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Mechanicsburg resident proposes stricter warehouse rules; Silver Spring Zoning Hearing Board raises enforcement and legal concerns
Summary
Resident Clarance Bouchat presented a package of proposed amendments to Silver Spring Township’s warehousing rules, recommending 500‑foot setbacks from sensitive receptors, limits on hours of operation, decibel-based noise caps, independent air-quality testing and traffic‑study requirements; the Zoning Hearing Board expressed conditional support but flagged enforcement and legal issues and recommended further review by the Board of Supervisors.
At the July 14, 2025 meeting, resident Clarance Bouchat presented a series of proposed amendments aimed at tightening warehousing standards in Silver Spring Township after warehousing was reclassified as a conditional use by the Board of Supervisors. Bouchat recommended increasing setbacks from residential zones and enumerated “sensitive receptors” (schools, day-care centers, parks, playgrounds, libraries, hospitals, nursing/rest/retirement homes, medical‑residential campuses, and places of worship) from 200 feet to 500 feet and including supporting infrastructure in the setback language.
Bouchat also proposed restricting warehouse hours to Monday through Saturday with no operations on Sundays or national holidays, with exceptions for federal or state interstate‑commerce requirements to be documented by operator logs or policy materials. He recommended residential property‑line noise limits (50 dB between 9:00 P.M. and 7:00 A.M.; 65 dB daytime) and adherence to maximum permissible octave‑band outdoor pressure levels. For air quality, Bouchat urged independent baseline and ongoing monitoring for PM2.5, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by a certified testing firm, with dispersion modeling and comparison to National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) or similar standards.
Bouchat proposed lighting controls (no more than 0.1 horizontal footcandle spillover at residential property lines and IESNA full‑cutoff luminaires) and that traffic studies be prepared by an independent traffic engineer commissioned by the township and paid by the applicant. He said he had previously presented the proposals to the Planning Commission and provided materials to the Zoning Hearing Board in advance of the meeting.
Board members signaled they were generally receptive to some of the setbacks and pollution‑reduction objectives but repeatedly raised legal and enforcement concerns. Board members noted interstate‑commerce preemption could limit the township’s ability to restrict hours, questioned who would enforce decibel or air‑quality standards and worried that specifying precise decibel thresholds might create future litigation. The Board also debated whether pollution and testing requirements belong in the Zoning Ordinance, the SALDO (Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance), or a separate ordinance and asked the Board of Supervisors to consider implementation mechanisms before any ordinance amendments are adopted. The minutes record that the Zoning Hearing Board provided Mr. Bouchat’s suggestions and feedback to the Board of Supervisors for further consideration.
