Western municipalities brace for development
By Jim T. Ryan
2/15/2008
Deerfield Estates is the largest residential development in Southampton Township, with 733 total housing units — 119 of which are under construction. Photo/Amy Spangler
For about a decade, development in Cumberland County tended to happen mainly between Camp Hill and Carlisle. As that area has become built up, businesses and residential developers looked beyond Carlisle for new opportunities. The result is a wave of development heading west across the county, more or less following the path of Interstate 81.
"You see it creeping westward," said Kirk Stoner, executive director of the county planning department.
The municipalities bordering I-81 are seeing the increases in residential and commercial development, he said. Those include communities from Carlisle westward, such as South Middleton, North Middleton and Southampton townships.
Overall, they're prepared for the influx, officials said.
"We sort of had a feeling that this was about to happen," said Tom Ginnick, a supervisor in Southampton Township.
The municipality adopted a zoning ordinance for the first time in 2004. That will help direct development to appropriate parts of the township, Ginnick said. However, even with a general layout of where development should go, changes are happening fast, he said.
"We're very similar to Perry County in that we don't have a traffic light," Ginnick said. "Pretty soon, we're going to have seven."
At least two major commercial developments are planned in Southampton Township, Ginnick said. ProLogis, the Denver, Colo.-based warehousing company, has approval to build a 1.4-million-square-foot warehouse on Route 174, off Exit 29 of I-81. Philadelphia-based BPG Properties Ltd. is planning four warehouses — each about 400,000 square feet — on Cramer Road, also near Exit 29.
Commercial properties are selling well, said Ron Sailhamer, president of Shippensburg-based Sailhamer Real Estate Inc. That's because the western municipalities are still close enough to I-81, the Pennsylvania Turnpike and railways to make the area attractive to logistics and warehousing companies. That contribution to the county can't be ignored, he said.
"We have to be very careful that we don't put the brakes on that industry because it's a significant part of our economy," said Eric Clancy, executive vice president of Delta Development Group Inc. "On the same token, those are not the jobs that will fuel the bioscience industry. There are very exciting things happening on both ends of the spectrum."
Delta Development Group is based in Hampden Township, Cumberland County.
Office and commercial developers are still building in the eastern communities, such as Silver Spring, Hampden, Upper Allen and Lower Allen townships, according to county statistics.
In 2006, developers built more than $125 million worth of new commercial space in the county. Nearly $57 million worth of improvements or expansions were made to existing commercial buildings.
The township has 2,459 lots for development in various stages of the approval process or under construction, Ginnick said. That includes at least five residential developments. The largest is Deerfield Estates, with 733 total housing units, of which 119 are under construction.
County statistics also illustrate the westward development, Stoner said. Total residential units built in Southampton Township increased nearly every year since 2000, according to the 2006 planning commission report.
In 2006, the township added 102 residential units, up 59 percent compared with six years earlier.
Southampton borders Shippensburg. "We've talked about this quite a few times," Ginnick said. "We haven't seen the slowdown that other places have in housing numbers."
North Middleton Township's residential construction per year was more pronounced. The number of units built increased every year. The total number of residences built in 2006 was 134. That's 415 percent more than in 2000. Only 26 units were built that year, according to the county. North Middleton borders Carlisle.
Other western municipalities have seen steady growth, too. Dickinson Township added an average of 44 new housing units per year from 2000-2006, according to the county. Upper Frankford Township added 19 new residences on average, and the number per year has steadily increased since 2001. West Pennsboro Township, which borders Carlisle's west end, added an average of 32 new units per year.
Development is not only creeping westward from the West Shore and Harrisburg. Officials are also seeing new residents come in from the south.
Sailhamer has sold many properties to people from the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas. They're looking to escape the cities, he said.
Municipalities in the western part of the county are starting to do more planning for the future, including upgrades to water and sewage systems, Sailhamer said.
Southampton Township's population increased by 18 percent from 2000-2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's estimates. The population of North Middleton Township increased by 6.3 percent. County population increased by only 5.8 percent for the same period.
"I'd like to see a really good medical-care facility," he said. "I think we're going to need it in the next three years with the way we're growing."
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I travel to work every day and get off I-81 at exit 29. I am pretty sure I know where they are going to put that warehouse. I hope that Cumberland County Makes upgrades to that intersection of I-81. Currently it doesn't have any sort of traffic control device at the entrance ramps. It will make the commute hell. 
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