'They'll fight together': Easton-area residents speak out against planned warehouse

EASTON, Pa. – The possibility of a 1-million-square-foot warehouse, with a portion in Easton, is worrying the people who live near it.

Community members came together for a common cause on Monday night. In an open community forum at the Easton Area Community Center, people from Easton, Wilson Borough and Palmer Township had been invited to discuss a planned warehouse that would take up space in all three places.

The plan, known as Easton Commerce Park, would occupy the former 106.2-acre Pfizer Pigments site on Wood Avenue.

Easton City Councilmember Frank Pintabone tells 69 News he was invited by residents who organized the forum, along with another councilmember and Easton planner.

"They're not really happy, and we couldn't give them much answers because we don't know much," Pintabone said.

Scannell Properties, the developer, wants to turn the old Pfizer Pigments site near 13th Street and Route 22 into a 1-million-square-foot warehouse.

While it's been approved in Wilson Borough, where the majority of it would lie, some residents in Easton are unhappy.

The forum Monday night represented an entire room full of those people.

Ben Cohen has lived in Easton for 13 years. He tells 69 News the advantages he's learned of are far outweighed by the disadvantages.

"I think that there were advantages referenced that were, given the drawbacks, they will try to mitigate the damages," Cohen said. "Instead of making it 10 times worse, we'll might be able to make it only eight times worse."

Many said they only learned of the issue very recently.

"It's very unclear why it's being built or who's building it," Cohen said.

"This was just brought to my attention last couple months," Paul Felder, another Easton resident, said.

"A lot of people still don't know what's going on," Pintabone said.

Ninety percent of the warehouse would lie in Wilson Borough, which already approved the development.

Seven percent of the land lies in Easton, and even less than that is in Palmer Township. But Easton residents say the plans will affect them a lot more than that 7% of land.

"Transportation, distribution, logistics, nationally — there's some straightforward environmental damages to air quality, to water quality, to land use, to pollution," Cohen said.

"Somebody showed me the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission report on this thing, which recommended against it," said Felder, an architect who's worked in Easton for 50 years.

Residents tell 69 News that traffic studies from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and other studies from the state Department of Environmental Protection are still needed.

"Wilson has approved it, whatever that means for something that hasn't been approved by PennDOT and DEP have not," Felder said. "My hope would be, and my expectation would be, if that it doesn't happen, it'll just get tabled again."

Easton has also tabled the issue for now.

"One thing about Easton," Pintabone said, "they'll fight, and they'll fight together."

Pintabone tells 69 News the developer just contacted him earlier on Monday, and there are plans to fly in to meet with him to address concerns the community has.

The City of Easton will meet again on Nov. 6 to revisit the issue.