Bethlehem OKs student housing limits for sake of South Side neighborhoods

Bethlehem City Council approved a new student housing overlay district that council members say will protect South Side neighborhoods by restricting new student housing to areas bordering Lehigh University.

The district would be on the northeast and northwest sides of the university’s campus, bordered on the west side by Eighth Street to the south, Hess Street to the west and Cress Street to the north; and on the east side by Thomas Street to the south, Pierce Street to the east and Morton Street to the north.

It would also limit housing to five students per residence in those districts, while three students per residence would be allowed in the central commercial and limited commercial districts to the north of campus. Outside of these areas, city officials recommend only two college students be allowed in a dwelling unit.

Landlords who already operate student housing in those districts could continue to do so as long as they maintain their annual licenses with the city.

City officials worked for several years with South Side community organizations, property owners and landlords to prepare the zoning after fielding concerns about how student housing is impacting local neighborhoods.

The ordinance was unanimously approved Tuesday night with nodiscussion.

The council also unanimously voted down a proposed overlay district that would have allowed a 31,000-square-foot grocery store at a five-acre parcel owned by developer Abe Atiyeh at Center and Dewberry streets.

The property’s institutional zoning allows for uses like medical, health and educational facilities. Grocery stores are not allowed.

At their Jan. 14 meeting, city planners voted unanimously to recommend City Council not approve the proposed overlay. The use of an overlay in a zoning ordinance is typically used sparingly and only in specific cases, according to planning documents.

A similar overlay exists on land abutting Lehigh University, including Farrington Square, where it was intended to create a transition between the university and surrounding neighborhood.

The overlay is appropriate to expand commercial opportunities abutting the commercial business zone. The site at Center and Dewberry streets is not near other commercial areas, however, and the overlay would not provide any transitional purpose, according to city planning documents.

Atiyeh has tried for more than a decade to develop the site, including proposals for an assisted living facility, apartment complex, drug treatment center and psychiatric hospital.

Most recently, a panel of Commonwealth Court judges overturned Bethlehem’s rejection of the psychiatric hospital, saying the city’s zoning hearing board erred when it defined the facility proposed for 1838 Center St. as a treatment center, which is not permitted by the institutional zoning. Atiyeh has said that the ruling means he can proceed with developing the facility, but he will need an updated marketing study first.

Atiyeh did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, but said afterward that he was not surprised by the decision.

“Right now I’m aggressively pursing the psych hospital option,” Atiyeh said.