2 weeks Ago By Ben Orner The Sentinel
The next act in Silver Spring Township’s mega-warehouse drama may take place in court. Panattoni Development Co., looking to build a 1.
2 million-square-foot warehouse near neighborhoods, notified the township last week in a prelitigation letter to preserve evidence for a possible lawsuit. “Please be advised that potential litigation is contemplated by PDC against Silver Spring Township,” Helen Gemmill, the company’s hired lawyer from Harrisburg firm McNees Wallace & Nurick, wrote to the township’s manager and solicitor. “PDC hereby demands that you preserve all documents, tangible things and electronically stored information potentially relevant,” Gemmill wrote.
Silver Spring’s five township supervisors voted unanimously earlier in October to deny Panattoni’s application for Trindle Spring Trade Center, which would transform a 123-acre site off Texaco Road and Mulberry Drive. A township ordinance requires denials of development projects to specify why the applicant didn’t meet legal requirements. If applicants meet all legal requirements, municipalities are required by state law to approve projects.
Supervisors’ official denial , approved by the board Oct. 23, says Panattoni didn’t specify enough the use of the warehouse. Panattoni does not have a tenant lined up for the warehouse, so its proposed design is considered spec, meaning it’s flexible to meet multiple possible needs.
Depending on its eventual use, the number and frequency of tractor-trailers and employee vehicles could have very different effects on area traffic. Joe Peters, Panattoni’s northeast office development manager, declined comment to The Sentinel this week regarding supervisors’ reasoning. Donald Yorlets, the property owner selling to the company, declined an interview.
Panattoni has 30 days from Oct. 23 to make its next move: accept defeat, revise and resubmit its plan or appeal the denial to the Court of Common Pleas. “I do think it will be going to court,” said Paul Fischer, a member of No Trade Center, a group of residents protesting Panattoni’s efforts.
Fischer, 57, is “very familiar” with this process. In the 1990s, he was a planning commissioner in Lehigh County’s Weisenberg Township, where warehouses sprung up along Interstate 78. Three years ago, he and his wife moved to Silver Spring Township’s Evergreen residential development, which would border Panattoni’s warehouse site.
Residents’ unanimous victory in denying that warehouse – at least momentarily – is “in my experience, unheard of,” Fischer said. “It just doesn’t happen.” Residents have spent more than $30,000 to fight the warehouse plan, Fischer said.
Most of that went to hiring a lawyer and experts who countered Panattoni at two public hearings. “We look at it more as an investment to preserve the community,” Fischer said. Panattoni’s possible lawsuit is not unexpected, he said.
He’s also “disappointed in the substance” of the township’s official denial, because “there were a lot of other things that could have been included that weren’t.” Other than traffic, residents worry about light, air and noise pollution, plus the fact the warehouse is being built on a floodplain (which the company has promised to raise with fill dirt). “There seems to be some holes in that denial letter that potentially would permit the developer to resubmit the plan or make changes,” Fischer said.
In the public hearings, the battle was Panattoni versus residents, but in court it would be Panattoni versus the township. Residents’ role now is “monitoring the situation,” Fischer said. Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield lists the warehouse as available on its website, with a “year built” date of 2025.
Pictured is a map of where Panattoni's proposed 1.2 million-square-foot distribution warehouse would go in Silver Spring Township. Panattoni, one of the largest industrial developers in the U.
S., has estimated the warehouse would create 500 to 1,000 jobs once built and generate $750,000 in yearly tax revenue for the township, Cumberland County and Cumberland Valley School District. This location, albeit farther from Interstates 76 and 81 than similar mega-warehouses are, is still desirable, Peters previously told The Sentinel.
The Carlisle area is near major East Coast markets and seaports like New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Also, industrial vacancy rates are much lower in Cumberland County than the national average, as demand for large-scale warehouses is expected to increase. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts has introduced a bill aimed at regulating the use of productivity quotas in warehouses operated by companies like Amazon.
The proposed legislation comes as a response to concerns that such quotas can push employees to work at an unsafe pace, potentially leading to a higher risk of injuries due to the lack of adequate breaks. If the bill passes, it would mandate greater transparency from employers regarding these quotas and the consequences of failing to meet them. Employers would also be required to give workers at least two business days' notice before implementing changes to quotas or surveillance practices in the workplace.
The move is seen as a step towards ensuring the health and safety of warehouse workers by giving them a more predictable and less punitive work environment. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Enterprise Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
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