435 Hamilton Street

Allentown, Pa. 18101

Allentown

Minutes - Final

City Council

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

6:00 PM

Council Chambers

Roll Call

10 -

Present:

Candida Affa, Candida Affa, Cynthia Mota, Daryl Hendricks, Ed Zucal, Ce-Ce

Gerlach, Ce-Ce Gerlach, Natalie Santos, Santo Napoli, and Santo Napoli

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Notice is hereby given that the Allentown City Council will consider for possible

adoption an Ordinance to Amend the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Allentown to add a

new section that would establish a new “Mixed Use Overlay” Zoning District that would

(i) apply to approximately 195 acres of land formerly occupied by the Allentown State

Hospital that is South of Hanover Ave., South of E. Allen St., South of Wahneta St.

extended, generally East of Maxwell St. extended, North of River Dr., and West of the

City of Bethlehem border as shown in more detail on the map that accompanies the

proposed Ordinance, (ii) allow a variety of uses, including residential, commercial,

recreational and institutional uses, as well as selected industrial uses on a portion of the

tract, and (iii) add certain definitions to the Zoning Ordinance.

City Council will consider the foregoing at a Public Hearing on Wednesday,

December 6, 2023, at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers, 435 Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA

18101. Copies of the full text of this Ordinance are available to any interested party for

examination and copying at cost at the City Clerk’s Office or for inspection during

regular business hours at the offices of this newspaper and t he Lehigh County

Department of Law. City Council may adopt this amendment to the Zoning Ordinance at

the regularly scheduled City Council Meeting at 6:30 PM on December 6, 2023

immediately following this Public Hearing.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated that the purpose of this meeting is to take public

testimony on the possible adoption of an Ordinance amending the Zoning

Map and Zoning Ordinance of the City of Allentown by adding a new

section that would establish a new “Mixed Use Overlay”

Zoning District that would (i) apply to approximately 195 acres of land

formerly occupied by the Allentown State Hospital that is South of Hanover

Ave., South of E. Allen St., South of Wahneta St. extended, generally East

of Maxwell St. extended, North of River Dr., and West of the City of

Bethlehem border as shown in more detail on the map that accompanies

the proposed Ordinance, (ii) allow a variety of uses, including residential,

commercial, recreational and institutional uses, as well as selected

industrial uses on a portion of the tract, and (iii) add certain definitions to

the Zoning Ordinance. The Public Hearing was advertised in the Morning

Call on November 12 and 19, 2023. Zoning posted the property. The

purpose of the meeting is for comments from the public on the proposal.

Members of the public may come up to the podium and give statements in

support or opposition to the proposal, as you do, please state your name

and address. He asked is there anybody that wishes to address this issue.

Ms. Barbara Redmond, NAACP - Allentown, 1701 Sequoia Court, stated

that the questions she has is related to the proposal of the green building.

She asked is it going to be energy efficient, renewable energy, water

efficiency, the environment and help waste reduction, toxic reduction,

indoor air quality and smart growth of substantial development. They would

like to know if all of it going to be involved when they start building the

facility. Basically, is it going to be building smart. She stated that those

are the questions they would like to know. That is about it for now.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks asked is there anybody else that wishes to address

Council.

Attorney Dennis McCarthy representing City Center. They are prepared to

do a presentation in support of the proposed amendment, if Council would

like it at this point.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated that he has gotten no other responses from the

public and stated that it is appropriate for him to do so at this time.

Ms. Vicky Kistler asked can they start as the administration just explaining

a bit of the process. They were just waiting for the public comment to end.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated that he gotten no other responses.

Ms. Vicky Kistler stated that the purpose of tonight's Public Hearing is to

discuss land use only and other permitted use. Right now, the State

Hospital is currently zoned Instructional and Governmental use only. That

zoning class prevents housing, recreation, education, and any type of other

use. They are coming before them tonight with this applicant who has

worked extensively with the city's planning group to discuss potential uses

in a zoning overlay with a text amendment. She stated that at this point she

would like Jenn Gomez, Planning and Zoning Director to just briefly explain

what the process will be for this property as it gets developed through the

process once an overlay is created. She would also like to state that they

have met with citizens in an engagement opportunity. They have met one

on one with stakeholders. They have worked extensively with city staff, and

gone to the Planning Commission and they have also responded to

requests to the detail of a nursing group who wants the site recognized as

the State Hospital and the clients it served by agreeing to commemorative

plaques. This group has paid attention to detail and has worked

cooperatively with staff at this point to reach this overlay district agreement

that the staff fully supports. She stated that Jenn is going to explain a little

bit about question on what could go there. What it could look like. What

they will follow. If Jenn Gomez explains that process, she thinks this vote

will make more sense.

