Environmental group offers guide to follow warehouse development

From Lowhill to Upper Mount Bethel townships, citizens across the Lehigh Valley have been making their voices heard when it comes to development, especially for warehouses.

However, concerned citizens sometimes find the interactions with local governments frustrating, as a steady line of distribution centers, shopping centers and other development projects continue to be approved.

To mark Earth Day on Monday, environmental advocacy group PennFuture unveiled a guidebook “Public Participation, Public Power: A Community Guide to Local Land Use Decision-Making in Pennsylvania.” The purpose is to encourage members of the public who want to speak out about such projects, but wonder what they can do about it.

The guide, PennFuture says, is designed to give Pennsylvanians the knowledge and tools they need to understand and effectively participate in local land use decision-making processes. It’s important that people understand that such issues as protecting the natural environment and community health reside almost entirely at the local level, it says.

“We came to realize that there’s just a pretty widespread lack of understanding of how these processes work,” PennFuture attorney Brigitte Meyer said. “There are four or five different bodies at the local level that are engaged in the decision-making. I think we identified seven different types of decisions that can be made. It’s understandable that people don’t really understand the finer points of it. It’s kind of preventing people from being able to participate as effectively as possible.”

The 88-page guide, written by Meyer and PennFuture’s legal team, explains the various local bodies that make decisions in land use and development, the types of decisions that are made, and the processes and legal requirements that govern those decisions.

It was a six-month project that included input from 30 municipal officials from across the state, PennFuture said.

Sections include:

• Explanation of the state and local laws that control country use decision-making and why that decision-making is based in those laws, not public opinion.
• Advice on how to find and read local land use ordinances.
• Descriptions of the various types of land use decisions that local governments make, the different local bodies that make them, and the processes and legal standards governing them.
• Tips on effectively participating in local country use decision-making, and more.

One many thing may not know is advisory boards such as planning commissions make recommendations on planned projects, which many assume is an approval.

“They’re just giving their opinions to the governing body,” Meyer said.

The key, she said, is understanding how ordinances work.

“We do think there’s a kind of widespread lack of understanding that all of these decisions at the local level are ultimately governed by the ordinances in place,” Meyer said. “These processes are not a public referendum on what’s being proposed. So we very often hear people who are confused or disgruntled or upset because a development will be proposed — warehouse, distribution center, whatever — and everybody in the community hates it. ‘We all came to the meeting and a dozen people got up and said how much they disliked it.’

“And then the board or council, wherever, they permit anyway. People wonder: What’s up with that? Why aren’t they listening to the community? Are they doing shady backroom deals? Are they getting paid off by the developer?”

Situations like that can be frustrating to those who haven’t learned how the system works, Meyer said.

“This is because the decision-making body is constrained by the law, by the ordinances in place,” Meyer said. “If the thing that’s proposed complies with all those ordinances, they can’t just say, ‘Well, we don’t like it anyway, you can’t do it.’ That’s not how it works. People have a right to know what’s allowed or not allowed on their property and if they comply with the law as it’s written, they get to do what they want to do.”

That’s why, she said, it seems like when public opinion is strongly against something, it happens anyway.

“We’re trying to direct people’s attention to ordinances and say, if you want to change things, really you should focus on the ordinances,” Meyer said. “There are things you can do when a specific development proposal or some kind of application comes through, to engage with the process on the individual level. But the real difference is going to come in with the ordinance, so if you don’t like the way development is going in your township, you have to focus on the ordinances, getting those reviewed, getting those changed.”

Jane Cook from the Lehigh Valley-based Monocacy Creek Watershed Association said the book will let citizens “participate more effectively with local government entities.”

“You will learn the vocabulary of planning jargon and acronyms and which boards have what authority, putting more power in the people’s hands,” Cook said. “The flowcharts give a detailed picture of how each step in the planning process works and show where the public can more fully be a part of the final decision. A must-have for all community groups who want to be more proactive and efficient in making public policy decisions regarding development proposals.”

To access “Public Participation, Public Power,” go to pennfuture.org, use the Resources pulldown menu and click on Publications.

It’s the second guide that PennFuture has published in the last year.

In July, it released a guidebook to assist municipalities in updating zoning ordinances originally drafted long before this pattern of development was even a remote possibility. The organization put it together through engagement with community members, participation in local land use hearings and appeals in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and research and review of existing and proposed zoning ordinances.

Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at [email protected].