For almost three hours Wednesday night, the Ross Township zoning hearing board heard testimony involving a language dispute over a piece of property for sale.

No decision was made, and the board will reconvene April 12 at 7 p.m.

The Ross Township meeting room was packed. Every chair was taken, and a few people stood along the back wall.

“We’re here to interpret the zoning language, not approve or disapprove the land development,” said solicitor Jim Fareri.

Brothers Tighe and Neil Scott are selling tracts of their property at the intersection of routes 115 and 33. The Gateway Motel is adjacent to the land.

The property is in a general commercial zoning area. According to the township’s zoning ordinance, which was written in 2000 and amended a few times, warehouses are permitted but distribution centers are not.

“We live and work in this neighborhood. We are selling this to be used as a warehouse,” said Tighe Scott while under oath.

However, when Shawn McGlynn, Ross Township zoning officer, who works for SFM Consulting, reviewed the Scotts’ application, said it sounded more like a distribution center/trucking terminal.

“It would be disingenuous of me to say it’s a warehouse when it’s not,” McGlynn said.

The brothers hired Lehigh Engineers “to do a building plan for a tentative client that we’d sell the property to,” Tighe Scott said.

The plan for the land

The plan shows at least 160 tractor-trailer spots and 70 tractor-trailer loading docks. There is also a parking area for cars. There are bathrooms with sinks and toilets, but no showers.

The Scotts hired Peter Polt, executive vice president of J.G. Petrucci Co. Inc., as a consultant. He helped generate the plan that Lehigh Engineers produced.

“A warehouse is a building we design to store and distribute goods. It has one loading dock and the building is generally under 5,000 square feet. A truck terminal has a high flow of goods coming into and going out of the facility. These are very large facilities with at least 200 loading docks,” said Polt, who has 17 years of experience in real estate development.

Polt used the interior and exterior building plans of two warehouses in Plainfield Township as the basis for the plan he provided the Scotts. The buildings have similar dimensions to the one proposed on the Scotts’ property.

Scott said the plan illustrates what his prospective buyer has requested. He declined to name the person or business interested in the property.

Others participate

At the start of Wednesday’s hearing, four other parties were given approval to be part of the hearing.

Carolyn Lang, representing the Aquashicola Pohopoco Watershed Conservancy, said the agency is requesting the protection of the water resource, which has now achieved the status of being an exceptional value stream. She was referring to the Ross Common Creek, which flows through the area and into the Lehigh River.

Abigail Jones, vice president of legal and policy at PennFuture, a statewide environmental advocacy group, said their “mission is to protect and defend the Delaware River. The Aquashicola Pohopoco Watershed Conservancy is a member of our group. Our members use this creek.”

Stephen Davies lives on Route 115 at the corner of Mount Eaton Road. His house is about a mile from the proposed warehouse site.

“The water flows through my backyard and my kids play in it. I have a personal interest in not having more truck traffic in this area,” Davies said.

At first, attorney Leonard Zito, representing the Scotts, objected to Davies being part of the hearing.

Fareri said the three-member hearing board - Mike Galler, Leonard Ventre, and David Bray - could overrule Zito. They unanimously overruled, and Davies remained a party.

The fourth person is Curtis Ott, who lives across the street from the proposed warehouse and works for UPS.

“This sounds like a trucking center. The trucks will be there all night,” Ott said.

Interpreting the wording

During the hearing, Zito maintained that McGlynn misinterpreted the wording in the zoning ordinance. He said the ordinance does not have a definition for the phrase “trucking terminal” and that McGlynn was using his own interpretation. The ordinance has a definition for distribution center/trucking terminal.

Attorney Jeff Worthington, representing McGlynn, assured the audience that McGlynn did not misinterpret the language or the site plan.

“The proposed look of this building seems like every other distribution center I’ve seen. We must get it correct right now or low and behold what is built is not a warehouse but a distribution center,” said McGlynn.

During his career, McGlynn has issued permits for and inspected warehouses and distribution centers in Monroe County and other counties.

“A warehouse is a much simpler building to provide storage. It’s not complex. Whereas a distribution center building can become very intensive and include things like fire suppression means and stricter safety codes,” he said.

Also during the hearing, the issue of jurisdiction was brought up. Fareri said he received an email before the hearing about the jurisdiction question but “this is a legal issue that I will need more time to research.”

He advised that all the involved parties can submit memorandums to him by email.

“We are not going to deliberate tonight. We will reconvene April 12 at 7 p.m. and go right into executive session. When we come out, we’ll give our decision,” he said.

When the hearing finished around 9:40 p.m., Davies said this remained an important issue to him.

“I will keep coming and be back on April 12,” he said.