By MICHAEL HIRSCH

Special to The Press

During the July 6 Upper Macungie supervisors meeting, the board discussed the final approval for land development on the Air Products and Chemicals site.

The plan for 7201 Hamilton Boulevard within the light industrial zoning district, proposes construction of three warehouse buildings totaling 2.6 million square feet of floor area.

A special exception was granted by the zoning hearing board.

Preliminary approval was given by supervisors on Feb. 2 and a favorable recommendation of final plan was approved by the township’s planning commission on May 17.

The staff recommended approval with a resolution conditional on the township engineers review letter of June 28.

The meeting became tense when Chairman Sunny Ghai questioned representatives of Air Products about the plan.

The line of questioning drew criticism from Supervisor James Brunnell and Vice Chair Kathy Rader, who asked why Ghai was asking questions “in the eleventh hour.”

“When I looked at the review letter and the plan, I thought to myself, is this something that’s going to be around for 40 to 50 years?” Ghai responded. “The purpose of planning is to look at a property and say, ‘Is this something that’s going to be sustainable?’”

Resident Ben Dobil, of Cetronia Road, addressed the board.

“One of the concerns is the impact on my well, which is about 15 feet from Cetronia Road, as well as contaminants, which may leach from the demolition of the existing buildings, the route of the runoff and so on.”

He was also concerned about stormwater.

Brunnell said that was the responsibility of the state Department of Environmental Protection to review.

Ultimately, supervisors voted to pass the final land development plan.