‘We deserve some answers.’ Centre County commissioner questions Benner Township warehouse
A 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center warehouse is still in the early planning stages for the Benner Commerce Park in Benner Township, but a Centre County commissioner raised concerns about not knowing who the end user will be.
During a commissioners meeting last week, Christopher Schnure, Centre County’s subdivision and land development planner, presented a final land development plan for a “Benner Warehouse.” The plan showed the development of a 1,080,289-square-foot fulfillment center warehouse on 103 acres of land at the end of Penntech Drive. It could bring nearly 700 jobs and be one of the largest private employers in Centre County.
However, representatives from SunCap Property Group, the developer of the project, declined last week to say what company will be using the warehouse, stating they were under nondisclosure agreements. Such an announcement will be made “in the coming months.”
During Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, Commissioner Steve Dershem said he’s supportive of businesses and private property land use, “but a million square feet impacts a lot more than just the footprint of that building.”
“We don’t know who this is. We learned last week that there was a nondisclosure agreement that was in place. So, my second part of my, I guess, curiosity is what manner of commerce will they be conducting in this facility?” Dershem said “… I have some concern (about) what it is that they are going to be transporting, what they are going to be shipping, what are they going to be warehousing. At the level that this is, I think we deserve some answers as a community.”
“We can speculate who it may be and who it might not be. But ultimately, when you’re talking about, you know, large hydrogen tanks out … and hydraulic systems, and I just think it’s difficult to say that this is a good project or bad project or whether it meets the metes and bounds of the conversation.”
Commissioner Michael Pipe said this is the first time they have had a developer with a nondisclosure agreement on the front end of a project. All they know at this point is that it’s a warehouse for e-commerce.
“There might be a duty that they have as a broker and a developer to let us know, and I think the company as well would be better received if they’d be more transparent with this,” Pipe said.
A Benner Township resident, David Thomas Roberts, also spoke of the project during public comment on behalf of the Moshannon Group of the Sierra Club and the Nittany Valley Environmental Coalition. They have “serious environmental concerns” about the project and said it will impact the Class A wild trout waters of Logan Branch and the karst aquifers, water supplies and springs of Benner Township.
He said they’d like to see “green infrastructures” be put in for stormwater management. That could include bioswales, rain gardens and utilizing perimeters with bioretention “that can help to absorb the stormwater and enhance the infiltration in a natural way.”
“The 103-acre site will receive over 100 million gallons of rain, precipitation, annually and having all this impervious surface and a large basin that will funnel all this water, you know, away from natural infiltration — and infiltration is a primary source of water for stream base flow necessary for healthy stream and for trout populations,” Roberts said. “It’s been well recognized that increase of impervious surface area is a threat to trout, and that (the) Nittany Valley’s already exceeded recommended impervious surface areas that impact streams and trout populations.”
Schnure said that because it’s an industrial park, up to 80% impervious coverage is allowed.
Roberts said they also want green infrastructure design features incorporated in the truck bays, as there are concerns about possible fluids from the trucks.
Before the board Tuesday was a memorandum of understanding between the county, township and the developer. It outlines that the developer agrees to reimburse Benner Township for the costs associated with the township engineers processing, reviewing, inspecting and approving the engineering details of the plans.
Pipe said there wasn’t a way for the board not to support the MOU because it is in conformity with land development and planning metrics. Still, he said, the community shares Dershem’s questions.
The board unanimously approved the MOU.
“This is not the final stamp,” Pipe said.
The Centre County Planning Commission will review and comment on the plan during its May 24 meeting. More details on the site and development will be discussed then.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 3:53 PM with the headline "‘We deserve some answers.’ Centre County commissioner questions Benner Township warehouse."
