A Louis DeNaples-affiliated company and a Georgia-based warehouse developer recently revived their request for Throop to allow warehouses across nearly 800 acres of environmental conservation land, though they now have a different approach.\n<\/p>\n
One week after rescinding<\/a> a petition to principally permit warehouses in Throop\u2019s environmental conservation zoning district, attorneys for Theta Land Corp. and Core5 Industrial Partners LLC filed a new zoning map amendment application and accompanying petition Sept. 22. They ask Throop to create a roughly 787-acre \u201cWarehousing & Distribution Overlay District\u201d on the same land east of the Casey Highway and opposite the Keystone Sanitary Landfill. Theta Land Corp., whose president and owner is landfill co-owner Louis DeNaples, owns about 735 of those acres, according to the filing.\n<\/p>\n The petition stresses that Core5 does not develop data centers.\n<\/p>\n Theta and Core5 of Atlanta entered into an agreement Aug. 21, 2025, for Core5 to purchase approximately 147 acres off Marshwood Road in the environmental zoning district \u201cto construct and operate warehouse and distribution facilities,\u201d according to a copy of the petition.\n<\/p>\n Representatives from Theta and Core5 went before the Throop Planning Commission on Tuesday with that request, facing opposition from multiple Lackawanna County residents, according to recordings of the meeting reviewed by The Times-Tribune. Planning commissions are advisory bodies. Any zoning changes will require a public hearing with approval from borough council.<\/p>\n Throop principally permits warehouse and distribution facilities in its general commercial, light industrial and heavy industrial zoning districts, which encompasses nearly 1,400 acres spanning from Underwood Road to the Casey Highway, including the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, according to the ordinance and zoning map.\n<\/p>\n The warehouse pitch<\/p>\n Theta and Core5 initially petitioned<\/a> Throop on\u00a0May 22 requesting to have warehouses zoned as principal permitted uses in the borough\u2019s environmental conservation zoning district, or E-1 zone. Council scheduled a public hearing followed by a special meeting Sept. 15 to listen to testimony and consider the request, but the applicants rescinded their petition hours before the hearing, canceling it.<\/p>\n Principal permitted uses normally give developers the most direct path toward approval because they don\u2019t require public hearings, but building a large warehouse would invoke a stipulation in Throop\u2019s 2021 zoning ordinance that requires any building 30,000 square feet or larger to receive conditional-use approval from council.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The new application and petition have the same basic request \u2014 make warehouses principal permitted uses across Theta\u2019s conservation land \u2014 but their new approach takes a different zoning path by seeking an overlay.<\/p>\n