The Allentown Zoning Hearing Board unanimously voted Monday to approve a special exception greenlighting the construction of a community center that will replace a century-old Allentown church.
The decision came after two hours of discussion and public comments opposing the project from residents who believed the community center — offering affordable housing units and a homeless drop-in center — would harm the city’s West Park neighborhood.
“I don’t think, based on what I’ve heard this evening, that there’s any legal basis for us to deny the application,” said zoning board member Scott Unger. The community center required an exemption to be built in the residential neighborhood.
The board supported a plan proposed by Ripples Community Co., or RCI, an Allentown-based nonprofit that was granted the land formerly owned by Emmanuel United Church in 2023. The church closed in 2022.
Some residents opposing the community center represented the West Park Civic Association, which has been vocal against the project since it was first proposed. Over a dozen board members of West Park Civic Association penned a letter to the zoning board ahead of Monday’s meeting.
“Changing the rules does not change the facts,” said Ibolya Balog, vice president of the West Park Civic Association. “Placing this facility here will turn our historic neighborhood into a regional magnet for the homeless. The homes most affected belong to first-time minority homeowners, who are my neighbors, whose property values, safety and quality of life will suffer.”
Monday’s vote occurred after Allentown City Council, in June, changed a zoning amendment allowing a community center to serve meals for individuals regardless of age, rather than only senior citizens. The previous amendment was one of the main reasons RCI’s application was denied by the zoning board in 2024.
Allentown Zoning Board member Robert Knauer, just before the vote, said those opposing the project could appeal the board’s ruling.
Most of the attendees, a number as high as over 50 at the start of the meeting, left right after the meeting was adjourned, while a few remained to talk to zoning board members.
“For the short term, we will be forced to put up a security fence,” said Daniel Scott, an objector to the project and a resident of Allentown for over 30 years. Scott said he and his wife are considering leaving the city altogether.
“We never saw a homeless drop-in center as a possibility,” Scott said. “We are not an underserved neighborhood. We are cohesive, diverse, stable, historic, homeowner-dominated neighborhood.”
Blake Henry, who represented RCI, said the nonprofit “has been fighting this fight for three years as well,” believing that RCI attempted to have conversations with West Park Civic Association, and that meetings were “routinely neglected.”
“I would encourage some people to do some better research,” he said, highlighting that the issue of homelessness is not new to Allentown and the surrounding area.
Susan Highet, a Lower Macungie resident who volunteers at RCI, said “there are neighbors everywhere that we don’t necessarily like sometimes,” in response to unsheltered people using the community center. She added it is “in the best interest of all of us that we help those that we can.”
RCI spearheaded the project to help reduce region-wide concerns of homelessness and a lack of affordable housing in the Lehigh Valley. The final decision of the community center lies in the hands of Allentown City Council.
Andreas Pelekis is a freelance writer.