Dallas Paul, a broker with Industrial Developers, said the family that owns the bakery wants to expand because they are "totally out of space" at their 42,000-square-foot West Galbraith Road facility, which opened in 1977.
But more than 100 residents from Evergreen Farms, Four Bridges and Trails of Four Bridges subdivisions packed the Liberty Twp. Administration Building on Monday night for a standing-room only Liberty Township Zoning Commission public hearing, with many voicing their opposition to the facility.
Residents said the bakery as proposed wouldn’t be aesthetically pleasing and could project the wrong image along Millikin Road, a proposed Cox Road extension along the busy I-75 corridor, especially if a proposed Millikin Interchange becomes a reality and the township’s “second front door.”
Residents also said they worry that Old World Bakery, which delivers private label baked goods to 42 states, would generate increased noise, pollution and traffic dangers via the facility and tractor trailer going to and from the site along Princeton, Bethany and Butler-Warren roads.
“This is not what they anticipated when they bought their homes, that there would be manufacturing so close to them,” said Tim Mara, an attorney hired to represent about 50 families from the three subdivisions. “And in fact the township’s vision plan as we see it does not call for manufacturing at this location.”
Tiffany Zeuch, the president of Trails of Four Bridges Homeowners Association and a local realtor, said many people don’t want to see factories as they drive home and urged zoning officials to consider which community Liberty would be emulating if they approved a zoning change for the project.
“Liberty Twp. should not be an extension of Monroe but we should be an extension of Mason and West Chester,” Zeuch said. “Let the factories go up north into Monroe and Middletown. Let Butler County seek those dollars that go into more industrial areas and not hurt our real estate.”
Brian Rose of Trails of Four Bridges said any project in the area should be reflective of the office and technology park mention in the township’s vision plan, “not just a factory plopped down into a field.”
Dr. Lisa Navarro of Trails of Four Bridges cited American Bakers Association statements that baked good drivers drive “more trips to the store than any other category.”
That, she said, would mean dozens of trucks arriving at and departing the facility and increasing air pollution emissions and adversely impacting local health conditions.
Matt Goulait said zoning officials should consider waiting until a better project comes along instead of going with the first major proposal for the site.
“This is selling out everything we have to the first bidder,” Goulait said.
Thomas McDonald, a Trails of Four Bridges resident who works as a plant manager of a 370,000-square-foot facility, said he supports manufacturing but that “it has to be done in the right place.”
“I’m very much an opponent of where this factory is going as someone who’s spent a lot of time in the manufacturing field,” he said.
The zoning commission voted unanimously to continue Monday night’s hearing until its Sept. 9 meeting at the request of attorney Jay Bennett, who requested additional time for client Industrial Developers Limited to present responses to residents’ concerns and answer some of the issues raised at the meeting.
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