Dunmore approved a developer’s plan to create a campground with five cabins near the Interstate 84/380 Twin Bridges and the new flyover exit ramp for Elmhurst, the borough zoning coordinator said.
S. Walsh Properties LLC of 2641 Pittston Ave. in Scranton sought from the Dunmore Zoning Board a special exception to establish a campground and construct five cabins at Silver Lake on Drinker Turnpike, according to public notices of the board’s April 24 meeting agenda published in The Times-Tribune on April 15 and 22.
The board, on Thursday, unanimously approved the special exception, borough Zoning Coordinator Michael Brazil said Friday.
The Silver Lake site is nestled in a valley between the twin bridges and Route 435. The state Department of Transportation rebuilt one of the twin bridges in recent years and construction on the other is ongoing. Last year, PennDOT completed construction on the new flyover exit ramp of I-84/380 to Route 435, which reconfigured the exit for Elmhurst from a left-lane exit to a right-lane exit.
Efforts were unsuccessful Friday to directly reach S. Walsh Properties, but the firm provided a photo through the engineer that represented the firm before the zoning board, DesignBLD of Exeter.
Brazil said the campground plan calls for the construction of five one-room cabins at the Silver Lake site, which is in a small conservation district under the borough’s zoning.
“It’s an allowable use in that district,” Brazil said of a campground.
The campground would be a “glamping”-style operation, meaning it would offer more of an upscale camping experience, Brazil said.
The plan still has to go through the borough Planning Commission, and it might take several months until construction begins, he said.
The public notice also referenced the application as being for a “campground/recreational vehicle park.” But there will not be a recreational vehicle park and that language was used in the notice because that is one of the general subjects cited in the Scranton-Abingtons Planning Association’s cooperative zoning/land use ordinances under “Recreation/Open Space,” Brazil said. Dunmore adopted SAPA in December 2023.
The campground also would be near Lackawanna County’s long-planned North Pocono Trail project, sections of which remain in development or planning stages.
A first section of the trail project stretches roughly 3.5 miles from about the Interstate 84/380 Twin Bridges project site in Dunmore to a trailhead near the Y Knot Pub and Eatery and Route 435 in Elmhurst Twp.
When bridge construction is finished, the trail would wind under the twin giants and along a former railroad corridor owned by the county.
The long-term trail goal is to eventually tie this system into the North Pocono Trail systems in the Moscow area.
