Monday
September 16, 2024 
The representative for a new warehouse plan in Buckingham has withdrawn its preliminary proposal and scrapped this week’s scheduled appearance before the planning commission.
Explaining the move, a Friday letter cited a same-day “extensive review” by the township engineer, and comprehensive public comment from a township supervisor at a packed July 26 board meeting that questioned “whether or not the plans were in a shape ready for more formal review.”
The letter to the township manager added the decision was made “in order to enable the applicant and its consultants to evaluate, review, and potentially revise the presently pending plans,” and that they would “advise if and when the plans would be ready for resubmission and reconsideration.”
Buckingham Township residents had attended the July 26 supervisors meeting to express their deep concern, and often outrage, regarding social media posts that were noted as having “inaccurately depicted” the “very preliminary” application.
The proposal, often referred to as only a “sketch plan” during discussion with officials, was designated as for the township’s planned industrial (PI) zoning district (PI-2). Eleven residents spoke on the matter during the public comment session, sometimes to sustained applause.
In an official post on its website, the township had noted “no, an Amazon warehouse is not coming to Buckingham Township!” It further noted that the social media “post makes it sound like it is a done deal and that the only way to stop it is to come to the (Aug. 2) planning commission meeting. This is also not true. The process to review a proposed development is much more involved and much longer than that.”
During the public comment discussion, grateful residents, their supervisors, and the township engineer and solicitor noted a variety of examples of development projects in the township over the years that were significantly altered in the common interest, and often abandoned altogether.
They also noted extensive, successful efforts to establish agricultural and conservation easements that prohibited any development, with rare minor exceptions, such as allowing development in part of a preserved forest by adding more forest to the original preserved tract.
The withdrawn application was submitted to the township last May for an auto parts storage warehouse on a 68-acre property on Cold Spring Creamery Road. That followed preliminary discussion of a sketch plan at a public work session last February. The township’s official website posting had summarized that “this is not a done deal and nothing is approved. There is no agreement with anyone from the township to approve the project. None. The only signed ‘agreement’ is between the property owner and the private individual interested in building on the site.”
Further information remains available in that official posting in the news section on the township website.
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