{"id":58389,"date":"2025-12-11T22:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58389\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T22:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:00:09","slug":"after-easton-area-warehouse-rejected-developer-plans-to-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58389\/","title":{"rendered":"After Easton area warehouse rejected, developer plans to appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

An attorney representing a developer that wants to build a massive warehouse at the former Pfizer Pigments property<\/a> in Easton and Wilson plans to appeal last week\u2019s city planning commission vote turning down the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to court,\u201d Marc B. Kaplin said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Wilson plans to join the company\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Kaplin said Scannell officials might also appeal the Easton Planning Board\u2019s decision to Easton City Council and bring \u201cseveral independent lawsuits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reasons that were given for rejecting us, they are not legally sufficient,\u201d Kaplin said. Representatives with Indianapolis-based Scannell did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

The site is the former Pfizer Pigments plant, which was demolished about five years ago<\/a> to make way for future development.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But the planning commission was not satisfied with the company\u2019s presentations.<\/p>\n

Commission members \u201cfelt [Scannell] didn\u2019t adequately submit information for the application,\u201d said Dwayne Tillman, the city\u2019s director of codes and planning, which earlier in the hearings had recommended the company\u2019s proposal to the commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really big win,\u201d said Cody J. Harding, an attorney representing the Stop the Wood Ave Warehouse Coalition<\/a>, which formed to oppose the warehouse over concerns including environment, traffic, noise and neighborhood impacts.<\/p>\n

Harding said the planning commission listed a host of reasons for denying the project. \u201cIf [Scannell officials] want to appeal this, they have a very steep hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n

Wilson solicitor Stanley J. Margle said Borough Council voted Monday night to join Scannell\u2019s lawsuit, which he said would be filed against Easton\u2019s planning commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand to benefit by the improvements of that brownfield, which is an eyesore,\u201d Margle said. \u201cAnd the warehouse is a minimally intrusive development located far away from any housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission<\/a> and Easton Area School Board also opposed the proposal over traffic congestion concerns, but Margle said Scannell was planning to \u201csink millions of dollars\u201d into traffic improvements.<\/p>\n

Easton is not finished reviewing Scannell\u2019s proposal. The city\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The anti-warehouse coalition\u2019s 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 \u201cadaptive\u201d reuses, including warehousing, he said. Warehousing is a by-right permitted use for the site in Wilson and Easton.<\/p>\n

\u201cYears ago, they made sense, when you had more industry,\u201d Harding said of the reuses. \u201cBut [Easton] has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Contact Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone at asalamone@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attorney representing a developer that wants to build a massive warehouse at the former Pfizer Pigments property…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,60,2181,182,139,434,28,1081,432,2429],"class_list":{"0":"post-58389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-easton","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-northampton-county","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-real-estate","18":"tag-top-stories-tmc","19":"tag-wilson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58389","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=58389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}