A conditional approval of a warehouse at 840 Broad St. caused some lengthy discussion at the Emmaus Borough meeting May 20.

This plan, which has been in discussion for a year and a half, proposes the construction of a 12,000 square foot warehouse/light industrial building at a site known as the “Emmaus Commerce Center.”

“This in particular is a building where they dug into the side of the hill, had some issues, and it has since been in the planning stages for some time,” Borough Manager Shane Pepe said. “It has been hung up in the planning process for stormwater and trying to figure out how they are going to manage the stormwater.”

Pepe said the problem is the property is on a hill which causes an issue for managing the stormwater due to the slope. They had to figure out how to put a building up there and not flood out their neighbor, other facilities in the area and themselves.

They came up with a spray irrigation plan that originally wasn’t working, but with new calculations that are being proposed per the engineer, it relieves them from the setback requirements they were going to deal with.

Pepe said the planning commission did not have time for a quorum before the due date, so they sent it over to council for review.

Councilman Chris DeFrain said he would like to see this tabled, as it’s been going on for almost two years, and the planning commission didn’t get a final look. “All we deal with is stormwater, stormwater, stormwater and I feel like this is being rushed through again,” he said.

Borough Solicitor Thomas Dinkelacker said they would either need another time extension, which the engineer for the contractor said later in the meeting they would not grant, or they would need a basis to deny the request, which Dinkelacker felt they did not have.

Pepe said he felt the problem was “for a year and a half we were saying this doesn’t work, this doesn’t work, and magically it seems now it works.”

A representative for Hanover Engineering, which is the borough’s engineer firm, said a half inch per day is what the conservation district considers a spray irrigation, and the new calculations show it’s going to be less than half an inch per day.

When asked by DeFrain what would happen if it went over half an inch per day, he was told they then would not be following the conditions of the contract.

“Let’s say that down the road it doesn’t work, they have what is recorded at the courthouse what’s called a post construction management plan,” Dinkelacker said. “If there is a problem and the plan is not working, than they are in violation of the PA laws that relate to how their stormwater management is applied. They are bound by their plan and the law.”

Dinkelacker stated if council would conditionally approve the plan, it would have to still go through the Lehigh Valley Conservation District, where it would be completely reviewed and the calculations reexamined.

It was noted there is a pump attached to the irrigation system that will record how much is sprayed anytime the pump is activated.

A representative from Liberty Engineering, the engineering firm working for the contractor, was also in attendance to answer questions. Michael Minervini explained how the calculations had changed. “We took the area between the mound and slope, which was paved, and we took the pavement out,” Minervini said. He continued to say they are planting grass which will “lower the impervious layer.”

The borough’s engineer will be onsite during construction to make sure everything is going smoothly and the borough will be allowed out to inspect the pump as well.

Council President Brent Labenberg said he would be voting for the resolution to pass.

“We paid our borough engineer a lot of money to represent us and he’s saying that everything they have done is correct and we have a solicitor that we pay a lot of money to who is saying that we can not deny this unless we give a reason,” he said.

Councilman Roy Anders felt they didn’t “have much choice by this in regard to the law” so he would be supporting it reluctantly.

DeFrain said he would be voting against the ordinance, as he still feels “the developer and Emmaus should get together for two to three weeks” and if the planning commission then said to move forward he would be all for it, as they are the experts and not him.

“Let me just caution you, based on what your solicitor and engineer have said, if this is denied then prepare to deal with it in the law system,” Pepe said. “I tend to think they have met all requirements to do this project, and we don’t have a legal basis at this point to say no.”

The resolution passed 5-2, with DeFrain and Councilman John Hart voting no.

Pepe gave an update regarding the community pool, saying there were some complications that have arisen, but they are still expecting to open this coming Saturday. Pepe said the flood that occurred over the winter left a large amount of mud in the pool, and even after scraping it off, the walls are still stained from it.

“It just sends a message that we don’t care about the community if we let it look the way it looks,” Pepe said.

As long as the weather holds up, the painting will be finished and dry by Wednesday morning which will give them the two days they need to fill the pool before Saturday.

The baby pool pump that was submerged during the flood was severely damaged and rusted completely through. They expect a replacement to arrive by Friday morning.

In a worst case scenario, the pool will be opened a day or two late. If this occurs, the borough will send out automated phone calls to borough residents and post on social media.