The Hamilton Township Board of Supervisors voted Monday, February 3, 2025 to start the process of reexamining the regulations in their zoning code, with the aim of placing some restrictions on the scale of warehouse projects in their commercial zoning district.
This follows an extended and costly legal battle over a proposed warehouse at the Cross Keys intersection of Rt. 94 and 30, which was ultimately denied before the township’s Zoning Hearing Board. The meeting room was filled with attendees from the public.
The township’s three supervisors, all present, voted unanimously to review the commercial zoning district.
The township will define the specifics, such as possible restrictions on square footage and height, at the upcoming Planning Commission meeting on February 18 at 7:00 p.m.
Supervisors encouraged residents to attend and bring ideas to contribute to the discussion.
“We will entertain every one of your suggestions,” Chairman Ron Weidner siad.
Those who cannot attend may email comments to secretary@twphamilton.comand they will be added to the record.
The Supervisors did ask meeting participants to try to avoid repeating comments if another speaker has already expressed them.
Currently the township’s code allows warehouses to be built in the employment-industrial zone and the commercial zone. To build this type of structure in the commercial zone, developers must seek a special exception from the Zoning Hearing Board.
More specifics about each zoning district can be found in Chapter 150 of the township’s code, available on their website.
Weidner explained that the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) is the law that governs planning agencies. If the township makes it impossible or overly difficult through their zoning for a business to construct a specific land use (in this case a warehouse) in every zoning district in the township, they can be sued. The township losing such a lawsuit would cost local taxpayers, and allow a developer to do whatever they want, he said.
In Monday’s meeting, the Supervisors also considered a “curative amendment” process, which would take the warehouse use out of the commercial zone alltogether, leaving it only in the employment-industrial. They voted against this unanimously.
Weidner’s reasoning was that if warehouses must be allowed somewhere in the township, the commercial zone is logistically the best place, due to the access from Rt. 94 and Rt. 30 at Cross Keys.
He said if a warehouse with significant truck traffic is placed elsewhere in the township, trucks will still need to enter through those major highways, but will then create wear-and-tear on the smaller roadways if they must travel them to reach their destination.
“To move it to a more rural area is going to make it worse,” he said.
The curative amendment would have also been a longer process, and any development application formally submitted during the time it was under consideration and advertising would be grandfathered into the existing regulations.
Weidner also updated attendees on the status of the previous warehouse project application by developers NOBPA, LLC, which was denied the special exception needed to proceed on the property adjacent to the Cross Keys intersection.
The developers had not so far attempted to appeal the denial. As of Monday, they had approximately 20 days left to do so, he said.
The hearing process for the special exception and a variance extended over several months and multiple hours-long sessions. In addition to the township and the applicants, a group of about 30 residents formed an objectors’ party to what they called a “mega-warehouse” and its associated traffic and environmental concerns.
During his report, the town’s engineer Chad Clabaugh shared that the Adams County Transportation Planning Organization‘s traffic study of the Cross Keys area was almost finished. The township plans to link to the completed study on their website once it is published. So far, the organization has published a list of the public comments related to the study on its website.
The data from the traffic study can be used as a tool for the local municipalities to apply for funding and improvements to the state-controlled roads.
The Planning Commission will meet Tuesday February 18, The Board of Supervisors will meet again Monday, March 3. Both meetings will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Hamilton Township Municipal Building, 272 Mummerts Church Rd, Abbottstown.
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.