Lehigh Valley municipalities agree to share zoning

Plan will help protect townships against legal challenges

For a handful of Lehigh Valley boroughs and townships, it’s all for one and one for all.

Hanover Township of Lehigh County has agreed to join Catasauqua, North Catasauqua and East Allen Township in a regional comprehensive plan that will allow each participating municipality to share zoning to the benefit of all.

Council on Wednesday agreed to enter the intermunicipal agreement to form the River Central Area Multi-Municipal Plan, to be prepared by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission with input from all four stakeholders.

The board also agreed to the scope of services to be provided by the LVPC, including cost of participation, and to advertise a slate of meeting dates through September 2020.

Each municipality will put up $19,250 toward the $92,000 overall cost of the plan, with the LVPC chipping in the remaining $15,000.

Hanover’s cost will be applied to its 2020 budget, township Manager Christopher Garges told council.

Meetings will be held at 6 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month and will rotate among the four municipalities.

The kickoff is scheduled for Sept. 17 at Hanover Council Chambers, 2202 Grove Road, Allentown.

Three members per municipality will be expected to attend the monthly meetings, with at least one council member and planning commission member, along with the township/ borough manager.

Shared zoning among neighboring municipalities represents a means of safeguarding each from legal challenges, Garges said.

Hanover, he pointed out, “has an airport and an abundance of retail,” which would absolve the other members in the River Central arrangement from having to provide them in their zoning.

Conversely, he said, the township is short on open space and available land to provide parks, and would be protected by shared zoning with, for example, East Allen Township, which has no such constraints.

East Allen is facing a curative amendment challenge from The Rockefeller Group regarding a 155-acre parcel on Weaversville Road that is zoned for agricultural use.

Rockefeller contends that while the township’s ordinance has zoning for warehouses, it doesn’t provide for a logistics center, a large-scale warehouse with multiple tenants, thus the need in their estimation for a zoning change.

Two other municipalities in the Lehigh Valley, Forks and Upper Saucon townships, are also facing curative amendment challenges.

Kevin Duffy is a freelance writer for The Morning Call.