POTTSTOWN PA – In their continuing attempt to make the former Occidental Chemical Corp. property more usable and marketable, its owners have won approval from Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township to build a somewhat unusual access road and truck parking lot there.

The former Occidental property is now being marketed as the Tri-County Commerce Park.

The township Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed to issue a permit to BCW Associates Ltd., allowing it to grade 5.15 acres of land at 351 and 375 Armand Hammer Blvd., Pottstown PA, for the lot that will serve a warehouse and offer truck access to its northeastern side. The property is located in an HI heavy industrial zoning district.

The truck lot itself is typical, township Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott said, although it lacks a landscaping island that normally accompanies open asphalt spaces for 10 or more vehicles. Commissioners granted a waiver that allows BCW to make up for that loss by planting five trees elsewhere on the property.

What’s different is the access driveway truckers must use to reach the lot. Its design is confined by a restriction that nearby railroad tracks remain undisturbed, and by easement boundaries that can’t be changed. Township engineering representative Chad Camburn of Bursich Associates said that means the road will be unusually narrow – possibly only wide enough for one truck, not two – in some spots.

To avoid the possibility of accidents, engineers demanded that BCW install a variety of traffic controls to keep opposing trucks out of each other’s way on the driveway. The company also must to sign a legal acknowledgment that holds Lower Pottsgrove harmless if a future mishap occurs there.

That document, and the fact that the township won’t later be asked to own or maintain the road, gave commissioners some comfort. The board approved the permit last Monday (Oct. 5, 2009) during the first of two regular monthly meetings in the township municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA.

The plan also was approved by Lower Pottsgrove’s Planning Commission during its Sept. 30 (2009) meeting.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Oct. 5 meeting):

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• Detective Effort Credited In Bomb Threat Arrest
• County EIT Group Meets Oct. 28, Board Learns
• No Plans To Dredge Sanatoga Lake At $500,000
• Award-Winning Officer Pursues Drug Cases
• Lights, Camera … Hero; Top Officer Honored Tonight

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