Ms. Jennifer Gomez stated good evening, the application before you is a

Zoning Amendment. The Zoning Amendment will establish the permitted

uses and the use intensities and also establish the process for which to

review future development. This will be developed as a planned residential

development known as a PRD and with that the development will come in

three steps. The first step of the process is following the adoption of the

Zoning Ordinances, if in fact that it is adopted tonight will entail the

submittal of a Master Plan. The Master Plan will be evaluated and

reviewed by both city staff and the city's Planning Commission as well as

the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. Following the Master Plan and

upon receiving all of the general feedback that is received, the next stage is

the Tentative Plan. The Tentative Plan will include a really thorough

evaluation of all the development impacts proposed through the

development and that is thorough detailed in the text amendments,

including a detailed evaluation of the traffic. Finally, that stage will be

reviewed by both city staff as well as the Allentown Planning Commission

and the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. Finally, after all the elements

of the overall projects have been planned for, the applicant will then come in

with a Final Plan and the individual buildout of each parcel as it gets ready

for development. She stated that this concludes her comments and she is

available for questions. She stated that they did receive questions

regarding the energy efficiency of the structure. She stated that is a

development question that would likely be addressed later on down the

road. The applicant has provided conceptual drawings. They are

illustrations. They are not being adopted tonight, but if there are questions

regarding their visions or goals, she is sure they will be happy to discuss it.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks thanked Ms. Gomez. He stated that they do have one

and if they would allow the young lady to go first.

Ms. Meagan Schaffer, 1039 E. Hamilton Street, stated that her concern

with a mixed usage property such as this 195 acres is that the spectrum is

so broad. You are talking about residential, commercial space, institutional

space. She asked would there be any way to subdivide or portion it out so

this part on E. Hamilton Street is strictly residential. This part is strictly

institutional. This part is strictly commercial. She stated that she is afraid if

they give a general mixed usage approval, that means it could be

everything and anything put into this space next to for instance her

residential space. She stated that she would not want per se a nursing

home or institutional development building if you would next to her space.

She stated that is the question she had.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated that they will allow Attorney McCarthy to answer

that question as he explains a little bit about it. He thanked Ms. Schaffer for

her question.

Ms. Vicky Kistler stated that they can actually address that from a Zoning

and Planning perspective.

Ms. Jennifer Gomez stated that the current Zoning is actually Institutional.

By doing the Zoning Amendment, they will be introducing new commercial

uses and residential uses to the project. The text amendment considers

the adjacent residential districts by adjusting heights and uses surrounding

the edges. They are not approving a Master Plan tonight. That is not

before the Council. That said, the applicant has a Master Plan or some

general conceptual plans which she imagines they will be willing to go over

with you so that you can see the ultimate high level vision for this property.

Ms. Meagan Schaffer thanked Ms. Gomez and stated that she appreciates

it.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks asked if there is anybody else before he allows,

Mr. Tino Babayan, S. Filbert Street - East Allentown, asked if they go

ahead approve this tonight, what are you doing about public safety. He

stated that they are already short cops in Allentown. They don't have

enough cops here to add this project. He stated that they are going to have

to hire at least 50 more cops, minimum. Public Safety, Public Safety,

Public Safety. This is now a public safety issue. Again, we are short on

cops. He stated that the Chief could attend to that. What are we doing if

you guys approve this project, are we getting more cops. We cannot hire

more cops. That is the problem too. Nobody is interested anymore. What

are you going to do about the public safety in that area. He stated that they

already have high traffic there. Today, a kid almost got killed coming out of

Mosser there. Right around the corner, people are speeding. You have to

add more people moving there and it is going to be more hectic. He stated

please think about that.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated that your concerns are something that Council

will take up in the future.

Attorney Dennis McCarthy, representing City Center Development,

introduced who is here tonight on the City Center team. He stated that they

have J B Reilly, and Robert DeLorenzo from City Center. Charlies

Schmehl from Urban Research and Development and Paul MacNemar

from Rettew Engineering. Any question that comes up, they should be able

to answer. He stated that it was a great summary by Ms. Kistler and Ms.

