Vote on Martin Tower zoning changes postponed again
Still concerned about parking, Bethlehem City Council on Tuesday night yet again postponed a vote on zoning amendments at the Martin Tower property, and later this month it will consider a proposal that would place a cap on the number of parking spaces allowed at the site.
Once home to the 21-story corporate headquarters of Bethlehem Steel, the latest proposal for the property includes plans for at least two medical offices, a grocery store, a 130-room hotel, restaurants, retail and 300 apartments on the largest undeveloped parcel of land in the heart of the city.
Council members particularly took issue with the request for more parking. To minimize parking lots alongside major roads, current zoning limits development to one driving aisle and one row of parking spaces between a commercial building and the curb.
Council member Michael Colon proposed an ordinance that would loosen the restriction to allow two driving aisles and four rows of parking spaces at the site. It was decided Tuesday night that postponing a vote until the June 15 meeting will give City Council time to review the proposal.
If the ordinance is approved, it must also be advertised and go before Bethlehem and Lehigh Valley planners again. City officials anticipated that could add another two months to the approval process.
One of the issues City Council had with the original proposal is that property owners Lewis Ronca and Norton Herrick of SWB LR, Ltd, 8th and Eaton Holdings LP, did not specify how many additional rows of parking they want.
The developer has argued that existing parking rules create poor vehicle flow around the medical offices and would require parking behind the buildings, creating access issues for patients, some of whom are elderly and would have trouble walking.
“Two drive aisles and four rows of parking is something that works based on the project in front of you, so if that’s something you and your fellow council members would consider, we would be in favor of that,” said Duane Wagner, director of land development and planning for the property owners.
The decision to table and consider an amended parking ordinance was approved 6-1, with council member Paige Van Wirt casting the lone dissenting vote.
“This is a hardship that’s self-imposed,” Van Wirt said, suggesting the developer go before the Bethlehem Zoning
Hearing Board for a variance.
Van Wirt said she believes there is a risk of spot-zoning if city officials were to amend the zoning to appease the end-users of the proposed medical buildings.
City solicitor John Spirk warned that council must consider the needs of the whole property when deciding whether to amend the zoning.
“If you’re talking about zoning for a specific end-user, the risk is you might not get that end-user,” he said.
On the other hand, if council is looking at the entire property and saying that the ordinance as currently written might make it difficult for the elderly and handicapped to get into the buildings, then that wouldn’t be considered spot-zoning.
“I winced a bit because it’s not what the courts want us to do. They want us to zone with the whole property in mind, not who the end user might be because we can’t control that,” Spirk said.
Council member Bryan Callahan noted the 53-acre Martin Tower site is the only property in the city with office-mixed use zoning, so he does not think changing the parking there would be “caving in” to a single developer.
He worried that delaying a vote on the project over parking would make the developer pull out, causing city officials to lose out on an estimated $2.7 million in local real estate taxes.
Bethlehem planners recommended the original proposed zoning changes at their March 12 meeting.
The latest plan for the property shows 10 buildings. It reduces the number of apartments from 528 units to about 300.
The plan also includes two three-story medical offices and a 31,000-square-foot grocery store along Eighth Avenue. There’s a three-story professional building along Eaton Avenue, a one-story office building and 130-room hotel. There will be two restaurants, a gas station and convenience store on the southwest corner of the property.
Developers also want to make the east leg of a three-way intersection on Eighth Avenue connected to CVS and St. Luke’s medical buildings into a four-way intersection. It would provide direct access from Eighth Avenue to the proposed medical office buildings. The development of the signalized intersection is meant to prevent multiple uncontrolled access points from the main road.
The developer previously said construction could start by the end of the year.