasons.

Joe, since you touched on that, let me pause the question. In this particular situation, they're all different. You still have to address that issue. I think that's question.

We we have not said we weren't accepting any roads. Um, I know it was discussed with Sunny Slope previously, but I I don't see the township objecting. As long as it's built to township standards and we inspect it and our engineers okay with the final maintenance period and everything concludes, I don't I wouldn't see an issue with accepting the roads. Okay. Road, right? But also I the storm water management facilities have to be manageable for the township as well. So with that design and

and I think we recognize as a township we have significant burdens that we place on the HOA for storm water management that we don't want to take. So in lie of that I believe we're okay with dealing with the roads. Take the roads but not storm water. Correct. Well the storm water like the basins and Yeah. if it's in the right answer that question. Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, because I looked at it and if I understood the plans, it's like a spray type system or something. Is that it's similar to spray, but it's underground. It's it's called dosing, I mean. Okay. Yeah. But but there's an there's a pump involved in that. Yes. Pump. And

that obviously complicates things, you know. Certainly. [clears throat] Okay. in general, you know, you got obviously I hate to say this has been painful, but it's been a difficult lot to develop. There's been a lot of constraints for a lot of different reasons. I mean, you guys have done a good job. The plan looks fairly good at this point. You know, it's a matter of finishing it up, get to the finish line, but still a few things to get done. you wouldn't mind if I want to touch on a couple things on Sure. Um, we talked about the parking. What about the sidewalk?

Actually, it's a deferral or deferral along along 329. Is that reasonable? Yes, we we we typically that that's a typical response from us. We defer sidewalks and lighting along like 329 until which time there's additional to connect make connections kind of. Okay.

And you just mentioned the other touch on the street lights. There's now a street light intersection other Abraham and two street basically. Is that sufficient? Additional street lights. We typically only require them at intersections to signify that it is an intersection. So, right, preferably where I mean at the intersection of Pri and Abraham if you can put it near a stop sign. I don't know which one's going to have the stop in the development or if it's going to be an always stop sign just to kind of show that.

But yeah, we we wouldn't require anywhere else unless there was pedestrian facilities. We tend to look at that, but we're not for this being an isolated development. Right. Okay. Um, street signs. Um, there's a number of street signs. I'm not going to elaborate on the plan and it indicates approval of the street signs.

I don't know what you're proposing or what I I haven't looked at the note. We try to keep it simple. Okay. So, whatever you have, I mean, if you have a stop sign and a street name sign, we want those on the same post. If you have no parking signs, those can be spaced very liberally. Okay. I don't know what else is proposed, but I think Are you talking about like the actual street sign? I think we can take care of that at the time of construction. Yeah. Yeah. There's kind of 24 street sign street signs. And usually that's a an item that just stays there and then it's subject to construction standards when you do your submittal. So

okay. Um buffer plan 25 it says approval of buffer. How does that occur? It's on the plan. Is that where you're proposing just arborite? No that would be that would be the basis screen which is another this is the buffer yard along 329. Yeah, we can look at that with the zoning officer what you're proposing for buffering. But I think the one question, the more important one was the screening for the basin. That was the next. Yeah. Okay. If you have one landscaping plan for everything that we can review and have a staff meeting in

we do there's a there is a landscaping. I think the signage is on that one as well. Landscape plan. Okay. Well, somebody can take a look at that because that's one of those items we like to Yeah. And I kind of keep that we keep that on till it gets to the board of supervisors in case the board has any questions or comments about it. But um and this will be plummeary plan approval. So it's something that after the board has a chance to look at it for plumary plan approval. If there's any comments or anything we can, you know, catch up or revise it in final plan.

Okay. about roof drains suggest that we need to do the approval of the roof. I guess I think it's you're not allowed. Yeah. And that's something we kind of knowing that you guys are closer to. We kind of did a more thorough review again because you know as things have changed things have changed. Um, so we did pick up on it appears your plans are showing roof drains to be connected directly to the storm water collection system. Right. I [snorts] think there were two of Okay. So basically our MS4 does not allow direct connection of roof drains into our collection system.

So even the MS4 that has So yeah, it just shows being disconnected. Yeah, it has to be disconnected, run over grass and not connected directly to it.