Gomez about where they are and how they got here. One thing he wants to

point out that it was mentioned. This is an Overlay District. The IG District

is going to continue to exist and this is an overlay for that. Similar to what is

at the Waterfront so that a developer would have a choice between IG or

the Overlay. From a process perspective, you might remember this

Ordinance initially was before Council as Bill 81. It was then referred to the

Planning Commission where they did a lot of revisions. At their

suggestion, they had great comments, great observations so it was

reintroduced as Bill 93 which was what is before Council now. Bill 93 has

been recommended for approval by the Allentown Planning Commission,

the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, and last week by the Community

and Economic Development Committee of Council. Again, they are here

tonight for the Ordinance and the Map Amendment. They have a Concept

Plan that will go over and some of them will be familiar with, but that is just

an illustration of what this Ordinance could create. That is not what's before

Council tonight. He thinks that the main point of the Ordinance that Ms.

Gomez raised is that there is a three step approval process under the PRD

which is different from most approvals. Usually, there is a Preliminary

Final, but her you have the Master Plan for the whole site. You have a

Tentative Plan for the whole site and you have Final Plans for each Phase.

So there are lots of opportunities for comments and feedback and analysis

which he thinks is one of the strengths of this type of Ordinance. He stated

with that, let him turn the microphone over to Charlie Schmehl to go through

some of the other highlights in the Ordinance.

Attorney Dennis McCarthy, representing City Center Development, stated

Mr. Charlie Schmehl stated good evening. He stated that he will make this

brief. The draft amendment is intended to provide for development that

recreates some of the best features in older neighborhoods. It promotes

neighborhoods with sidewalks, with street trees, with buildings relatively

close to the street, pedestrian entrances close to the street. A lot of

emphasis on making the development transit friendly, bicycle friendly, and

pedestrian friendly. The mix of uses that is proposed in all likelihood, there

is not a strong market for a large amount of commercial. That is most likely

to happen closer to Hanover Avenue and mainly will be for local needs.

There is a proposal in the draft Ordinance to allow for some flex space,

food processing and things of that nature, but that is limited to a maximum

of five percent of the property and the way it is written that would only really

occur on River Drive, pretty much completely separate from the rest of the

project. At least 35 percent of the tract would have to be preserved as an

open space with trails and there is work with the Wildlands Conservancy to

work on how to properly design and manage those areas. The project is

likely to take at least 10 years to buildout. There is time to workout any

issues as far as the services. The project is estimated to generate

substantial tax revenue to the city and school district which should offset

any additional services that are needed. He stated that is an overview of

the main points. He stated that he is going to turn it over to Robert now.

Mr. Robert DiLorenzo, City Center, stated good evening and he believes

they may have a presentation shared on the monitor. Just in case, he will

do a handout for them as well. he briefly took them through the Conceptual

Plan. Again, just to reiterate, this Conceptual Plan that is really an

interpretation of how the frame work of the Ordinance, a vision of how it can

come together. This plan is really a result of a year long process of working

collaboration with the city of Allentown staff as well as eastside Allentown

community stakeholders. This plan that is before you is first actually shared

at the Eastside Youth Center back in August of this year where City Center

hosted an Open House Event to solicit feedback from the surrounding

communities to hear their ideas, create an atmosphere to ask questions,

and really hear what the community is looking for in this development. He

stated that what he will start with is the first slide is really an overview of

giving context where the property sits within the city. The property is less

than a 10 minute drive from downtown Allentown, to downtown Bethlehem.

It is located along the Hanover Avenue corridor and sits on the north bank

of the Lehigh River. It is in a great location for easy access to transit with

LANTA and a high speed line that runs on Hanover Avenue. Another great

positive thing about this site is that it is the largest undeveloped site in the

city of Allentown. When they talk about urban infill, it surely is an infill site

which there is a lot of environmental benefits that come from not having to

develop much parcel in create more urban sprawl. The next slide depicts

the existing land uses that surround the property. They have a large

residential neighborhood to the western side of the property, strong retail

corridor along Hanover Avenue to the north as well as another residential

neighborhood over on to the eastside of the property. There are a few civic

uses that are close adjacency of the property. The Eastside Youth Center

as well as the Community Services for Children. When starting to think

about some of the uses, they take the existing neighborhoods and existing

land uses and context to make sure that whatever is proposed on this site

is going to be complimentary to those land uses around them. He is

thinking about a residential neighborhood and they want to make sure

whatever is proposed is adjacent to that neighborhood is complimentary

and something that would be seen as a positive addition to the

neighborhood. He stated that the next slide is just an overview of some of

the typography on the site to show some of the natural characteristics of the

existing site. The site is on top of a ridge along the Lehigh River. There is

quite a variety of slopes on the property. This image depicts in red all of

the slopes that are in access of 35 percent. In developing a property when

you are dealing with steep slopes is a challenge and constraints that they

have to work with and in some way dictate what they are capable of doing

on this site. That can dictate locations of buildings. location of roadways

that gets put in. That is just something to take into account and they are on

top of a ridge so another thing to think about is shallow bedrock. It is just

another constraint that they will work through in the development process.

