The plan for a new office building at the Oxford Drive at Fish Hatchery Road professional office campus of The Pidcock Company has been approved.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners voted 4-0, with one commissioner absent at the June 23 meeting, to approve the preliminary-final land development plan for the office building listed as 2451 Parkwood Drive.

Board of Commissioners President James A. Brown made the motion to vote on approval of the plan, seconded by Commissioner Debra Brinton.

Commissioners approved the plan for the two-story, 34,000-square-foot office building following the Salisbury Township Planning Commission vote at its May 10 meeting to recommend approval of the plan. Planners had voted to table the plan at their April meeting. Township planners did not meet in June.

J. Scott Pidcock, P.E., R.A., representing Parkwood Real Estate Trust LLC, presented the plan to commissioners June 23 as he had before the planners.

The Pidcock Company provides civil engineering and land planning, architecture and land surveying services.

The site of the new building is that of a building formerly occupied by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, “which is about six inches off I-78. This building will not be that close, Pidcock quipped.

The proposed building is in a C-1 Zoning District.

“There are really no public improvements,” David J. Tettemer, Salisbury Township consulting engineer of Keystone Consulting Engineers, Inc., reported to commissioners.

“There are going to be some things we will oversee,” Tettemer said of the project.

There are two parts to the project. The first includes a lot-consolidation plan.

No earth-moving is allowed on slopes of more than 25 percent. Pidcock had addressed this matter with planners. “There is no disturbance planned in steep-slope areas,” he said at the April 12 planners’ meeting.

A variance was approved for proposed spray irrigation, which would be accomplished with underground pipes. Pidcock said the campus’s hilly areas will be used for irrigation.

The building will have a flat roof. Downspouts will collect water, which will flow to pipes under the parking lot, which will be expanded.

Tettemer, noting his June 16 review letter, said he had no engineering objection to granting a waiver to combine the preliminary and final land development plan.

Salisbury Township Director of Planning and Zoning Cynthia Sopka, noting her May 25 letter, confirmed planners recommended approval and continuation of the waivers.

“We’d recommend that it be approved,” Tettemer said of the plan.

Township police, fire and public works officials have reviewed the plan. Pidcock had met with Salisbury Township Fire Inspector Sgt. Donald Sabo Jr. Pidcock said the “turning template” for emergency vehicles was deemed acceptable.

PPL and the City of Allentown were informed of the project.

A Lehigh County Conservation District Erosion and Control review, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit and an operation and maintenance agreement are required.

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission approved the plan.

Deferrals for sidewalks, curbing and shade trees along Fish Hatchery Road and the widening of Fish Hatchery Road were previously granted.

A waiver to combine the preliminary and final plan was also previously granted.

After the commissioners’ vote, Pidcock said to the board, “I get into a lot of townships in a year. This is my first time as an applicant. You have a good team. They represent you well. It’s been a good experience for me.”

A timetable for demolition of the former PennDOT building and construction start and completion dates for the new building were not immediately available.