Maxatawny Weighs Two Warehouses on 128 Acres, Mostly Farm

Maxatawny Township supervisors will sit as a hearing board at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, on the application of 23 Max, LLC to build two warehouses on three parcels, most of them farmland, along Hilltop Road, according to the one-page hearing agenda linked from the township calendar. The agenda says the company seeks "a conditional use permit pursuant to § 407.4 (nn) and Article IX of the Maxatawny Township Zoning Ordinance, to construct two (2) warehouses on three (3) parcels of land," IDs 63545400349415, 63545400430128 and 63545400436371, "located in the L-I – Light-Industrial District and AP1 -Agricultural Preservation District."

The hearing is in the township municipal building, 127 Quarry Road, Kutztown, per the minutes page. The agenda lists only a call to order, "Hearing of Case" and adjournment. It gives no square footage, no plan and no name beyond the LLC's.

The land

The county parcel layer, data dated Oct. 23, 2026, lists the three parcels as 310 Hilltop Road, 115.4 acres, owned by "Tercha Anna Haaf & Kate E M Co-Trustee," and two unaddressed Hilltop Road lots of 5.64 and 7.15 acres owned by Kate E M Tercha, together 128.19 acres. The large parcel is assessed as class F, "Farm (Farmland & Woodland)" in the county's data dictionary, with a two-story stucco dwelling; the small lots are coded residential vacant land. All three carry a Clean and Green enrollment year of 1994, the state program that "bases property taxes on use values rather than fair market values." The county's 2026 assessment file puts the big parcel's assessed land value at $53,200 against a market land value of $447,800, with total assessed values of $96,100, $3,200 and $4,100. The two small lots were conveyed by deeds dated May 17, 2023, at a stated price of $1 each. In the first conditional use case, the board found that "the Property is currently used for agriculture," and the Commonwealth Court described 23 Max as "a limited liability company with a mailing address in Allentown" (opinion, p. 3; p. 4, n. 5).

Four years and one lost appeal

WFMZ reported in May 2022 that 23 Max had filed a land development plan on March 31, 2022, for a 1,004,180-square-foot warehouse on 128.2 acres, and that the Planning Commission chairman warned, "Hilltop Road is not going to be able to handle 18-wheelers going up it" (WFMZ, May 31, 2022). The township minutes track that plan as "Maxatawny Industrial" and have extended its review deadline; the latest extension, approved May 11, 2026, runs to Nov. 30 (May 11 minutes).

According to the Commonwealth Court, 23 Max applied for conditional use approval on Dec. 15, 2022, for a 954,770-square-foot warehouse east of Hilltop Road; the board held seven hearings from May 31, 2023, to Jan. 16, 2024, and denied it in a decision dated Feb. 28, 2024, finding the company "failed to show that it has a real or equitable interest in the Property" because no agreement of sale was in the record (opinion, pp. 3-4, 7-8). The vote was 3-0 on Feb. 14, 2024 (Feb. 14 minutes). The county court affirmed, and on May 5, 2025, a Commonwealth Court panel affirmed again in an unreported opinion that turned on standing, not on the warehouse (pp. 13-14).

While that appeal ran, a new hearing began. The calendar first lists "Conditional Use Hearing - 23 Max LLC/Hilltop Industrial" on April 9, 2024, when WFMZ reported the developer did not show (WFMZ, April 9, 2024). By June 2024 WFMZ described the request as "a conditional use approval to develop two warehouses on three parcels of land consisting of 128.2 acres," with project engineer Tom Dredge of Langan Engineering questioned by the township engineer on the rural character of Hilltop Road and more than 20 neighbors holding party status (WFMZ, June 4, 2024). The township has not posted that application, its plans, a transcript or an exhibit.

Since then the calendar has carried a 23 Max hearing date 21 times, counting Thursday and a Dec. 16 date already listed; six entries are marked cancelled or continued, and the minutes record more continuances from the dais, most recently Aug. 12, 2026, to Sept. 23 (Aug. 10 minutes; see also the Aug. 11, 2025 and June 8, 2026 minutes). In June the board hired former zoning officer Chris Paff part time, up to five hours a week, "to complete the active Conditional Use Hearings" (June 8 minutes); his resignation and McCarthy Engineering Associates' appointment as zoning officer are recorded in the May 11 minutes. The October minutes are not posted, so what happened Sept. 23 is unrecorded.

