BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Whether a New Jersey developer will get a zoning variance to build more than 300 apartments on Hanover Avenue was unanswered after a 5 1/4-hour Bethlehem City Council hearing Tuesday.
The marathon hearing was suspended with additional questions by city council, public comment and closing statements by the developer yet to be heard.
No date and time to resume the hearing was set.
City Council reviewed a curative amendment petition by developer BAHX LLC of Morris County, New Jersey regarding the zoning ordinance that limits to 180 feet the width of apartments in a Commercial Limited district.
“We believe it should be treated as equally as the other districts."James F. Preston, legal counsel, BAHX LLC
BAHX proposes building 317 apartments at more than 180 feet in length in a Commercial Limited district at 2300 Hanover Ave.
A curative amendment lets a landowner challenge a municipality's zoning ordinance on the basis that it doesn't provide for all uses or for a reasonable share or mix of a specific use or uses, and suggest a “cure” as an amendment to the zoning ordinance.
The cure may be accepted, revised or rejected.
City Council must render its decision within 45 days of the conclusion of the hearing.
James F. Preston, legal counsel for BAHX, addressed city council, alleging a particular section of the zoning amendment is not lawful.
“It violates our Constitutional rights,” Preston said. “It’s not that this provision prohibits any and all buildings of 180 feet; it only prohibits apartments from exceeding 180 feet, is discriminatory and serves no valid basis.”
Project details
The BAHX plan calls for 317 apartments and 550 parking spaces in a four-building development spanning an 8.74-acre tract. The complex is proposed to stand five stories, the maximum allowed.
The property would straddle the border of Bethlehem and Allentown, with mostly apartment units in Bethlehem and mostly parking on the Allentown side.
BAHX plans to consolidate four tax parcels — 2235 W. Broad St.; 2220 W. Florence St.; 2211 W. Broad St.; and 2300 Hanover Ave. — into one for the proposed four buildings.
The largest building is proposed to be 286 feet. BAHX calls for leeway of more than 100 feet to the zoning ordinance provision.
Preston presented experts to try to illustrate a conflict in the zoning ordinance.
BAHX witness Kevin Fruck of Countrywide Engineering provided details of exhibits showing a number of different developments — a supermarket, an office complex, a shopping center — on the proposed site that would be significantly larger than the apartments in question, but allowed to be built.
Tristan Benedict, an architect from Alloy5, described two buildings that would be constructed on the proposed site. One was a 220-foot office building, the other apartments of a similar length.
“What are the functional differences between the two buildings?” Preston asked.
“One is an apartment, the other is not,” Benedict said.
“And the apartments are not allowed under the zoning ordinance,” Preston said.
'Every other use can be over 180 feet'
Duane Wagner, a representative for BAHX, stated that the plan limited to 180 feet would be a more intense plan for the parcel.
“Are you aware of areas outside of the CL zone where apartments are allowed to be longer than 180 feet?” Preston asked.
“I am,” Wagner said.
Wagner acknowledged other areas in Bethlehem limit apartment lengths to 180 feet.
“Every other use in the zone [except apartments] can be over 180 feet,” he said.
Regarding intensity impact on the community, Wagner argued there is no difference between allowing construction of multifamily dwellings or non-multifamily dwellings.
Thomas J. Comitta, a landscape architect with Thomas Comitta Associates, of West Chester, told council “the curative is to defeat the ordinances, because if we allow others to exceed the ordinances, we also hope to be allowed to exceed those that others enjoy.”
Bethlehem assistant solicitor Matthew Deschler asked Preston if his testimony was that council should not be able to put a cap on building length in the CL district.
“We believe it should be treated as equally as the other districts,” Preston said.
Preston pressed Bethlehem Planning and Zoning Director Darlene Heller on her memo to the planning commission in January 2021 regarding exemptions to parking spaces in the IRR zoning district that should also be allowed in a CB or CL zone.
The suggestion by Preston was that Heller’s comments suggested the 180-foot building length exemption also was being allowed. Heller refuted that suggestion.
Asked by Deschler if there was ever a draft ordinance that included the CL in addition to the CB in a district where there was an exemption to the 180-foot limit for single-family dwellings, Heller simply said, “No.”
'It's all arbitrary to them'
Council members Colleen S. Laird and Grace Crampsie Smith each asked how the 180-foot limit was determined.
Heller said the measurement was in place long before she worked for the city.
“I think the number is very generous, frankly,” she said. “In residential buildings, we want it to be more compact.”
Smith asked Wagner if BAHX might be agreeable to reducing the height.
“Housing in the Lehigh Valley is a major issue,” Wagner said. “Reducing the height would reduce the number of apartments.”
Smith asked Wagner whether the apartments could be considered affordable housing.
“It depends on what you define as affordable housing,” he said, which drew moans from some residents who were present.
Councilman Bryan Callahan suggested that providing zoning relief to let apartments be built would be less intrusive to the area residents than if the land was developed for commercial use, which it is zoned to allow.
“If I was living there, and by not approving this [zoning variance], they could build retail stores, a large restaurant, large buildings, I wouldn’t want that," he said. "That would also create more traffic.
About a dozen residents who oppose the development were in attendance.
Mary Jo Makoul has lived at 449 Grandview Blvd. in Bethlehem since 1987, adjacent to the proposed apartments site.
“This would totally ruin the aesthetics of the neighborhood,” she said. “The apartments would be directly behind my house, within 50 yards.
“Plus, they want to raise the apartments on stilts and put parking underneath. That would raise it to six floors.”
Ryan Hulvat has lived at 2067 W. Broad St., two blocks from the proposed site, for 17 years.
He said the developer considers the zoning arbitrary because they don’t live near it.
“They have lawyers to litigate because they want this in our neighborhood even though we don’t want it,” Hulvat said. “These are our homes. The quality of life, the nuisance — it's all arbitrary to them.”
