As part of The Road Aheadtraffic safety project, LehighValleyNews.com asked readers for input. They rose to the challenge, sharing their takes on road design, traffic patterns, driving trends, public transit and more. Each week, the Road Scholar will review some of the concerns driving Lehigh Valley motorists.
Jack Iannantuono, a newly appointed Lowhill Township supervisor, reached out recently to ruminate on local officials' ability to control development and traffic within their borders.
Lowhill is currently dealing with three warehouse proposals despite agreeing to a Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Plan years ago that would block any warehouses from being built in the township.
Except the township never got around to updating its Subdivision and Land Development Ordinances, or SALDO, which sets the rules developers must abide by. Iannantuono said the changes should be finalized by this summer, but because the warehouse applications came in before the rules update, the developers only have to comply with outdated SALDO.
"Could you possibly think of a worse possible place to put three industrial warehouses within a mile?"Jack Iannantuono, Lowhill Township supervisor
The proposals, he said, present a nightmare to the township, which lacks its own police department and is served by five volunteer fire departments based in neighboring townships.
The existing infrastructure can't handle it, the township roads have steep slopes that aren't truck-friendly, and the resulting pollution can't be good for the township's vital waterways, he said.
"Could you possibly think of a worse possible place to put three industrial warehouses within a mile?" Iannantuono asked.
One of the most frustrating aspects of Lowhill Township's predicament is that local officials took extra steps to prevent exactly this situation. Typically, Pennsylvania requires municipalities to zone for every conceivable use somewhere in their boundaries. Rural townships need to allow high-density housing somewhere. The same goes for sleepy boroughs and major industrial centers.
Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Plans, by contrast, allow communities to band together to create a joint zoning plan. Boroughs can take the high-density housing, agriculture can stick in rural townships, and warehouses can be directed to lots close to established highways that are ready — or at least better suited — for traffic. Getting all those communities to agree to a single plan can be difficult even under ideal circumstances, making the SALDO oversight all the more upsetting for locals.
Iannantuono, a Republican who ran as a Libertarian in Pennsylvania's 1998 U.S. Senate race, voiced support for a bill introduced last session by state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh. The bill would have amended the Municipal Planning Code to require developers to perform impact studies whenever a regionally significant development is proposed.
It passed the House's Local Government Committee along party lines but went no further.
"It’s just a machine that keeps trampling over everything without analysis or balance at all."Jack Iannantuono, Lowhill Township supervisor
The bill, Iannantuono said, would have allowed communities to demand better infrastructure to offset the demands created by major developments — wider roads, stronger bridges, or chipping in on emergency responder equipment, for example.
The bill would have granted neighboring communities a say, too. Communities such as Bath and Macungie, for example, have been deeply affected by major warehouses flowing out of nearby communities.
"It’s just a machine that keeps trampling over everything without analysis or balance at all," he said of the current system.
In an interview last week, Schlossberg said he expects the bill to be reintroduced this year under a new sponsor; as new majority whip, he rarely introduces bills of his own. He wasn't optimistic the bill would see better fortunes this time around, though.
During a 2023 committee meeting held at the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, many lawmakers from central and northern Pennsylvania appeared shocked when person after person testified about how unpopular warehouse development is locally. Many of their communities are starved for development and the jobs and tax base they create.
"In the Valley it's not [controversial]," Schlossberg said of the bill, but in other places, it is more so."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Want to be plugged in to all things traffic and transit in the Lehigh Valley? Sign up for Tom Shortell's weekly Road Scholar newsletter and get it delivered to your in-box every Tuesday. Better yet, tell him what you're thinking — or what you want to know — at toms@lehighvalleynews.com.
