L. MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. \u2013 The Lower Macungie Township Planning Commission recommended approval of a revised preliminary\/final plan involving a chain grocery store Tuesday night at the township building.<\/p>\n
The project calls for the construction of a 23,000-square-foot Sprouts Farmers Market at 2550 Route 100; a 23,400-square-foot retail center; and a 4,675-square foot bank to be located between the proposed Sprouts and an existing St. Luke’s University Health Network medical office building.<\/p>\n
The plan includes 211 parking spaces, exceeding easily the 94 required. Most parking will be on the building’s north side.<\/p>\n
The project’s developer, Jaindl Land Co., made significant additions from a sketch plan presented in April and a preliminary\/final land development plan on June 11. Tuesday night’s review featured revisions made Sept. 9. The new development site is home currently to the St. Luke’s medical office building that will be joined by the new users on the Route 100 site between Schoeneck Road and the new Sauerkraut Lane Extension.<\/p>\n
“The overall site is designed with roads and paths to be interconnected,” Director of Planning Nathan Jones said Tuesday night. “…There were a number of public comments given at the last planning commission meeting, and we have taken them into account.”<\/p>\n
Jones said the township worked with the applicant “to increase our pedestrian connectivity to two points on the lot off of Route 100 and throughout the entirety of the site.”<\/p>\n
The site will also “have streetscaping throughout its whole route,” Jones added.<\/p>\n
The Sauerkraut Lane extension’s completion is paramount to the plan, as the project is based on the extension’s completion before the store’s opening. The 14-acre site will feature two access roads: one from previously mentioned Sauerkraut Lane and the second that will connect to both the Shady Road intersection and Sauerkraut Lane intersection. This is designed to help with truck circulation.<\/p>\n
Designers have stormwater from the entire 14-acre tract discharging into a new stormwater facility designed for this development. In addition, a loading dock will be behind an adjacent retaining wall. The site includes also an internal walking path between buildings.<\/p>\n
Jaindl officials performed previously a traffic study and indicated there were “no traffic issues” to note and that it was “as good as it gets.” This includes road improvements that will be made, which will provide “more capacity.”<\/p>\n
However, Township Engineer Bryan McAdam requested for a second time the developer’s traffic narrative “should be expanded to include a Saturday peak hour of analysis.” McAdam also questioned the traffic narrative itself, noting that his opinion “is of little use,” as it did not accurately model the proposed development and does not consider the highest peak hour of the generator.<\/p>\n
The Pidcock Company, retained by Jaindl officials for the project, said “the traffic narrative purposely overestimated the size of the proposed strip retail and bank.” This allows for flexibility in the final uses without once again performing a traffic impact analysis or study, Pidcock noted.<\/p>\n
However, engineering officials Tuesday night said they “would have no issue” if the planning commission recommended project approval.<\/p>\n
Project engineers said they had “no problems” with McAdam’s comments and they would be addressed.<\/p>\n
Northbound Route 100 will have a separate left turn lane to go to Sauerkraut Lane Extension heading west and a thru lane. Southbound Route 100 will have a dedicated right turn lane and a thru lane.<\/p>\n
The site is part of the Spring Creek property settlement subdivision. As a result, the project is governed by zoning ordinances in effect in 2010 and are not subject to current 2019 regulations and requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"L. MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. \u2013 The Lower Macungie Township Planning Commission recommended approval of a revised preliminary\/final plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,2757,157,2754,2756,2753,28,2755,2760,2752,2759,2758],"class_list":["post-4206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-east-texas","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-lower-macungie-township","tag-lower-macungie-township-planning-commission","tag-macungie","tag-pennsylvania","tag-sprouts-farmers-market","tag-st-luke","tag-townships-in-pennsylvania","tag-university-health-network","tag-wescosville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4206","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=4206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}