After four hearings, Atiyeh senior care complex gets conditional OK

By Kayla Dwyer

It was no small feat for Lower Macungie Township commissioners to come to their 4-1 vote Thursday allowing developer Abe Atiyeh’s proposed senior care center to proceed, with 14 conditions.

During the first three months of the year they held four public hearings, each lasting several hours as nearly three dozen members of the public gave testimony. Neighbors of the 15-acre parcel on Hillview Road, where Atiyeh’s Abra Development proposes building two three-story buildings and a clubhouse, have repeatedly objected with traffic and stormwater concerns.

They crowded South Whitehall Township meetings, too, because the original plan spanned both townships. Traffic concerns were enough to sway South Whitehall commissioners, who had legal standing to deny Atiyeh the chance to build on their land because he needed a zoning change.

Lower Macungie commissioners faced a much higher legal standard: Their portion of the land is zoned to allow the development as a conditional use.

“Tonight’s decision has not been an easy one for me to make,” Commissioner Ronald R. Beitler said, noting that the conditions attached to the approval address many pressing concerns of neighbors and that denying the conditional use would almost certainly mean an expensive court battle. “All I can do from here on when I vote yes is, we will be watching closely and make sure Mr. Atiyeh lives up to all his promises.”

Atiyeh’s plan is a “life care center” with 86 units each of independent living and personal care residences, a 5,400-squarefoot clubhouse and walking trails that, according to the commissioners’ conditions, will be open to the public.

The idea behind the original project, called “Macungie Manor” and calling for a one-story memory care facility on the 4-acre South Whitehall portion, was a “continuum of care” that would allow Lower Macungie seniors to stay in the township for the rest of their lives, Atiyeh has said.

Atiyeh owns five other senior care complexes in the Lehigh Valley, under the umbrella “Manors of the Valley.” Despite not being able to build the third residential building, Atiyeh said he still believes this will be his best-located “Manor” yet, near many amenities and the large Lehigh Valley Health Network complex.

Following the vote, Atiyeh expressed relief after a long journey to this point — and confirmed commissioners’ suspicions that he was likely to take them to court if they voted against him.

“We were prepared for a court challenge,” he said.

Commissioner Ronald W. Beitler, the board president, reminded residents that they can appeal the commissioners’ decision within 30 days if they think the board has erred. But he also assured them that the project was a long way away from being finalized, as it now heads to the land development stage.

“This is just one step in a very long process,” he said.

The conditions address a slew of concerns, notably stormwater runoff by requiring that no runoff goes into abutting residential neighborhoods. The project must also have a green buffer on all sides except the border with I-78; a revised traffic impact study; and must include “Lower Macungie Township” in signage and marketing materials.

Atiyeh said he’ll likely call it “Manor at Lower Macungie.”

In dissenting, Commissioner Richard Ward said he took issue with the project being labeled a “life care facility.”

“In my eyes I don’t see where that’s valid,” he said.

Morning Call reporter Kayla Dwyer can be reached at 610-820-6554 or at kdwyer@ mcall.com.