First Quality Wins Appeal with Wayne Township Zoning
Warehouse Will Yield 30 Additional Jobs
LOCK HAVEN – Clinton County Judge Michael Salisbury this week granted an appeal from First Quality Products to locate a new warehouse near its McElhattan complex.
The county’s largest employer had gone into court earlier this year, seeking to overturn a Wayne Township Zoning Hearing Board denial of a variance request to build a 275,000 square-foot warehouse on a 14.3 acre site on the west side of McElhattan Drive, behind various buildings fronting on that street.
The court order, issued on Monday, reversed a zoning hearing board decision to turn down the company’s request for a special exception in order to erect the warehouse.
The same court order remanded First Quality’s request for a building height variance back to the Zoning Hearing Board for a further hearing.
The court said in light of the special exception request relative to the warehouse effect on the neighborhood, the township zoning hearing board “committed an error of law by the shifting the duty to present evidence with regard to the ‘general detrimental effect criteria’ onto the applicant.”
The order gave First Quality Products the go-ahead, subject to several conditions: “(1), develop the parcel in accordance with the sound attenuation and lighting plans, (2) have a land development plan approved to the requirements of the Wayne Township Zoning Ordinance, and (3) obtain a Highway Occupancy Permit from PennDOT.”
Mike Flanagan, chief executive officer of the Clinton County Economic Partnership, hailed the court decision. He said he expects the new building to be built in 2015 and will provide about 30 new jobs. Additionally, Flanagan said, the warehouse will free up manufacturing space in other First Quality facilities.
