Bethlehem Council rejects zoning change for controversial apartment complex

Bethlehem City Council has rejected a developer’s requests to adjust zoning to make way for an apartment complex on the city’s far west side.

The body voted 5-0 to reject the zoning ordinance amendment offered by BAHX LLC at the end of a special hearing Wednesday evening. Council President Michael Colon recused himself because he received a campaign contribution from Assistant City Solicitor Matthew Deschler, who was arguing the city’s case. Council member Bryan Callahan was absent.

The decision comes a little over three months after hearings started. On April 30, the matter was continued by city Solicitor Stephanie Steward after more than five hours of testimony and questions. It was originally scheduled to resume June 11, but was postponed again.

What happens next to the Hanover Apartments project is up to BAHX, which could appeal the ruling to Lehigh County Court.

The New Jersey developer wants to adjust the city’s zoning ordinance to revise a section that was cited when the developer was denied permission to construct buildings that exceed 180 feet in length in the limited commercial (or CL) zone. It says that the ordinance “arbitrarily and unreasonably restricts the petitioner’s property rights,” is “unduly restrictive and confiscatory” and interferes with property rights “without a rational relation to public safety, health, morals or general welfare.”

The curative amendment petition was first presented March 14 to the city’s planning commission, which passed it along to City Council after a 4-1 vote recommending rejection.

James Preston, an attorney representing the developer, said the amendment is simply replacing the 180-foot limit in CL zones.

“There’s no reason to believe that it opens the door to all sorts of mayhem and mischief,” Preston said in his closing statement.

He said property owners shouldn’t have to go through the zoning hearing board to satisfy a random measurement. In earlier testimony, it was pointed out that no one knows why the limit was set at 180 feet when the ordinance was drafted in 2012.

“Let’s fix the ordinance,” Preston said. “Let’s acknowledge what’s actually happening and remove what I believe is a constitutional defect in the ordinance. A limitation can’t be there just because somebody likes it. Or even thinks it makes pretty buildings. There needs to be some public justification.”

Deschler said that the council shouldn’t just consider where the 180-foot limit comes from.

“What I would suggest is that that’s really not the question to ask,” he said. “We don’t have to go kind of back into the mists of time and try to find out how this particular provision was inserted. Your job here is to determine if it’s rational.”

A city is allowed to limit building lengths, just as it can limit height lengths and the rest, he said. Otherwise, landowners could simply build “Soviet-style” housing blocks.

“All those are rational purposes of a zoning ordinance,” Deschler said.

BAHX submitted plans to build Hanover Apartments, which would consist of four buildings, one at four stories and three at five stories. They would house 317 apartments along with more than 500 parking spaces. About three-quarters of the land sits in Bethlehem, but the other quarter is in Allentown. It shares two addresses: 2300 Hanover Ave. in Allentown and 2235 W. Broad St. in Bethlehem. It was previously occupied by the Bennett Toyota dealership.

Last August, a variance to allow the buildings to be 290 feet long was denied by the zoning hearing board. At that meeting, the board granted the developer relief in allowing it to build the front-most building along West Broad without a first-floor commercial business.

The size of the project has been especially concerning for residents on nearby Grandview Avenue in Bethlehem. That group has been vocal in fighting the project and has been attending hearings in both cities. Six of them attended Wednesday’s hearing.

Resident Mary Jo Makoul had a variety of worries, including privacy in her backyard, increased traffic, stormwater management and housing affordability.

“Please be mindful of the negative impact this project as currently proposed will have on our neighborhood,” she said. “I believe affordable housing should be more family oriented with smaller, more easily maintained homes designed for families with children in massive apartment complexes.”

“I truly believe if this amendment is approved, it will be opening a can of worms for all future development in the CL [zone],” neighbor Terry Kloiber said.

Another resident, Paul Fondl, was especially concerned with traffic, as the complex is planned to be built where Hanover Avenue becomes West Broad Street while intersecting with Club and Eaton avenues.

He said the intersection is already dangerous with a sharp curve and would become more so if the apartments are built along with the planned development at the nearby Allentown State Hospital site.

“Traffic’s heavy and it’s going to get worse,” Fondl said.

Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com .