There's one question that the uh the roadway crosssection uh talked about swapping the sidewalk and the trees that that's a new thing. I mean, we've had that section. I thought that was the the approved township section. is that

well I think the township gives options to it and when we were looking at where the sidewalk could potentially be located along um 329 because that was our last comment to show like where it would be um just to make sure everything's fitting. When we looked at the street cross-section, we kind of are making a suggestion and I think the township has been more um leaning towards this direction to put the street trees behind sidewalks, not fitting in between the curb and the sidewalk. So, it's just a matter of changing Yeah. that cross section sidewalk on the plan. Yeah. Maybe it's beingffected.

Well, 320 Yeah. 329 to show kind of how it would be laid out in the future. But then your cross-section for your local road, meaning Abraham Way and Pri Bria Bria, um you have an existing crosssection, that's how it's going to be built. But if you can change that and then you just might have to update your landscaping plan just sliding the trees back. The trees. So I think I'm in if the planning commission is in agreement. I think um Jim Malot was saying that that's typically what the township's looking to do at this point. Okay.

Put the trees on the away from the road. Away from the sidewalk. Yeah, that would make sense because you see so many places where you got a tree sandwiched between a sidewalk and a curb and eventually it got to get cut down or it dies or it destroys the sidewalk. The sidewalks are two foot high. Yeah. And it makes more sense for sure. I think the current one is March March.

[snorts]

Yeah, if you want to do one before you leave, we can take it then. That way you don't have to send it. Okay.

So, um and Bill, you had brought this up, but we had talked to tip about the mail. You know, there should be a centralized mail. Yeah. And then maybe showing that location to make sure everything works. And then the only other thing is the emergency access fire marshal about both those issues coming in. The best thing would be to make a submission to the fire marshal, ask for his approval. You may want to leave the field to take a look at the access and so forth

and reach out to the post office and say in this particular situation, would you not be looking for would you be looking for the gang boxes or not? Let them make decision. move forward. But I recognize that if it's got to be a cluster of mail location, right? Right. And if you do um set up something with the fire marshall as far as a site visit, you can let us know because we probably would want to be involved with that. Jim involved in that or uh you can just either one of us. Send it to Jay and Jay and they'll figure out.

Yeah, we'll decide. We're not totally convinced that something does not have to be done there. Yeah. I figured that's why

Yeah. Okay. Anything else?

Thank you for your time. Thanks, guys. Yep. What's that? [laughter] All right, moving on. The next item is

item C, the East Allen elderly elderly housing tax amendment. It's the same same text amendment, right? There was a submission discussion back around June July provides some very specific comments very yes

but that's the intent. Yeah, that's understood. After having looked at it and reviewed the plan and seeing the three lower height structures versus the two higher structures that it was obvious. Um I I hate I was a little disappointed you guys didn't call us back to actually have the meeting. Um because after that last meeting, we said, "Let's get together. We can nail this and hammer it out and take care of everything." And there was no meeting. I was kind of a little bit disappointed in some respect, but we'll see how it goes. Okay.

So, so at the last planning commission meeting, which was Thursday, September 4th, uh the planning commission expressed their concern about the proposed the original. Oh, yes. Can you please state your name and address for the record? My apology. I I'm uh Jean Eugene Berg or Jean G- NE Berg from Gal Architects, 1304 Hamilton Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania 18102.

Thank you. still. So, in in response in response to the uh the planning commission's concern about the propo our original proposal of four stories and 50-ft tall elderly housing apartment buildings, we reduced the permitted maximum building height for the multiple family apartment uh buildings to three stories or 40 feet tall, whichever is more restrictive. and we kept the separation of the multiple family apartment buildings at 40 feet of separation apart from one another. Um so on the sketch site plan we like you said we provided three three-story apartment buildings rather than the prior two fourstory apartment buildings. Um the the other items that we modified, we also increased the amount of parking that would be required for the elderly housing apartments to make that two spaces per dwelling unit so that we would match the township's present ordinance uh with a minimum of ratio of two off- streetet spaces per multiple family dwelling unit. And we kept the prior requirement of two off-street parking spaces per twin dwelling unit or single family dwelling unit other dwelling units uh which may include one space in a garage and one space on a driveway. And then thirdly, in in the past submissions, the board of supervisors was unhappy with the maximum density of 10 units per acre. And at that time, we dropped the density to eight units per acre, which closely matches the density on the proposed plan. Now, we maintained the density of eight units per acre in the in the proposed attached proposed sketch site plan because when we were before the planning commission last time on September 4th, we were also showing eight units per acre. Just just wanted to remind that we dropped from 108 10 units per acre to 8 units per acre. And the draft zoning map that we previously

uh provided was unchanged. So we did not resubmit it. But in the handouts that was handed out to everyone on the board, uh you can see the the yellow hatched area which is on the southwest the property on the southwest corner of Hanoverville Road and Airport Road which is a 15.68 68 acre property. All right. Questions or comments, gentlemen?

