Industrial Park

SEPTA has been negotiating for 15 acres of undeveloped land in the Far Northeast on which it hopes to build a bus depot, according to a spokesman for the transportation authority. The site for the proposed bus storage and maintenance terminal is near Townsend Road and Roosevelt Boulevard and is owned by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. PIDC is developing an industrial park at the site. Joseph M. Egan Jr., PIDC's president, said that the depot could be an area asset, adding: "Bringing a modern terminal into that area doesn't hurt the park.

CARACOL, Haiti - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged foreigners to invest in Haiti as she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, led a star-studded delegation gathered Monday to inaugurate a new industrial park at the center of U.S. efforts to help the country rebuild after the 2010 earthquake. Actors Sean Penn and Ben Stiller, fashion designer Donna Karan, and British business magnate Richard Branson were among the luminaries at the opening of the new Caracol Industrial Park, projected to create thousands of jobs more than 100 miles from the quake-ravaged capital of Port-au-Prince.

Two groups of residents from the southern end of Darby Township spent the second round of a special zoning hearing arguing against a plan to put a light-industrial park in their part of town. At the hearing Thursday, attorneys for the groups charged that the three Republican-controlled northern districts of the township, which are predominantly white, want to convert the two Democrat-controlled southern districts, which are predominantly black, into an industrial tax base. Thursday night's hearing was a continuation of a July 27 hearing.

Preliminary plans submitted by the Devereux Foundation for a five-lot industrial park at the southeast corner of Boot and Skelp Level Roads in East Caln have gained the approval of the township's Board of Supervisors. At a meeting Wednesday night, the board voted unanimously to approve the plans for the 30-acre tract. The supervisors, however, stipulated that Devereux must include in its final application money to be put in escrow for possible improvements at the corner of Chestnut Street and Boot Road.

Before Monday night, nobody had reason to believe that developer Harry E. Hassan might back off from his proposal to develop an industrial park on a 55- acre site in Upper Gwynedd Township. Back in February, Hassan had filed a subdivision plan with the township that sought approval to divide the property bordered by Sumneytown Pike and Allentown and Valley Forge Roads into 19 parcels. He wanted to build more than 1.5 million square feet of office space and light manufacturing facilities there.

The Upper Uwchlan Township Planning Commission unanimously endorsed a preliminary plan for the Eagle Industrial Park Thursday night, despite the concerns of about 30 residents who peppered developer Fritz Senn with questions. Commission members said the plan, which now goes to the township supervisors for final approval, met all the requirements for the light- industrial zone in the southern end of the township. A main concern of the residents, most of whom own properties along Township Line Road, was sewage disposal.

A parents' group has asked the Upper Dublin school board to bus students who live near Olde Fort Washington Industrial Park because of concerns about traffic safety. Responding to the requests of the Concerned Citizens of Olde Fort Washington, the board voted Monday to ask the township to carry out some of the residents' safety suggestions, including the installation of "No Parking" signs. The parents say that, because of more parked cars and traffic surrounding the Olde Fort Washington Industrial Park, the neighborhood is not safe for children to walk to school.

A debate over allowing the construction of buildings in sloped areas has led the West Whiteland Planning Commission to postpone a recommendation on an industrial park planned for Whitford Road, south of Route 30. John Snyder, attorney for Blair & Sons, the developer, told the commission Monday that the developer was seeking a recommendation before a conditional- use hearing in front of the Board of Supervisors. Snyder said that conditional use would be sought for one of the nine buildings planned for the site, which is in a "precautionary slope" area - in West Whiteland's zoning ordinance, any slope 15 percent to 25 percent above grade.

Forest Park Corporate Center, an industrial park expected to create 500 jobs during the next two years, has received preliminary approval from the Gloucester County Planning Board. Asuka Nakahara, a partner in Trammell Crow Co., the developer, said ground would be broken this month for entrances and roadways on the 200-acre site in West Deptford along Mantua-Grove Road near Interstate 295. The park will serve as a warehouse and shipping center for the New York- Washington, region, said John Zaharchuk, project manager.