BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A Philadelphia company that helped the city with housing analysis services in its Eastern Gateway Project study now will key in on an area of Northeast Bethlehem in a similar fashion.
City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved $25,000 for 4Ward Planning to conduct a market study and strategy for the Stefko-Pembroke neighborhood, highlighting demand there for affordable, market-rate rental and for-sale housing.
Any potential new-home construction as part of the project wouldn’t begin for at least five years.Bethlehem officials
Of that money, $20,000 will be a city match and the other $5,000 will come from a previously approved U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant.
Last year, the city got $500,000 from HUD as part of a Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant to kick off the brainstorming process of revitalizing the Stefko-Pembroke neighborhood.
That included Pembroke Village public housing property overseen by the Bethlehem Housing Authority.
That could include demolishing nearly 200 homes in Pembroke Village, replacing them with mixed-income units and potentially adding other services in the area, such as grocery stores and day care facilities.
The geographic focus area for the work includes the area south and east of Stefko Boulevard, west of Livingston Street and the city limits, north of the Lehigh River and north of Pembroke Road.
It ultimately could affect more than 4,200 residents, the city and its partners announced in November.
Bethlehem was among 14 communities nationwide to get such a grant, which kicked off a two-year planning process that could lead to future implementation funding of up to $50 million.
Any potential new-home construction as part of the project wouldn’t begin for at least five years, officials have said.
A two-phase approach
The services approved Tuesday would include two phases, as listed in a May letter from city Business Manager Tiffany Wismer to council members.
The first phase calls for “a general overview of the demand for market-rate and affordable housing within the Pembroke Neighborhood to include information as to the current number of various types of multi-family and single-family rental and for-sale units, current values and rents, general estimates of demand, and known and anticipated estimates of emerging supply.”
“The strategy should help to establish the number and mix of units that could be built on the sites and should include forecast absorption for various mixes of unit sizes and rents."Bethlehem Business Manager Tiffany Wismer, in a letter to City Council
The second phase would take the first into account and tie in the mixed-income redevelopment of the Pembroke Village neighborhood and other “opportunity sites.”
Those units could include market-rate, affordable and replacement public housing, Wismer said.
“The strategy should help to establish the number and mix of units that could be built on the sites and should include forecast absorption for various mixes of unit sizes and rents,” Wismer wrote in the letter.
“The strategy should also include recommendations for supportive retail or service uses that could be included as part of the project.”
Broader citywide initiative
With relevant data from its citywide housing study currently in hand, the city making this move is saving about half of what the cost would’ve been otherwise if that leg work wasn’t completed beforehand, according to Community and Economic Development Director Laura Collins.
Collins also said the city needs additional analysis and work done that’s more specific to the neighborhood area in question.
“We’re utilizing data from the Opening Doors plan and work that was already done, and then we’re building upon that to meet the requirements of HUD for the specific market study that’s required by HUD for this grant,” Collins said.
“I’m just, bottom line, trying to be fiscally conservative."Bethlehem City Councilwoman Grace Cramspie Smith
Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith asked if further consultation on such matters was needed, since the city had so much data at its disposal from the Opening Doors strategy.
“I’m just, bottom line, trying to be fiscally conservative,” Cramspie Smith said.
The action in question is part of the grant criteria that the study is completed and is required by the federal government for the city to have a shot at further funding, according to Mayor J. William Reynolds.
