At their Dec. 16 meeting, Hanover Township supervisors approved a quarter-mill fire tax increase, higher trash and recycling fees, and the first community center rate hike since 2020.

The board unanimously adopted a $10.66 million budget and tax rates for 2026. The new 0.75 mill fire tax rate, combined with the unchanged real estate tax of 3.40 mills, puts the total tax rate for property owners at 4.15 mills.

Residential trash and recycling fees will increase next year due to a hauler change to Casella Waste Systems (formerly Whitetail Disposal). Single family homes will pay $380 if they pay by April 15 or $418 with the 10 percent late penalty, while Southland Condominiums will pay $170 per unit by April 15 and $187 after the deadline. Park Place town house units will pay $270, or $297 if paying late.

Township Manager Mark Hudson said that Toter delivery is scheduled for Dec. 22-30. “If for some reason, someone doesn’t have a Toter during the first week, they’re going to just take whatever’s there and make everybody whole,” he said.

Hudson added that a flier about Casella’s yard waste pickup schedule has been mailed out. “Some areas are going to get moved to a Friday,” he said, noting that the township’s website has a link to the section of Casella’s site where residents can find out if their pickup day has been moved.

While pool fees for 2026 remain unchanged, some annual fitness memberships at the Hanover community center will be going up next year. The top tier family membership is now $585 for residents (a $23 increase) and $860 for nonresidents (a $38 increase).

In other business, supervisors granted an amendment to a long in-the-works Jaindl Land Company development project at Route 512 and Highland Avenue. The revised plan now pairs a Wawa and a three story Lehigh Valley Health Network medical office building with a new four-story, 123 room, “limited service” hotel on a pad site that had previously been reserved for a bank.

The plan also calls for a sidewalk system connecting the Route 512/Highland intersection to the Wawa, medical offices, hotel, and north into the nearby Dunkin/business plaza. No sidewalk will be built along the Route 512 frontage.

“Nothing’s really changed with any significance as to the layout since the time we were in for the conditional use approval,” said Eric Schock, an attorney with Fitzpatrick, Lentz and Bubba.

Vice chair Jean Versteeg asked about how fuel trucks would navigate to the future Wawa. Jeff Beavan of the civil engineering firm Bohler said those trucks will be routed through site driveways rather than making awkward turns on 512.

The board also conducted conditional use hearings for 1550 and 1560 Valley Center Parkway, where the owner, Steven Denholtz of Red Bank, N.J., is seeking permission to increase storage space from the permitted 25 percent to as much as 50 percent in each flex office building.

Jody King of real estate services firm CBRE testified that one building is “completely empty,” and the other has one 12,000 square foot tenant occupying a 43,000-square-foot building.

“We have been unable to get a 30 or 40,000 square foot office tenant in these buildings because there’s other product out there that they’re more interested in today,” King told supervisors, arguing that a 50-50 office/storage mix is necessary to attract tenants.

Addressing possible concerns about more traffic in that area, Alec Nahas of Bohler engineering presented a “trip generation letter” estimating that a 50-50 office/storage split in both buildings would result in about 160 fewer total weekday vehicle trips than with the previous use of the properties. However, there would be an increase in weekday truck trips from 10 to 24.

Nahas said the site can physically accommodate occasional tractor trailer deliveries but is not laid out to handle stacked truck traffic.

He also said that the flex office buildings would have eight widely spaced dock doors instead of the 19 to 21 bays typically found on a warehouse facade of similar length.

The applicant’s attorney, Joseph Piperato III, agreed to accept a condition capping storage at 50 percent. Township solicitor Jim Broughal said the supervisors have 45 days to issue a written decision.