Two parking spaces per apartment unit. I'm having a party. I'm 65 years old and I'm inviting my family over. I got 20 people coming in 40 cars. Where do they park? We have extra parking spaces on the site. Al we have extra parking spaces on the site that are above and beyond the uh the two parking spaces, you know, per unit. They designated areas.

Yeah. But but the two we we tailored that to parking spaces just to match your existing zoning ordinance, you know, because we wanted to make it match what East Allen Township already requests for apartment units. So we're we're matching, you know, the parking requirements that are in your zoning ordinance. Um, so do you know how many [clears throat] parking spaces you're actually providing and like what that would be instead of like two per unit? Does it end up being like 2.5 per unit? Because I guess the other issue is is this is going to allow like tennis courts and maybe a community center. So I'm not sure if you know there's adequate parking for those type of facilities. And then you also have uh home health aids coming in for the elderly giving them daily services. Okay, you're talking about elder 62 or older. You get up in age and you need help getting dressed, getting your meals, and they your partner supposedly your husband or wife are in the same boat you are. They need help as well. Where do they park?

I just only general comment to that changes to the tune actually. There are many studies out there indicating these facilities do not require two spaces. So in general, if one person is have a party with extra spaces, maybe a number of apartments only use one. So we think making it two has created somewhat of an inherent surplus in the general parking. The idea situation. I don't believe their studies. They're old and out of date.

I don't care how current they are. The people are not looking into common sense. I've got my wife going out now that service people. She's a home health aid. The people don't even want her to park in their driveway. So, how do you get that? So, I don't buy it. You understand what I'm saying?

I understand your concern, but I think that number plan 190 parking spaces in the block. So for the excluding the twins which is where I get the people go in my driveway come visit us but in the main development you have 190 most of the people who are getting home healthy are not having also two cars that they would have in I believe that generally what we found a lot of the items is typically one or no parking spaces type living. Uh that's what they've typically found is people who are in a lot of assisted callate living not one of them is But going back to the other places, when you're in the twins, there is room between the twins for some on street parks. Your driveways are not This isn't like town.

Yes. Sorry. Go ahead. I didn't mean to.

Oh, sorry. No. Again, if your wife was coming in to help with one twin, there would be room to park on the street, not in the general building. There is a there is a parking lot as shown on parking for the building away from the building. Again, whe So, what I was going to say is, you know, we're looking at your plan and coming up with these zoning amendments, but what we have to think about too is one when it's passed, it's going to be for every development that comes in. So besides looking at what you guys are proposing and maybe you saying yeah you can fit a car on street there may be another situation that comes in that does not have that ability. So with our ordinances we have to look at accounting for and requiring the parking spaces. And that's what I'm saying. If you're saying that you have two spaces for every dwelling unit and one of them could be a garage space. Um,

I guess the problem is if you go if you look at it for the bigger buildings, but yes. So in terms of it, we're saying that you could have one in the garage, one in the driveway, and that there would be x number of street parking. We could come up with a number of cars that could be I assume be one side of the street here.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's what we have to come up with the density because as I said, not all the designs that we're seeing are going to have the same potentially have the same ability to park on the street. So that's what like whether it's 2.5 spaces to accommodate additional parking or if you look at the age qualified restricted one, they kind of addressed it as providing one additional space for every so many units, which in this case it's one for four. So it provides the parking on street, you know, I mean on the off- streetet parking for the individual units, but then it does accommodate situations where people have guests over or party

with um ex accelerate uh what's the word I'm looking for? Overflow parking. Right. Yeah. Right. So, and that's why I said and that's why we were like when we were going to when we were talking about having that meeting um you know my intention was to kind of look at some of the things that are in the age qualified that seem to work in the developments that are being and maybe trying to incorporate them as text amendments and not to say that this plan's not meeting it with the ability but to provide them

the idea of doing an extra space for a number of units would be a better idea than trying to marry it to the number of units you could end up

right with parking being so many like a certain distance you know providing parking within a certain distance from the units because we can't have a unit up here and then they have to walk half a mile you know to get to it um and then the other thing is accounting for if you're going to have a community center or they're going to have you know w facilities providing parking for those and once again if I'm looking at you know the ordinance that the township did pass. I think it was like one parking space for every 250 square feet of community center building. So, you know, even if it doesn't apply to your specific, you know, we have to look at it for things that for other projects that might come in

