Pike park plan proposal

Business developer wants to swap land with the PA Game Commission

By TOM KANE

LORDS VALLEY, PA — In an effort to win support for his business park plan, Reading Pennsylvania developer John M. Herman walked into what could have been a lion’s den, the June 2 meeting of the Hemlock Farms Community Association’s 50+ Club.

Rumors had it that he wanted to build a three-million-square-foot warehouse—the size of six football fields long and two football fields wide?on 609 acres, which would have hundreds of large trucks coming into the area, with the danger of storm water runoff cascading into the Shohola Creek and Shohola Lake. Where would all these truck drivers eat and sleep in such numbers, some residents asked.

But when Herman took the stage, he explained that he wanted to take the concept of the existing business park plan on Route 434, called Well Road, which Pike County has begun to construct, and move it closer to I-84 on Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) land.

There would be no fleet of trucks pouring in; rather, the project was using the already accepted concept of the business park but in another more commercially accessible place.

“Part of his original plan was to build three one-million-square-foot buildings at the site, but he gave it up since the present market is not favorable to that idea,” said Rachel Hendricks, vice president of the Pike County Business Development Corporation, which owns the park.

A part of Herman’s plan is to get the PGC to agree to swap land they control that sits near I-84—the land that he wants—and in its place take possession of the existing park on Well Road.

“In making this swap, the closeness to the interstate would eliminate numerous truck trips that would be required at the existing site and would be safer for local residents since trucks would not come into the area where they live,” Herman said.

If the commission will not agree to the swap, Herman said he would then develop the existing site.

Blooming Grove resident Grace Hatton spoke against the proposal.

“Swapping the failed business park for pristine forest and turning it into state game lands is not the answer,” Hatton said. “As you can see from the map [displayed at the meeting] of the business park, the extensive roads, huge detention basins and sewage treatment plant would not, in any way, be equivalent to the dense forest land that would be destroyed by relocating the business park to state game lands.”

Hatton, who is married to Fred Hatton, the chairman of the Blooming Grove Township board, said that the nearby Shohola Creek is the largest and longest waterway entirely within Pike County and would be in danger if this plan came to fruition.

“There are two PA Game Commission waterfowl propagation areas on the 1,100-acre Lake Shohola. The two waterfowl propagation areas are the largest of the three propagation areas in the entire 13-county PGC Northeast Region,” she said.

The large audience had a chance to write down questions and submit them to Dan Ruth, the club president, who then passed them on to Herman. Everyone who wished to question Herman had an opportunity to meet him after the meeting.

The next step for Herman is to go before the Blooming Grove Township Board with the particulars of his proposal. The board meets on the first and the third Mondays of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the township building at 488 Route 739 in Blooming Grove.