The Conewago Township Zoning Hearing Board (ZHB) will meet Thursday, October 10 at 6:00 p.m. for a decisional meeting on zoning matters for a proposed food waste to natural gas facility. The meeting will be held at the Conewago Township Municipal Building, 541 Oxford Ave., Hanover.
The agenda is posted to the Township’s website.
The board last met Wednesday, September 4, 2024 as part of an ongoing hearing about zoning requests from developers Divert Real Estate Holdings, LLC. The site is located at 444 Oxford Avenue, Hanover, and is a 22-acre space on the west side of Oxford Avenue, north of McSherrystown. It is zoned industrial.
According to the website for Divert, Inc, the company’s facilities collect food waste and convert it to “renewable natural gas” (RNG) through a process of anaerobic digestion.
Divert states that about 90% of the organic matter is converted to biogas, while the remaining 10% is left as a solid substance, which can be added to soil as an amendment. The company announced plans in 2022 to open 30 more facilities by 2031.
The ZHB is tasked with ruling on one requested variance and one special exception. The proposed facility would be classified as “heavy industrial,” which is allowed in the industrial zone by grant of a special exception. The developers also requested a variance that would allow two tank structures on the property to exceed the 45-foot height limit set in the township’s code.
To define “special exceptions, the PA Department of Community & Economic Development states that, “A use permitted by special exception . . . is also expressly permitted in a zoning ordinance, but subject to a hearing and decision of the zoning hearing board . . . . The function of these boards is to determine whether the special exception . . . is consistent with the public interest as expressed in specific standards and criteria established in the zoning ordinance.”
The proposed facility would be considered heavy industrial because of the production of natural gas.
Conewago Township code’s criteria requires the applicant to present information to the ZHB, including processing operations and the estimated environmental impacts of the site such as light pollution, noise, waste generation, traffic, and stormwater impact. https://ecode360.com/10711431#10711422
The variance request concerns two anaerobic digestion towers on the property. The applicant is requesting approval to build these structures up to 70 feet tall. The variance request is only for these tanks, as all buildings on the property would fall below the 45 foot limit. At the September 4 portion of the hearing, there was also discussion of whether the towers could be partially buried to reduce the height, but an engineer for the project stated they were waiting on the results of geotechnical study to know if that option would be viable.
The applicant concluded its presentation in September after presenting a project engineer and traffic engineer to testify. Attorney Jon Andrews, a land use attorney based in Harrisburg, represented Divert Holdings.
Approximately 35 parties entered the record as objectors to the zoning application. Objectors were required to live within one mile of the proposed facility. The objectors were individually offered a chance to testify and present evidence if they wished.
Several seemed to object to the fact that the property was included in the industrial zone, arguing that it would be against the public interest to develop the land for an industrial use and preferring the site to remain farmland.
Various participants in the hearing stated that the site was zoned industrial in the Conewago Township Zoning Ordinance of 2009.
The zoning hearing is only one step in the process of development. The developers would need to seek final approval of a land development plan and approval from outside agencies such as the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to move the project forward.
The hearing spanned four sessions, beginning on June 5. Video of the final session can be viewed through the Community Media Center of South Central PA.
Catalina Righter, freelance reporter, lives in New Oxford. She previously wrote for the Carroll County Times and the Kent County News, covering crime, education, local government and arts. She works as a legal assistant.