{"id":20616,"date":"2025-10-31T08:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T08:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/20616\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T08:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T08:38:10","slug":"easton-warehouse-debate-all-but-postpones-final-decision-to-2026-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/20616\/","title":{"rendered":"Easton warehouse debate all but postpones final decision to 2026 \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Expert<\/a> <\/p>\n

Photo by Austin Carey<\/a> for The Lafayette <\/p>\n

Expert witness Donald Haas holding up a poster board brought by warehouse opposition to the meeting.<\/p>\n

Environmental experts and residents voiced concerns at Monday night\u2019s Easton Zoning Board hearing, continuing discussions on a special exception<\/a> needed by developers for their proposed 1-million-square-foot warehouse in Easton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The special exception calls on the board to permit the relocation<\/a> of a Bushkill Creek feeder stream running through the planned warehouse site, the final hurdle in the project\u2019s approval for developer Scannell Properties and a permit that the city\u2019s planning commission recommended against in August<\/a>.<\/p>\n

David Brandes, a Lafayette College civil and environmental engineering professor, spoke for over an hour at the meeting, which was the fifth city public debate on the project this fall.<\/p>\n

Brandes alleged errors in the studies that Scannell Properties relied on to argue for the permit. He said one study, used to estimate the impact of moving the feeder stream, was inaccurate because it did not account for different conditions that the watershed could face, such as a high potential for runoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cStream stats, in many cases, certainly the way it is used here, are not an appropriate or valid tool,\u201d Brandes said of the methods used in Bogia\u2019s reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think winging it is a part of engineering,\u201d Brandes added.<\/p>\n

\"\"Attorney Marc Kaplin (left) and Donald Haas (right) did not allow for questions from the public until the last 15 minutes. (Photo by Austin Carey)<\/p>\n

A model of this specific watershed would need to be conducted to get a proper estimate of potential impacts, according to Brandes.<\/p>\n

Attorney Marc Kaplin, who represented Scannell, challenged Brandes\u2019s findings. In questioning the latter, Kaplin argued Scannell had acquired the necessary permits for the movement of the stream from the Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers, as presented in a previous meeting.<\/p>\n

City Solicitor Robert Nitchkey said that acquiring such national permits did not supersede the need for the developer to acquire special exceptions from the City of Easton, and the city\u2019s decision would take precedence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a difference of opinion between one expert and another,\u201d Nitchkey said. \u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s going to come down to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In public comments, multiple Easton area residents testified regarding concerns of additional flooding in the region that the warehouse\u2019s development might cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kaplin did not allow for questions to be answered by Bogia Engineering\u2019s Donald Haas until the public comments had finished, addressing questions that had been raised in one statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zoning Board Member Pam Panto criticized this decision, arguing that withholding all responses until the last 15 minutes of the four-hour meeting did not allow time for further questions or comments, especially because Brandes had already left the meeting.<\/p>\n

The discussion regarding this special exception will continue at a meeting on an unspecified future date. Final deliberations and voting on the project, which had recently been slated to take place on Dec. 3, will be rescheduled, with Nitchkey alluding to the fact that they may not take place until 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Austin Carey for The Lafayette Expert witness Donald Haas holding up a poster board brought by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-20616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}