A Massachusetts refrigerated trucking company has resubmitted plans for a truck terminal in Manchester after the Planning and Zoning Commission rejected the original proposal early this year citing wetlands concerns.
Apache Trucking’s real estate development arm, Singh Realty Group LLC, is seeking approvals to develop a 12-acre parcel at 51 Commerce Road in Manchester’s Buckland Industrial Park into an operations hub for the company.
The plan calls for construction of an 8,100-square-foot, one-story building containing office space and a four-bay truck maintenance garage. The site would also include 95 tractor-trailer parking spaces, four loading areas and 31 employee and visitor parking spaces.
The facility would serve as Apache Trucking’s dispatch, logistics and administrative hub.
The commission accepted the new application at its June 1 meeting. On July 6, commissioners, acting as the Inland Wetlands Agency, determined the proposal could have a significant impact on wetlands, triggering a public hearing scheduled for Monday.
In February, commissioners rejected a wetlands permit for the project after concluding the applicant had not adequately demonstrated prudent and feasible alternatives that would lessen impacts to wetlands.
The revised proposal again seeks an inland wetlands permit, a special exception and approval of an erosion and sedimentation control plan. According to a staff report, the revised plans would permanently impact about 0.27 acres of wetlands and disturb another 4.15 acres within the property’s upland review area.
The applicant proposes creating about 0.54 acres of new wetlands elsewhere on the site to compensate for those impacts.
The latest application also provides additional operational details. The applicant says no hazardous materials will be stored on-site, trailers parked at the facility will remain empty, and the maintenance garage will be used only for routine inspections and repairs needed to keep trucks compliant with Department of Transportation safety standards. The application estimates the facility will generate about 15 truck trips per day.
The hearing is set to begin at the commission’s 7 p.m. meeting Monday in the Lincoln Center Hearing Room.