at this point in time. You know, we we provide 190 parking spaces in the front lot and and if we said two 90 apartments times two would be what? 180 required. So we have 10 at 10 parking spaces available to at this point in time to help satisfy those additional uh requirements that you were discussing. But you know certainly this is this is not a plan that is ready for uh you know planning commission review yet at this point. But we certainly can modify the the parking lot to find additional spaces. Yeah. We're not look like this case. We're not reviewing your plan and seeing we're trying to come up with text amendments that would be for

this plan or anybody come in that may have a different design. Mr. Bill suggested we were there were other suggestions made to us but someone control over us to move ahead this way but I think that a group meeting um may be a good idea to walk through what is a what you're looking at is a bigger picture. We're looking more sight specific and we understand that saying, "Hey guys, that's great, but this is a law, not a plan approval." You're looking at

I think perhaps a give and take on that basis would be a good idea and for us to get the message back where we got the directions to go that we go that route.

Well, it it Yeah. And I mean, there's a lot of other things. I mean, I just over the holidays, my wife and I went driving around. We're getting Christmas lights and we went through uh Traditions of America. And it's nice because what they have is like between homes, for instance, where there's duplexes and whatnot, they have a little set where there's like five parking spots that are nose in perpendicular to the the direction of travel. You just have those there for extra parking as as Jill was indicating. And that's pretty nice. It gives people that are visiting a place to park that nec not necessarily on the street because then you got to deal with width and emergency vehicles and everything else and not being able to navigate through the area. But it was nice. Um I was pleased the way the way it all laid out. Um but yes, and that is kind of the issue. We we we plus we're also redoing our another reason we wanted to have the meeting is we're redoing our whole ordinance system. So, if we're going to incorporate this depending on the timing, it would be nice that it falls into our new ordinance as opposed to coming in and then having to redo things or make it shoehorn it in or something. If we can get it to lay in it, it would be good, too. Again, depending on the timing, how it all plays out.

You want to have staff initiate that meeting? Yeah. I'm not sure who's going to be included on your side, but you can just get to us and say, "Here's here's some dates we'd like to have a meeting." staff that internally. Yeah, you can do that. Yep. We'll initiate it. Okay. And we'll get might have been that might have been one of the problems before as as Joel said, we have another person here who's kind of breathing down our neck in terms of what to initiate. We thought you were going to initiate it. You thought we were going to initiate. Yeah, we were waiting. Yeah, we were waiting for that. Exactly. Exactly. So, it was a mistake on both parts. I know both parts happened. cuz you remember that. Oh yeah. And the other thing is this to be the overlay

PC2 is going away, right? And part of our new ordinance, but we're simplifying our zoning district. So with that technically not going to be we have to look at including how everything intertwines still staying commercial for us, you know, that's what happens.

Right. Well, and that's one of the things that we want to take into consideration as well, Joel, is that the draft zoning amendment plan. Um, the map just shows this property as being subject to the overlay district. Now, depending upon what the underlying district is going to continue to be, we really need to see whether or not there are other locations so that we don't have a spot zoning issue or at least an allegation of a spot zoning issue at just this location. So I think you know one of the things when we have that meeting what we ought to be looking at is other areas in the township that might have similar zoning and see whether or not the planning commission the board of supervisors would have a level of comfort once this ordinance is in a position that they're comfortable with and they believe hey this can go other places maybe we can expand that map to include other properties so that we don't you know we don't get a challenge not that we would but you know I think we need to look at something other than just the one property on the map amendment Hey, hey, Joe. One one question. This little triangular piece down here,

which they're saying we want to put in the overlay, is actually Aren't we seating that to Hanville? No, we're not seating it to hand still in East Allen. Um, but part of it was a was a a portion of their open space, I believe, from the Handover Township development. Yeah. And that would affect their um development, wouldn't it? Well, as long as nothing could be built there, and I don't think it can because it's already constitutes part of a building lot or two, but I don't think we have to worry about that. It's the you're talking backyard, right? The house itself is built on where it's

But I think you do bring up a good, you know what, let's take a look at that. And maybe that jog uh should not be included in the overlay district just in case somebody goes to get a permit to put a shed in their backyard or fence and all of a sudden now they're in an overlay district that they didn't anticipate. So maybe what do you think Jill? Maybe we just exclude that jog over here. Yeah, I think it's probably a good idea because I think there will be a comp. Well, there and your plan [clears throat] shows the house goes right the property line goes right through the house. Yeah, there's there's three lots that would be impacted potentially by the zoning here. Thinking they're not lots that are extended to the proposed one.

