Yesterday an article in the Morning Call was accompanied by a heartfelt video of residents opposing the mega-project. I’m familiar with these kinds of stories living in Lower Macungie, but I stop short of feeling bad for these folks in this particular case.

Let me re-phrase that. I do feel bad. Folks are hurting because their lives are going to change. Warehouses destroy surrounding neighborhoods. That’s reality. But I don’t feel bad in the same way as I do for residents of Lower Macungie who now face more warehousing in the western portion of our township.

There is a huge difference….. Why? 

In Allen Township land was earmarked for industrial development for years. The couple in the article purchased their home 2 years ago. When you buy a home near a highway in the northeast and your surrounded by farms the first thing you do is head to your local municipal building and check the surrounding zoning. Then you check the regional zoning and comprehensive planning. If it’s zoned Industrial, think long & hard about the investment your about to make.

Lower Macungie is different. Here I do feel for the residents who were screwed. And I’m sorry for that language but there simply isn’t a better word.

Why? The Jaindl property was zoned agriculture protected for well over 2 decades.

The warehouses are a direct result of wholesale rezoning.  For over 2 decades 700 acres of prime farmland was planned and zoned to be prime farmland. If you bought a house off of Mertztown Rd. or in Heritage Heights 10 years ago and did your due diligence researching surrounding land uses you would have found that your backyard was permanently protected.  In fact, preserved both through zoning and not one but two regional plans.

Property rights are a two way street. Yes, landowners have rights. But zoning protects your neighbors rights. Your neighbor can’t do things that affect your home value outside the scope of what’s allowed in zoning.

If you live in a residential neighborhood someone can’t decide to build a strip club next to you. Not without you knowing it’s a possibility. 

So yes, I do feel bad for the folks in Allen Township because their neighborhood is changing for the worse. But in the end, they should have known. They should have done the research. Here in LMT folks who did the research were screwed.

Local Govs owe it to residents to be up-front what the future holds for certain neighborhoods. People who bought homes in the western neighborhoods are not millionaires. They are everyday people who made the biggest investments of their lives. We owed it to them to protect that investment based on fair and reasonable expectations. Officials in LMT failed.