Railroad tells East Deer it doesn't have to follow town procedures to construct buildings

Norfolk Southern railroad’s plans to construct two buildings have stirred some ire among the East Deer commissioners.

Chairman Tony Taliani told his fellow commissioners the railroad officially notified the township of its plans via a letter from an engineer, Michael Gay.

The site for the buildings is a tract owned by Norfolk Southern along the rail line between the P.J. Greco and Sons scrapyard and the Weleski Transfer property, along Treadway Lane near East Deer’s border with Tarentum.

The buildings are listed as a storage facility and an operations facility.

Diagrams of the 3,100-square-foot operations building show office space, a meeting area and a break room. The storage facility, which includes numerous loading docks and open interior space, is listed as 7,200 square feet.

It’s unclear how the two structures would be utilized by the railroad.

A Norfolk Southern representative declined to share any details about the building project, other than to say the Pittsburgh area is an “important corridor” for the company.

The location is not what has the commissioners miffed. It’s the circumstances under which the railroad intends to move forward with the construction.

“They were informing us that the railroad does not have to follow local building codes, don’t have to get a building permit,” Taliani said, referring to the letter.

East Deer solicitor Craig Alexander said Norfolk Southern contends that its activities are governed only by the Federal Surface Transportation Board.

But the township is still exploring whether the structures would require local inspections, Taliani said.

This year alone, Taliani said, East Deer has paid nearly $4,000 to Norfolk Southern for right-of-way fees. At the same time, township public works crews continue to mow grass adjacent to railroad property, which he said the company fails to maintain.

Since the property is federally governed, the railroad doesn’t pay any taxes on its current holdings and would not pay taxes on its proposed buildings, he said.

“It doesn’t seem fair to municipalities; it doesn’t seem right,” Taliani said.

The company didn’t give any firm indication of when construction will begin, but Taliani believes it could happen at any time.

It was not immediately clear whether Norfolk Southern had filed anything related to the project with the Surface Transportation Board.