Hellam Township Supervisors vote against rezoning Campbell Road property for warehouse

The Hellam Township Board of Supervisors voted last night against rezoning agricultural land.

The 23-acre parcel of land on Campbell Road that was proposed for rezoning to industrial use sits near White Clover Family Farm, which has become a staple in the township since it opened in 2020.

White Clover Family Farm owner Nate Reidy said the farmland has been rated some of the best in the country, but the petition to rezone the property could put his farm next to another warehouse, and pushing development in Hellam Township toward a direction residents don't want to go.

The 23-acre property is directly across the street from residential housing, and many of those homeowners attended the meeting to voice concerns over traffic, noise, pollution and stormwater runoff leading to flooding in the event that this land was rezoned and a warehouse placed on the property.

The history of this land and attempts at rezoning and developing it was discussed at the meeting. The parcel was zoned as farmland in 1978, but the land around it to the north, south and west was zoned as a mix of commercial and industrial. It's still that way today.

The Hellam Township Planning Commission viewed an application for rezoning this property in January. The bulk of their concerns were heavy truck traffic on Campbell Road and that developing this property could create flooding, but other commissioners who live in the area said this would give the township a better tax base and that the issue of stormwater runoff was not a concern because the properties around the parcel had done a good job of managing flooding.

The planning commission voted to approve the plans, but Commissioner John Eifert also requested they be sent to the York County Planning Commission for review.

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"Upon finding out there are three additional commercial industrial plans, definite and proposed, in the same closely situated area in our township and Springettsbury Township, YCPC needs to be aware of the combined impacts for this area," Eifert wrote in a letter to the Hellam board.

YCPC reviewed that proposal in February and did not recommend rezoning the land. It based its decision on several factors, such as preservation of farmland, the potential for heavy traffic to that area if it were redeveloped into industrial use and because there are already other large parcels of land in Hellam Township that are zoned for commercial and industrial use that are currently undeveloped or underdeveloped.

While many residents echoed these same concerns at the planning meeting, others were in support of rezoning the land in order to bring more growth and tax dollars to the township.

In the end, the board voted 3-2 to keep the land zoned as it currently is. An appeal to the decision can be made by the petitioner and landowner.

Development concerns span the region

York County is seeing a lot of land-use fights lately, causing residents and land developers to clash at township meetings all over the county. Between proposed warehouses and solar farms, most of these projects requiring the rezoning of farmland, residents across the various small communities are wondering what their homes will look like in the next 10 years.

Right now, neighbors of Prospect Hill Cemetery in Manchester Township are protesting a possible warehouse or industrial site by Inch & Co., which would be placed on land attached to the cemetery. No formal plans have been submitted, but a real estate listing for a proposed warehouse on that parcel is online. Residents have been voicing their opposition to this warehouse on Facebook, at township meetings, with yard signs and through protests at the cemetery.

Plans have also been filed for a roughly 2.6-million-square-foot warehouse complex on 200 acres of farmland south of Canal Road in Manchester Township.

In Lancaster County, a roughly 1 million square-foot warehouse was proposed for Mount Joy Township.

Beyond warehouses, solar farms are also pitting residents against developers. The Dover Township Zoning Board spent the bulk of its meetings last year listening to residents argue over zoning for an industrial-scale solar project that will cover about 600 acres. The board finally voted to approve the solar array last summer, but that didn't end the debate on solar farms.

Recently, a new solar project, this time on 27 acres of farmland, has been proposed for Dover Township. Residents directly affected by this solar farm have come to meetings to protest. The zoning board will vote on that issue on April 19.

Land development has been spurred in the last few years by demand. More people than ever are shopping online, and they want their items delivered to them quickly. Warehouses and fulfillment centers are being built to meet that demand. Many of these are "built to spec," or they are speculative on what the population, and their demands, will be. That means that warehouses could sit empty for years before they are actually leased for use.

A basic search on LoopNet, an industrial leasing site, shows that there are more than 45 commercial lots for sale in York County at the moment.