Over 100 Easton residents and Lafayette College community members filled Lafayette’s Buck Hall on Monday to discuss the implications of a controversial one-million-square-foot warehouse proposed for Easton in a panel.
Multiple Lafayette College professors and students have expressed opposition to the warehouse proposal that currently awaits a vote by the city of Easton; the final hurdle to its approval. The nearly two-hour-long panel was the first large-scale event to spotlight the warehouse to the Lafayette community directly.
“I will literally chain myself to that fence before they start putting a shovel into the ground,” said Colleen O’Neal, the leader of the Stop the Wood Avenue Warehouse Coalition.
The five panelists included O’Neal; David Brandes, chair of the integrative engineering program; Kyle Keeler, an environmental studies professor; Kendra Copper, a councilwoman-elect for Wilson; and Cody Harding, a lawyer representing the coalition.
Hosted by Lafayette’s Environmental Justice Working Group, the panel was moderated by Abby Cooley ‘27, a member of the coalition.
“I think there’s some factors in Easton that make it the wrong place,” Harding said of mobilizing against the warehouse.
“Largely, I think it’s Lafayette College because of the students,” he continued. “This room is full of dozens of people who’ve been involved and engaged and supporting us.”
A main portion of the panel allowed panelists to clarify the legal challenges associated with developing the property.
Harding said that while vulnerabilities in Easton’s zoning laws were what allowed the developers to obtain the property in the first place, these same laws have allowed him and the coalition to build a case against the proposed warehouse.
“We were just throwing everything we can against the wall to see what sticks, and one of them stuck, which was, ‘Hey, this is a flood zone,’” he said.
Harding felt that the immense size of the warehouse enabled the coalition to get the attention of more residents.
“If this were a 500,000 square foot warehouse, I don’t think we’d be able to stop it,” he said.
Harding told the audience to “hurry up and change your zoning laws.”
Panelists also tied in the event’s broader theme of environmental justice, touching on the coalition’s mobilization against warehouse developer Scannell Properties.
“A developer like Scannell has money, has the time, has the power to put all of this forward, and usually there’s very little pushback, because people don’t understand what’s happening,” Keeler said.
Keeler said the coalition “has been mobilized so effectively and has been done so effectively that it can act as a blueprint for other communities.”
Panelists fielded questions from audience members for the last hour of the event; the questions ranged from legal action to environmental impacts to potential outcomes.
Carol Inman, who said she lives along the Bushkill Creek, voiced concern over what she described as the “systematic way in which the public voice gets silenced” during public meetings. She asked panelists how community members can work with municipalities to make sure their voices are heard.
The Lafayette previously reported that a warehouse vote may not take place until 2026 because of zoning jurisdiction delays, but the Easton Planning Commission is actively pushing for a final vote on Dec. 3.
Though the Lafayette community is becoming more involved with the warehouse debate, the college as a whole is not; College President Nicole Hurd said the college administration “is not engaged in the warehouse conversation.”
“I’ve engaged with some faculty and students and staff that are expressing themselves about this issue, and I’m incredibly proud of how they use our voices,” college President Nicole Hurd said. “The administration is always supportive of encouraging this community to use its voice.”
“It’s your community’s health,” O’Neal said. “It’s long-term economic and environmental health that you’re fighting for. So it’s not just you, it’s the generations to follow.”
Clara Witmer ‘27 contributed reporting.