We are still working on our recap of Monday night’s meeting, but in the meantime, let’s do some light reading, shall we?

One of the big points of contention during the traffic engineer’s cross-examination on Monday was the truck traffic and spillover effect on our community. Much was made by our interested parties of the failure to acknowledge other major warehouse projects in close proximity to this one on Rt. 222, given that the traffic studies paint a rosy picture both of congestion and road/roundabout capacity.

All of which raises an interesting point: what happens to the trucks that aren’t granted warehouse access immediately upon arrival? We might get some idea from the June 20, 2021 article in the Dallas Morning News regarding the scourge in their area. (Find the online version here.)

This is their experience with trucks that are not yet cleared or approved to enter the warehouse zones and pick up or discharge cargo.

Tractor-trailers everywhere, waiting on nearby roads for their next assignments! Granted, this is in the Dallas suburban area; our township is much smaller, and our roads much less able to handle this “spillover” capacity.

Further down the article is a poignant note regarding the emergency services in the region of these Amazon fulfillment centers. On Monday night, the traffic engineer was cross-examined on the record about the issues emergency services could have accessing that area due to increased traffic or, as the developers have been quietly proposing to PennDOT, a small median between the northbound/southbound lanes that could then facilitate a right-in, right-out road to the warehouse.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, as represented by Sgt. Adam Arista, outlines how this extremely valid issue impacts their ability to serve the community:

We don’t know what kind of warehouse the out-of-town developers actually intend to build. We don’t know who they plan to lease or rent this warehouse space to, because they keep saying on the record that they do not know.

We don’t know what their plan is for our roads: despite PennDOT apparently only requiring “one ingress and egress road” to the development, which seems far-fetched, the developer has been quietly offering several additional “options” to PennDOT regarding a second ingress/egress road to the property.

They don’t think their traffic data is flawed despite the township’s special counsel — retained due to several lawsuits filed by the developer’s out-of-town legal representation — pointing out on the record that there are several other warehouse developments being constructed within four miles of the proposed million-square-foot warehouse on Rt. 222.

Will they be leasing to Amazon? We don’t know, because they won’t tell us. Sorry, “the tenant is not known at this time.” (Sure, wouldn’t you build such an expensive, expansive warehouse without knowing who will be paying rent for it?)

But look at the sizes of the developments in the Dallas Morning News article and compare it to the million-square-foot proposal in Maidencreek Township:

“Most local Amazon fulfillment centers are about 1 million square feet.”

Sound like any proposal in our area that you’ve heard about recently?

Join our FB group and join our efforts, as a COMMUNITY, to rally against this destructive and transformative blight on our area.