A section the township deleted

The agenda cites § 407.4(nn). The 2012 ordinance allowed "Wholesaling, Warehousing and Distribution" in the L-I district by right (2012 ordinance, § 407.1(c), p. 93). Ordinance 2022-8, with a certificate of enactment dated Oct. 8, 2022, removed that by-right use and added § 407.4(nn): "Warehouse, wholesale and/or distribution facility, subject to the provisions specified under Section 593" (pp. 2-3). Its revised § 593 requires, among other things, 500 feet of separation from an existing home, school or institution, an environmental assessment report and a traffic impact study (pp. 9-10). The first 23 Max application arrived two months later.

Then the township took the use away. Ordinance 2024-02, enacted March 4, 2024, is titled in part "removing industrial activities and manufacturing uses, truck or motor freight uses, and warehouse, wholesale and/or distribution facility uses as uses permitted by conditional use within the L-I Light Industrial District," and says "407.4(nn) is amended to be deleted in its entirety and marked 'reserved for future use'" (pp. 1-2). Warehouses remain a conditional use in the I Industrial district, capped at 500,000 cumulative square feet and 300 truck trips a day (p. 2). When the draft went out for county review in January 2024, Chairman John Deplanque said he and Supervisor Marcus Simonetti "were elected due to not being in favor of warehouse development," and the solicitor said "the current warehouse projects that include 310 Hilltop, Long Lane, and C&B Development are not subject to the amendment" (Jan. 10, 2024 minutes). The agenda does not say why the application now before the board is heard under the deleted section, and no posted document says when it was filed.

The AP1 label matters too. Section 400 of the ordinance calls the township's agriculture "a unique non-replaceable natural resource" and says the district is meant "to permit only those land uses and activities, which are agriculture related and advance agricultural purposes" (p. 60). In the first case the board found the warehouse "will be located entirely within the L-1 zoning district" (opinion, p. 4, n. 5). Whether the two-warehouse plan does the same is not in any posted record.

How the hearing works

A conditional use is a use the zoning ordinance allows in a district only after the governing body, here the supervisors rather than the Zoning Hearing Board, holds a hearing and finds the project meets the ordinance's written standards. Pennsylvania's Municipalities Planning Code, § 913.2, says the governing body "shall hold hearings on and decide requests for such conditional uses in accordance with such standards and criteria" and may "attach such reasonable conditions and safeguards" it deems necessary; a written decision is due within 45 days after the last hearing (MPC). As the Commonwealth Court put it in the 23 Max case, the applicant "initially bears the burden" of showing compliance with the ordinance's objective standards, after which "the burden shifts to the objectors" to show harm to the surrounding community (opinion, p. 2). The MPC also requires the first hearing to begin within 60 days of the board's receipt of an application unless the applicant agrees in writing to more time (§ 908(1.2)); the calendar's first 23 Max date was April 9, 2024.

The township's Article IX, amended by Ordinance 2024-03 in September 2024, asks whether the use is "consistent with the plan for future land use in Maxatawny Township" and how it affects "the reserve capacity of the public roads and road intersections providing access to" the site (2012 ordinance § 905, pp. 298-300; Ordinance 2024-03 § 30, pp. 12-13).

Under the MPC's hearing rules, the parties are "the municipality, any person affected by the application who has made timely appearance of record before the board, and any other person including civic or community organizations permitted to appear by the board"; parties may have a lawyer and "present evidence and argument and cross-examine adverse witnesses" (§ 908(3), (5)). In the first case, "a number of adjacent landowners" held party status and one, attorney Robert Grim, cross-examined the applicant's witnesses throughout (opinion, p. 6). Thursday's session is a continuation, so whether the board admits new parties is for the board to say.

The neighborhood of warehouse fights

Maxatawny's other large warehouse case, 222 Capital Partners' application at Route 222 and Long Lane, has run on a parallel calendar since April 2024, with its next date Dec. 3 (calendar). Kutztown Borough Council's Oct. 20 agenda asked council to name a member as a "fact witness" at both hearings on the Sacony Creek water supply, as we reported in our Kutztown preview. Bern Township decided last month to appeal to Commonwealth Court a county judge's ruling that went against its warehouse conditional-use denial; see our Bern recap.

The supervisors' regular meeting follows Monday, Nov. 9, at 6:30 p.m. (calendar); the property maintenance code ordinance from our Oct. 12 preview has no posted outcome, and the 23 Max land development extension expires Nov. 30.

How to attend

Thursday, Nov. 5, 6:30 p.m., Maxatawny Township Municipal Building, 127 Quarry Road, Kutztown; the office number is 610-683-6518 (minutes page). Our guide explains the county property records search for anyone who wants to look up the parcels. We will report what the hearing produces once the township posts minutes or a decision.

Corrections: corrections@berksbeat.com.