ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Allentown Zoning Hearing Board approved a special use application to allow the manufacturing of chemical products during its Monday night meeting at city hall.
The approval allows applicant HV2 Enterprises to establish “the manufacture of chemical products that are not ‘extremely hazardous substances'” at 302-326 W. Gordon St.
HV2 is a chemical processing company based in Easton for more than 25 years. The company, which is looking to relocate to Allentown, specializes in complete minerals processing for industrial materials. Niral Sheth, HV2 vice president, testified the property is currently 53,590 square feet and that the company was “only changing the physical form of the chemicals…large chemicals go to small chemicals.”
Sheth added the facility would receive two to five box trucks daily and the facility had more than enough parking. The facility would house 12 to 14 employees, and he added outside storage would consist only of empty pallets.
Adult day care
The board approved a variance to build an adult day care center.
The appeal, submitted by Allentown Properties Associates, involves property at 1415 and 1425 Lehigh St. One request involves allowing the applicant to exceed maximum allowable steep slope disturbance in some property areas by 25% to 35%, where 25% is permitted and 100% is proposed. A second request would disturb steep slopes over 35%, where none is permitted and 100% is proposed.
An attorney representing the applicant, Erik Hume, called engineer Donald Peters as his only witness. Peters said the slopes, which are from a previous development, are a hardship. To redevelop the site, the slopes would have to be disturbed.
The approval was granted as the disturbance size was considered de minimis.