It's the color one. It's the section right at the culdesac below the development. The homes are not in East Allen, but the rear yards different. Yeah, you're right. Goes through the top of the goes right through one of the houses. Theoretically, the line that's that now too on another property on Airport Road. Goes right through the kitchen. So when those plans get recorded and they show up on the tax map, we can cut out the letter

that is for East Allen. I don't know about handover but but yeah but for us correct some drainage developments I believe it is your letter yeah so just make a note to realign that proposed overlay district that does not include the boundaries of the homes, the portion of the lots that are located in East Allen if you don't mind. And I'm assuming the fire department would like to be involved in that meeting when we have that meeting. Absolutely.

Okay. And then um couple other things is just like reooking at buffer yard requirements and screening requirements and maybe in incorporating minimum open space requirements.

Okay. And then the way this stands now, um I mean the one thing that we haven't discussed too is where if if it is going to go into the current zoning, how does it fall and the actual section numbers? Because right now it's just part like PC2. Um and it does not really designate it as what type of use meaning permitted special exception or conditional use. So um I'm just assuming that this is something that the township may want to fall under a conditional use. So technically it would be like a section 250-21.1 D8 because that would be the LA the last conditional use under the PC2 is seven. So it would be D. And then the same thing, the rest of the um specific criteria would go under the conditional use section criteria, which would be 250 26 E26.

I think it's going to be 27. What's that? It's going to be 27. There's a 26 for data centers. Okay. But depending on where you're making all good points, Joe. I mean, it's it has to be incorporated so that it fits in with the both the current ordinance and potentially the new ordinance as well. They're all very good points.

You know, people want to look at it site specific, but it's got to be overall comprehensive, right? We need to look at it holistically, not not just for this particular site. It's not a selfanding addition to the right. Would the board be looking at it primarily as conditional use based on what I know? I venture to say it would be a conditional use. I I would tend to think that would direction to go just because of the size of the development, the nature of it, the different types of Yeah, it most likely be conditional. My recommendation would be it be conditional.

But you know, you're going to have most of the work done anyway. So if it if it happens, it shouldn't be a a more detailed process. Any other questions, comments? All right. Um, we'll get back in touch with you, set up a meeting hopefully sooner rather than later. That won't be a planning commission meeting. That'll be like a staff meeting. Yes. That's correct. It'll be a planning commission workshop. Right. Right. We we will not have a quorum at the meeting but there will be planning commission members or member in attendance for sure right

along with the staff and fire department and jail

I went to Wow. That's why I love doing work in the cities. The only reason why I like doing work in the cities at 12. Beth's at 4. But yeah. Wow. [laughter] Got to bring your own. Bill. All right. Appreciate your time. Okay, stop carrying forward. All right, moving on to the next item.

Um, item D, discussion on various zoning amendments. Um, well, it's really only one. Um, and I don't know if it's in your pack yet. I don't I didn't see one.

I didn't see anything in here. All right, then that's going to get tabled. Okay, [clears throat] we're tableabling discussion on various zoning amendments. Moving on to business being carried. Uh the first item is 6780 Jacksonville Road, minor subdivision. Plan expires February 28th. We will have a meeting before that. No action is required. Next item is Sheila Gibb minor subdivision plan expires 331 2026. Again, we'll meet before then. No actions required. The next item is Eastbound Convenience Store and Fueling Station. Uh at Hanoverville Preliminary Plan plan expires May 31st, 2026. No actions required by the board. And then the final item being carried is 6821 Steven Road, Minor Subdivision. Plan expires January 1st, 20 January 27, 2027. No action required by the board.

Moving on, we have public comment. The record reflect there's no public left to comment. What's going on? Um, don't forget to get your uh ethics paperwork filled out, submitted. You got to um and since we only had three members on the board, made a decision to do the reorganization in the February meeting. That way, everybody has a chance to Oh, yeah. Yes. pick everybody else. Anybody else? Um, so we're doing doing the reorg at the February meeting. Yes. Okay. Y I figure since these guys want to pick the other guy

Yeah. I'm just trying to think of whether or not Yeah. Nobody's going to challenge anything. I mean, we willing to take much action today anyway. All we did was receive I think we made one recommendation on that small little um but that was just that's a recommending non. I don't think it's a big issue. Right. Right. Um any questions or comments from anybody? Have a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjurnn. Have a motion by Norm. Second by Art. All in favor say I. I. The record reflect. Motion pass. Three votes to none.