Some of those things help dictate the Plan, the Conceptual Plan that you

see on the fourth slide. On this slide, this is the layout of the overall

Conceptual Master Plan. As far as overall uses, there are a variety of

healthcare, education, neighborhood retail, senior living, a variety of

housing types that really encompasses everything from a single family

home, townhome, to garden style walkup apartments, to multi-family

apartments. They are really at the point where they are exploring all

housing options. They are really trying to target what they are calling and

referring to is the missing middle. Housing for the middle income part of

the demographic and options for both potentially ownership as well as

rental options. They look at eastside Allentown and refer to a lot of

documents and they know the city of Allentown is currently in the process of

their Community Health Assessment. It is going to be concluded next year.

They are working on a Housing Strategy that will be concluded next year.

There was a Real Estate Market Analysis that was done back in 2020,

conducted by Michael Baker that had a lot of great information that they

used. Data in there that they used to help guide some of our thinking on the

Concepts here. All those documents as they become available, they are

going to use those to help guide their planning, their thinking, and what the

community is looking for. They think that this Plan here, they got a lot of

great feedback when they had their open house event on this Plan from the

surrounding community. Some of the things like healthcare for example,

they see a need in eastside Allentown for healthcare options there aren't

any convenient healthcare options in close proximity in the community,

especially when thinking about outpatient care so they have some of that

built into here. Education is an important aspect that the eastside is

working through. There are options for educational uses here as well.

They really think the importance of preservation of open space, recreation,

opportunity for walkability. Those are all the things that have been baked

into this Plan. The next slide is just an overview, starting to think about

traffic distribution. They think there could be an opportunity to extend

Wahneta Street through the site. This will allow them to have two really

primary thoroughfares coming and going from the site. One currently

roughly where the main entrance is the State Hospital where you kind of

head up the main drive and a potential for another thoroughfare coming in a

little further down Hanover Avenue at the intersection of Wahneta Street.

This will allow traffic distribution if you headed towards downtown, west or

east to Bethlehem. This will help distribute traffic and they also see

opportunities to tie in to some of the existing street grid over along

Hamilton, Walnut, Union, and Fairview there coming off Jerome Street.

The next slide is just an overview that really projecting that 42 percent of the

existing site is a 195 acre site. About 42 percent of that will either be

preserved space, recreational space, or open space. That is a really

significant thing. They are working on wanting to put together a

Conservation Easement with the Wildland's Conservancy to preserve

roughly around 70 acres of land along the south ridge of the property. You

are looking at opportunities to implement Trailways there. They think that is

really important for the success of the project. The next slide just show an

overview of the building typology that is current laid out in this Plan. To give

them a sense of the different types of building uses and the last slide is just

a breakdown, starting to begin to show some of the land uses by acreage

and how they will come together. He stated that is a really quick flyby

version of this, but he is happy to take any questions and provide more

details that Council may like to know. Thank you.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks thanked Mr. DiLorenzo.

Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach asked should she asked questions now or wait until the

regular meeting since this is more for the public.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated that will be appropriate.

Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated to wait for the regular meeting.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated anybody who has questions from the dais. He

asked if there were any other comments the public wishes to make at this

time. He stated that again, you will have a second opportunity to do that

when it is on Council's Agenda tonight. He stated at this time this matter is

now closed. The record is closed and the matter will be deliberated at the

regular Council meeting following shortly from now tonight.

15-6347

Bill 93

AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN TO AMEND THE

ZONING ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF ALLENTOWN TO ADD A NEW

SECTION THAT WOULD ESTABLISH A NEW “MIXED USE OVERLAY”

ZONING DISTRICT, AND THAT WOULD APPLY THIS NEW DISTRICT TO

LAND FORMERLY OCCUPIED BY THE ALLENTOWN STATE

HOSPITAL THAT IS SOUTH OF HANOVER AV., SOUTH OF E. ALLEN

ST., SOUTH OF WAHNETA ST. EXTENDED, GENERALLY EAST OF

MAXWELL ST. EXTENDED, NORTH OF RIVER DR., AND WEST OF

THE CITY OF BETHLEHEM BORDER, AS DEPICTED IN MORE DETAIL

ON AN ATTACHED MAP LABELED “EXHIBIT A”, AND TO ADD

CERTAIN DEFINITIONS.