An attorney representing a developer that wants to build a massive warehouse at the former Pfizer Pigments property in Easton and Wilson plans to appeal last week’s city planning commission vote turning down the proposal.
“We’re going to court,” Marc B. Kaplin said Tuesday.
Wilson plans to join the company’s lawsuit.
Kaplin said Scannell officials might also appeal the Easton Planning Board’s decision to Easton City Council and bring “several independent lawsuits.”
“The reasons that were given for rejecting us, they are not legally sufficient,” Kaplin said. Representatives with Indianapolis-based Scannell did not respond to requests for comment.
City officials have spent months reviewing plans for the Easton Commerce Center, a 1 million-square-foot warehouse on Wood Avenue, near North 13th Street and Route 22. On Dec. 3, the city planning commission denied Scannell’s plans.
The site is the former Pfizer Pigments plant, which was demolished about five years ago to make way for future development.
The company provided expert testimony over several hearings on how it would deal with the property, including a plan to reroute a stream connected to the Bushkill Creek.
But the planning commission was not satisfied with the company’s presentations.
Commission members “felt [Scannell] didn’t adequately submit information for the application,” said Dwayne Tillman, the city’s director of codes and planning, which earlier in the hearings had recommended the company’s proposal to the commission.
“It was a really big win,” said Cody J. Harding, an attorney representing the Stop the Wood Ave Warehouse Coalition, which formed to oppose the warehouse over concerns including environment, traffic, noise and neighborhood impacts.
Harding said the planning commission listed a host of reasons for denying the project. “If [Scannell officials] want to appeal this, they have a very steep hill.”
The building is 90% in Wilson, and Borough Council approved the proposed development in September 2024. But 10% of the warehouse would be in Easton, with about 30% of the land in city boundaries, so Scannell also needs Easton’s approval.
Wilson solicitor Stanley J. Margle said Borough Council voted Monday night to join Scannell’s lawsuit, which he said would be filed against Easton’s planning commission.
“We stand to benefit by the improvements of that brownfield, which is an eyesore,” Margle said. “And the warehouse is a minimally intrusive development located far away from any housing.”
The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and Easton Area School Board also opposed the proposal over traffic congestion concerns, but Margle said Scannell was planning to “sink millions of dollars” into traffic improvements.
Easton is not finished reviewing Scannell’s proposal. The city’s zoning hearing board is scheduled to continue a hearing at 6 p.m. Jan. 15 over exceptions Scannell wants, including a plan to reroute the Bushkill Creek tributary and build a road.
The anti-warehouse coalition’s work also has not ended, according to Harding. The group has presented changes to zoning it would like to see for that land. Current zoning for Wilson and Easton allows more than 60 types of “adaptive” reuses, including warehousing, he said. Warehousing is a by-right permitted use for the site in Wilson and Easton.
“Years ago, they made sense, when you had more industry,” Harding said of the reuses. “But [Easton] has changed.”
The pigment plant operated from the late 1800s until 2017, including as Pfizer from 1962 to 1990. A maker of rust-colored pigments used in various businesses, the plant was later known as Harcros Pigments, then Elementis Pigments, and was owned by Hunstman Corp. of Texas when it closed.
Contact Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone at asalamone@mcall.com.