Report urges municipal alliances
Planning Commission: Could help area avoid being overwhelmed.
If you think warehouse development has gotten out of hand, consider what’s still on the table.
Developers submitted plans for another 11.7 million square feet of warehouses in the Lehigh Valley over the last two years — projects that haven’t yet received official approval.
As it is, the first nine months of 2018 saw 4.9 million square feet of warehouse projects receive municipal approval, more than five times the amount of warehouse space approved dur-
ing all of 2017.
Many of these projects, approved or otherwise, are in rural communities that lack the infrastructure to support the massive facilities being proposed and the caravans of tractor-trailers they will bring.
Making sure that projects only proceed in appropriate locations will require communities to step up their planning efforts, according to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.
“To address this challenge, municipalities will need to coordinate their zoning among themselves to direct these uses to the most appropriate locations,” the commission warned in a new report on development, commuting and equity statistics in the Lehigh Valley.
An audience of elected officials, government bureaucrats and business leaders on Wednesday packed the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas at Steelstacks in Bethlehem for the unveiling of the report called EvoLVe.
The LVPC has made better coordination between municipalities a high priority.
Normally, state law requires municipalities to zone land for every conceivable use; communities that don’t can be forced to allow an unwanted project on any property within its borders. At best, municipalities can steer projects toward specific lots, but they can have little power to deny an unpopular development if it matches the land’s zoning.
Communities can bend the rules, however, by partnering with neighboring municipalities and adopting joint municipal zoning ordinances.
Under these plans, municipalities can bar some types of development from their confines so long as they’re allowed in a partnered community.
Multimunicipal plans exist or are in the works in the Nazareth, Northern Lehigh, East Penn and Slate Belt areas.
“I’m thinking that by 2022, we’ll have at least half the municipalities in the Lehigh Valley in a multimunicipal plan,” said Becky Bradley, the planning commission’s executive director.
If anything begins to slow the development in the next five years, it could be the tightening labor pool.
The region’s unemployment rate has remained steady around 4.5 percent, and warehouse and manufacturing companies are struggling to find workers.
“It’s getting very difficult to find people,” said Jack Pfunder, president and CEO of Manufacturers Resource Center, during a panel discussion at the presentation. “I wouldn’t say we’re desperate, but we’re getting there.”
In recent years, the rise of online retailers has created demand for distribution centers that can quickly deliver goods to large population centers.
The Lehigh Valley, with its easy access to Philadelphia and New York markets and relatively affordable land, has become an ideal spot for them to set up shop. Amazon, FedEx and Walmart, among others, have opened warehouses in the Lehigh Valley in the last three years.
“I did all my shopping from my phone before Thanksgiving. It was fantastic. But we’re the reason we’re seeing all this growth,” Bradley said, referring to new shopping habits.
The online shopping trend has had a withering effect on local retail as well. As major chains like Toys R Us go bankrupt and close shop, new retail space is few and far between, too.
The Lehigh Valley saw just 70,113 square feet of new retail space approved in 2017.
By comparison, 2008 saw about 1 million square feet of new retail space approved in the region.
Among residential development, apartments continue to dominate the market.
Unlike the spartan apartments entering the market a decade ago, the new ones are priced and marketed at middle class families who can afford to pay $1,200 or more in rent each month.
Amenities like stainless steel appliances, pools, barbecue grills and communal gyms are common features, Bradley said.
2017 marked at least the fourth straight year that the Lehigh Valley has approved more apartment units than it has single family units, according to the report.
While the LVPC expects single family housing units to rebound, the question will be at what price.
An inventory shortage helped push the median house price to a record high $225,000 this summer. While prices have since fallen, lower-income families still face difficulties entering into the market.
“While development of suburban single-family detached housing should gradually rise again, the challenge will be to offer housing that is affordable to mid-market buyers,” the report read.
“The need for affordable housing, coupled with the lifestyle preferences of empty-nesters and a younger generation of buyers should spur new types of residential development that combine the amenities of traditional suburbs with conveniences and connectivity of more urban living.”