More than 300,000 square feet of warehouse space is proposed for the Perryman peninsula, the latest in a cluster of warehouses and industrial facilities in the area bordered by Bush River and Aberdeen Proving Ground.
The proposed 332,800-square-foot building would be built at 505 Advantage Ave. on a 29.12-acre lot, which is owned by Preston Franklin LLC, of Baltimore, according to a site plan presented recently to the Harford County Development Advisory Commission.
The site, which is part of the Perryman Industrial Park, is between the end of Advantage Avenue and the north side of the Amtrak/Norfolk Southern railroad tracks that run east to Aberdeen, according to the plan.
The developer, which is also listed as Preston Franklin LLC, must take care to avoid any adverse impacts to local groundwater, since the site is within Zones 2 and 3 of the Perryman Wellhead Protection Plan Area.
The area is a " large valuable source of potable groundwater in Harford County," DAC member Len Walinski, of the Harford County Health Department, said.
Both the county and the City of Aberdeen have wellfields in the area that are used for public drinking sources. As a result, The county has stringent regulations regarding development in Perryman and other water source protection districts around Harford.
Walinski said monitoring wells must be installed around the property to monitor the groundwater quality and protect the resource "from a quality and a quantity perspective."
Developers would tap into existing sewer mains along Advantage Avenue. A water main is being built to serve the project and a neighboring warehouse development, called Eastgate, according to information reviewed by the committee, also known as DAC, on July 6.
The Eastgate project was approved about a year ago, according to Moe Davenport, the committee chairman, but with two warehouses totaling 2.3 million square feet, it raised a number of concerns from nearby residents about increased traffic and potential harm to the Perryman wellhead. The Eastgate project is located south of the railroad, between there and the Aberdeen Proving Ground security perimeter fence.
Residents packed a community input meeting and DAC meeting on Eastgate in 2014, but no one from the public commented about the Preston Franklin LLC project during Wednesday's DAC meeting.
Gerry Powell, of the Bel Air engineering firm Frederick Ward Associates, presented the plans for the Preston Franklin project, explaining that traffic access to the site will be from Advantage Avenue.
"That's where our primary – only – access will be," Powell said.
Rich Zeller, who represents the State Highway Administration on the committee, said his agency has no comment on traffic impacts, since Advantage Avenue is a county road.
Following the meeting, Powell said it is unknown who prospective tenants of the new building might be.
The Perryman area, off Route 159 south of Aberdeen, is already home to several manufacturing plants and major regional distribution centers for Sephora, Rite Aid and Clorox. The area is also home to a Exelon's Perryman Station electricity generating station and a proposed solar power generating farm expected to be developed by Exelon subsidiary Constellation Energy.