Several dozen people gathered at Strawberry Acres, 1767 Clearview Road, North Whitehall, Nov. 23 to listen to a development plan for a portion of the former orchard and to air their grievances with the proposal.

Piyush Patel, of Somerville, N.J., purchased Strawberry Acres in 2013 and has been planning, with his team of consultants, engineers and developers, construction of a senior housing project on the premises for at least four years.

Amit Mukherjee, consultant with Base Engineering Inc., laid out the proposal for the audience.

The plan calls for a 90-unit active adult residential community for people age 55 and older, and a 24,000 gallon-per-day sewage treatment facility to be constructed on the easternmost region of the Strawberry Acres property.

Mukherjee said the plans were still in very preliminary stages and would be continually reviewed by township officials, the Lehigh County Authority, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Delaware River Basin Commission to ensure compliance and to deal with any future issues.

Cindy Witman of Egypt, primary organizer of the event, acknowledged the plan had been met with considerable opposition from residents and neighbors, but said the meet and greet was meant for neighbors, “as a nice thing, to learn more about the project and to ask questions,” before the proposal is brought before township officials.

The presentation quickly turned into a contentious argument as attendees made their dissatisfaction clear by largely rejecting the proposal and raising concerns about the development’s impact on surrounding land and the residents.

Members of the crowd argued with Patel and his consultants, accusing them of operating in bad faith with the neighboring homeowners and not properly following amended zoning laws and sewage treatment ordinances.

Attendees demanded developers be transparent about following township regulations and to provide up-to-date data on their proposals and compliance efforts.

One issue raised by residents was the future of the orchard’s trees.

According to Katherine Wood of Coplay, who explained the rationale and sentiments of angry residents to the developers, most homeowners bought their homes near Strawberry Acres because of the nearby greenery.

“We were given assurances this would stay as an orchard,” Wood said “Most of us have just paid off our homes, have a beautiful view, and now all of a sudden you want to build townhouses that are going to crap up the view, take away the entire farmland reason we like to stay here.”

She alleged Patel’s history of building senior residential communities in New Jersey, coupled with previous negative interactions between the landowner and North Whitehall residents over the development of Strawberry Acres, led neighbors to question his planning and motivations.

“You need to understand where we’re all coming from,” Wood told Patel. “We don’t trust you and we want our beautiful little community to stay that way.

“We want to make good and darn sure this stays as close to what it was, as pristine as what it was, and with as little impact as possible because you never know when we may need the farmland again.”

Patel told The Press the main reason he managed to purchase the land was because the previous owner was reportedly losing money.

“My hope was to inject the money and maintain the orchard,” Patel said. “We tried for many years. This is the first year we did not run as an orchard because the last two years we had significant losses, the plants getting old, and it is a major plantation.”

Both Patel and his daughter Gita Patel, also of Somerville, said they believed the senior housing plan would be beneficial to the area.

“Senior housing is the ideal project,” Patel said, “It doesn’t burden the school system or traffic patterns.

“It increases the tax revenue.”

He maintained the planned community would not include the high-rise developments which residents had expressed their opposition toward, and he stated plans for residential construction and wastewater treatment would abide by all township ordinances and Department of Environmental Protection requirements.

Patel also emphasized he did not seek to transform the entire property into a residential zone, instead stating he wished for the remaining undeveloped areas of Strawberry Acres to serve as open greenery, although perhaps not solely as an orchard.

In response to residents’ stated preference for single-family home development, Patel said he would be receptive of feedback from neighbors and would speak with his team and keep the matter under consideration.

“I am not ruling anything out,” Patel said, “I want to be a good neighbor, and try to work with the neighborhood.”

Plans for Strawberry Acres were expected to be brought before the township planning commission Nov. 26 and to supervisors at their December meeting.