A proposal for a new entranceway to Lehigh Valley Children’s Hospital was approved at Feb. 13 Salisbury Township Planning Commission meeting.

Also, at the meeting, a building proposed by a painting contractor along South Pike Avenue was tabled for consideration of stormwater runoff concerns.

The entrance for the children’s hospital would be in the vicinity of the main, north-facing, entrance, of Lehigh Valley Health Network - Cedar Crest, 1200 S. Cedar Crest Blvd.

The land development plan is in the township’s R-3 Zoning District’s Health Care Overlay District. The intention of the entrance is to give an identifiable, distinctive and separate entrance to the children’s hospital.

Planners were assured by Christopher Williams, PE, LEED AP, of Barry Isett & Associates, Inc., representing the LVHN project, that pedestrian safeguards would be provided for visitors to the hospital’s campus during construction.

Planners voted 6-0, with one abstention, to approve the preliminary-final land development for the hospital.

In the other agenda item, the plan was tabled for Aaron Roche of Roche Painting, LLC to construct a building for the storage of supplies and to provide for him an office in the approximate 2,000-square-foot building on a 1.135-acre tract at 2686 S. Fourth St. (South Pike Avenue).

Planners agreed they’d prefer to wait for a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation review of the plan, which is required because the entranceway driveway will access South Pike Avenue, which is a PennDOT jurisdiction highway.

Several planners voiced concern about runoff to the proposed parking lot at the building that would house the contractor’s business. Planning commission Vice Chairman Richard Schreiter cited runoff that could flow off of an existing parking lot at a restaurant adjacent to the proposed contractor’s building location.

Planners are encouraging a walking path along the front of the property. Sidewalk and curbing may be exempted.

Planners are expected to review the Roche plan at their 7:30 p.m. March 13 meeting. An extension for the plan’s approval through June was granted.

Roche reassured planners latex paint is used by his firm. He also reiterated box trucks and not tractor trailers would make deliveries of the paint.

The Salisbury Township Zoning Hearing Board voted 3-0 to approve at its Nov. 6, 2017, hearing construction of Roche’s building.

The building’s second-story would accommodate an office that would be rented for use as an accounting firm office. The building would be located about 500 feet north of the township municipal building.

Zoners approved two appeals associated with the Roche plan:

•A variance for buffer yard and plantings to be 30-feet from a residential lot line, whereas the proposed setback is about 21 feet on the south side and 17 feet on the north side of the proposed building.

•A special exception to allow the storage and headquarters use for Roche Painting because the site is in two zoning areas, C-2 and R-4, which is a neighborhood commercial district and medium density residential district, respectively.

Roche and Edward Schlaner Jr. of Martin H. Schuler Company, an Allentown civil engineering and surveying company, attended the Feb. 13 planners’ meeting, the Nov. 6, 2017, zoning meeting and presented a sketch plan at the Sept. 12, 2017 planners’ meeting.

The Roche building would have public sewer service. Because of the site’s elevation, water would be provided by a well.

The wooded property, which is pie-shaped and narrows to the west of its South Pike Avenue frontage, borders Allentown on the north side.

Driveway access to the building would be provided from South Pike Avenue only and not from Buttonwood Street.

“Our intention is to keep the entire rear of the property undisturbed,” Schlaner said at the zoning hearing.

The Roche building plan stipulates 17 parking spaces: two in the building’s garage, one for persons with disabilities and 14 additional spaces, with six of those for employees’ vehicles.

Estimated construction for the Roche building is $350,000 to $400,000.