Plans For Auto Parts Warehouse Withdrawn In Buckingham Township

BUCKINGHAM TOWNSHIP, PA — An applicant proposing to build an auto parts warehouse on the 58-acre DiGirolamo tract at 4344 Cold Stone Creamery Road has withdrawn its plan for the site.

In a letter sent to the township, land development attorney Ed Murphy cited an extensive review of the project provided by the township's engineer as one of the reasons for the withdrawal.

He also cited comments made by supervisor Jon Forest at the July board of supervisors meeting expressing reservations about the plans and whether "the plans were in a shape ready" for more formal review before township planners.

"After consultation with my client, my client has determined that in order to enable the applicant and its consultants to evaluate, review and potentially revise the presently pending plans, the better course would be to simply withdraw the pending plans," wrote Murphy in his letter to the township.

In May, the applicant submitted plans for an auto parts distribution center in the township's Industrial 2 zoning district. The zoning district allows for numerous uses including a junkyard or auto salvage yard, extraction operations (a quarry), a solid waste facility, a fuel storage facility, a manufacturing factory, an office complex, an outpatient surgical center, wholesale storage or a warehousing facility to name a few.

For more than 20 years, the township has tried to preserve the property by proposing the purchase of a conservation easement, purchasing the property for wastewater spray fields, or buying it for sports fields. The property owner, however, has refused all of the township's offers, the township said.

More recently, the property owner proposed an auto auction site, which the township opposed and discouraged.