By SARIT LASCHINSKY

Special to The Press

North Whitehall supervisors held a brief public hearing Oct. 4 on a proposed ordinance which deals with submission requirements and property owner notifications for land development plans.

Township Solicitor Lisa Young said when land development plans are filed there will be requirements for posting notices on the property as well as sending mail notifications to property owners adjoining the property being developed, as well as to property owners adjoining the first group of properties.

Supervisor Dennis Klusaritz asked how the applicant would obtain the relevant properties for notifications.

Young said they could either use tax records or the planning office, and the township would check that notifications were sent to the necessary residents.

After closing the public hearing with no further comment, the board approved the ordinance.

Supervisors authorized advertising a zoning ordinance which includes a variety of warehouse provisions and amendments.

Several topics related to traffic were discussed at the meeting, beginning with a request to authorize a Jake brake study on Route 309.

Township Manager Chris Garges said the request came from South Whitehall Township, which was working with PennDOT on a previous brake retarder study along the Mauch Chunk Road corridor.

He said South Whitehall requested PennDOT do a similar study on Route 309, and reached out to North Whitehall to gauge interest.

Garges said he and township engineer Steve Gitch discussed studying Route 309 from the intersection at Route 873 south to the township line.

“Really, we should have the whole township posted ... that brake retarders are not permitted in North Whitehall Township, period, anywhere,” Supervisor Mark Hills said, referring to the noise pollution from trucks, and the board gave their approval for the study.

Later during courtesy of the floor, Green Hill Circle resident Jim Osmun mentioned the topic of tractor trailers driving down back roads near his development.

Osmun said he mentioned the issue at a previous meeting, and some additional signage had been erected and eased the problem, but added trucks are now using back roads to travel through the area, and some have gotten stuck.

He suggested the township withhold occupancy permits from large developments and distributors until they resolve all necessary improvements and issues, such as truck traffic.

Garges said he reached out and spoke with the legal counsel from one of the nearby distribution centers, UNFI.

He said the company sends inbound trucks directions to their facility, and he was not certain what else UNFI could do.

In other business, the board was presented with a waiver request from the land development process for a project at the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

Engineer Adam Smith and Lehigh Valley Zoo President and CEO Amanda Shurr said the zoo was looking to replace an existing exhibit with a new space for the zoo’s lemurs and tortoises to live in year-round, with a small 1,700-square-foot building to house the animals and provide an indoor/outdoor exhibit space.

Shurr said the plan is to start work in the spring, and Smith explained that the project would not be expanding the zoo, and would still undergo the normal building review process.

The board approved the request.