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The plan for Elizabethtown Crossings calls for 70,000 square feet of retail space on about 20 acres in the southeast quadrant of the busy intersection.
The proposed shopping center would be anchored by a chain grocery store and include other vendors such as a dry cleaner or restaurant. A portion of the tract along Hershey would be left open for future development.
William Siler, assistant development director of North Carolina-based JDH Capital, told township supervisors on Monday that JDH has built and managed similar projects from Pennsylvania to Florida since 1994.
Siler said the project will generate anywhere from 100 to 145 new jobs and about $800,000 in annual tax revenues.
No specific plan or construction cost has been filed with the township, Siler said. However, the JDH Web site states the anchor store will be a 35,000-square-foot Food Lion.
Siler estimates the project will generate traffic impact fees of $677,780. He would like 100 percent of that money to be applied toward the construction of a Buckingham Boulevard extension between Hershey (Route 743) and Mount Gretna (Route 241) roads.
But even if all of that money is credited to the new roadway, he said, that won't build the entire length needed to make the connection.
"It's a critically needed route, but it is not one that can be inexpensively built," he said.
Siler proposed building 800 feet or more of the proposed road, just over half its full length, running from a new traffic signal at Hershey Road into the property as far as it can go before the money runs out. The remaining leg to Mount Gretna Road can be built at a later date, he said.
Supervisor Gerald Cole said he was not ready to make a decision Monday, in part because he would like to continue a discussion with Elizabethtown Borough officials about chipping in on the cost of finishing the new road.
He also said he would like to talk with property owners who would be landlocked by the construction project.
After Siler left the meeting, Cole raised the issue again.
He said, "Don't developers, when building a development, put the roads in? Period?"
"In Pennsylvania," solicitor Josele Cleary responded, "they do."
"Then why are we giving them money to build the road?" Cole asked.
"We're not," Cleary said.
The $677,780 in impact fees is the maximum amount, based on traffic estimates regarding use on the property, Cleary said. It also might not be due to the township for several years after construction is completed, she said.
The developer's proposal would provide the money up front and would include more road improvements than would otherwise be required, she said, including off-site road construction on neighboring land.
Also Monday, supervisors voted to join the Mount Joy Chamber of Commerce.
The township is already a member of the Elizabethtown Chamber. Mount Joy Township abuts both boroughs.
Membership will cost the township $55 per year, or $27.50 for the remainder of 2009.
E-mail: tknapp@lnpnews.com
