The Carbon County Planning Commission has reservations about Penn Forest adopting a zoning amendment that would designate an area for warehouses and allow regulation of the industrial sites.

Penn Forest Township supervisors will consider adopting the proposed ordinance at 6 p.m. today at the township building.

On Tuesday, members of the township came before the Carbon County Planning Commission asking for some clarification because previous township meetings have left the matter unclear.

Ivan O. Meixell Jr., county planner, said that he pointed out in his review, which was submitted to the township last month, that the lot in question is actually two separate lots and both are on wetlands, with exceptional value streams running through them.

Meixell said he told one of the supervisors, “How can you zone wetlands with exceptional value streams knowing that you cannot build on it? That’s not defensible.”

The proposed amendment establishes a new C-1A zoning district south of Route 903 near the Pennsylvania Turnpike; as well as establish new regulations on warehousing, storage, distribution centers and trucking company terminals.

Meixell said a lot of legal questions need to be addressed with the township solicitor.

Meixell also referenced the letter the planning commission sent to the township about his review of the proposed amendment.

The letter, signed by David J. Bodnar Jr., director of planning, states that the county “cannot recommend approval of this proposed zoning amendment based on our observations ... We believe the area proposed for a C-1A zoning district, which would allow the development of warehousing, storage, distribution center and trucking company terminals is unsuitable due to existing environmental impacts that development of these land tracts would have on the existing stream and wetlands areas.”

Earlier this month, a public hearing was held in the township building over the proposed amendment.

At that time, township Solicitor Thomas Nanovic said that there were no queries of businesses looking to build such facilities in Penn Forest Township. But the idea is to stay ahead of the game and be prepared in case any such requests are made.

Nanovic said that suggestions of limiting the warehouses and terminals to the existing industrial zones, or possibly increase the size of the industrial zones, were not good ideas.

The township hired Charles Schmehl, president of Urban Research & Development Corporation, to look at the zoning ordinance and recommend changes.

Schmehl told residents, “This process is not intended to make it easier to build warehouses or distribution centers or truck terminals in the township.

“The goal of it is to make the provisions more defensible in consultation with a township solicitor, to make it easier to have the locations of distribution centers and warehouses be very carefully controlled and very carefully regulated.”

In other planning commission matters, the commission voted to table any recommendation on Jim Thorpe’s proposed zoning ordinance change regarding the required distance between a septic system and Mauch Chunk Lake or creek.

Meixell said he feels the commission needs more information from the Carbon County Conservation District, as well as the state fish and game commission.