Palmerton Hunting and Fishing Association is asking a Carbon County judge to strike a lawsuit filed in February by the Bethlehem Authority over ownership of the proposed property for three electric producing windmills at 668 Hatchery Road in Palmerton.

According to the lawsuit, Bethlehem Authority leased property to Atlantic Wind, an entity that intended to build the windmills at the site. PHFA had a survey done, however, that shows it owns a section of land where three of the windmills are proposed to be built. Bethlehem Authority contends the survey was “inaccurate, erroneous and incorrect.”

In filing its preliminary objections on Aug. 9, PHFA said Bethlehem Authority’s complaint “failed to aver actions that demonstrate malice or lack of good faith.”

The boundary line dispute surfaced during testimony in front of the Penn Forest Township Zoning Hearing Board last year.

PHFA secretary Kurt Steigerwalt provided documentation to the board at that time that supported the association’s claim that Atlantic Wind is using incorrect “Google” boundaries on the map that was part of the site plan submitted with the application.

Steigerwalt said that the map used during the hearings provided by Atlantic Wind shows wind turbines located on land belonging to the association.

Debra Shulski, attorney for Atlantic Wind, and James Preston, attorney for Bethlehem Water Authority, both objected to the submission of the documents.

In its lawsuit, Bethlehem Authority is asking for judgment in excess of $50,000, punitive damages and cost of the lawsuit.

“As a result of the (PHFA’s) slander of (Bethlehem Authority’s) title, Bethlehem Authority can be expected to lose monthly revenues totaling $3,750,” Bethlehem Authority attorney Leo V. DeVito Jr. wrote in the lawsuit.

PHFA attorney, Joshua Gildea, said his client intends to prove its survey is correct and it owns the land at issue.

“(Bethlehem Authority) admits that PHFA secured and recorded a survey of its property and does not even begin to suggest the survey was procured or performed in bad faith,” he wrote.

Judge Steven Serfass has set a management conference in the case for Sept. 5 at 1:15 p.m.

Atlantic Wind appealed the zoning hearing board’s December 2018 decision to deny its application for a special exception to build wind turbines on the Bethlehem Authority’s property located in the R-1 rural residential agricultural zoning district.

The zoning hearing board said in its denial that there was an existing use on the property, and Bethlehem Authority did not meet its requirements for sound monitoring.

The case, also before Serfass, involves the developers’ second application for turbines on the site, which proposes 28 turbines reaching nearly 600 feet.

A separate appeal regarding Atlantic Wind’s first application in 2016 for 37 smaller turbines is still pending.