The Downtown Bethlehem Association, an organization tasked with promoting the North Side downtown region of the city, will end its meetings and transfer its responsibilities to various committees in the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce for a one-year trial period.

Proponents of the changes, effective July 1, say it will streamline downtown promotions and allow more people to get involved in events, marketing and beautification in the north downtown region.

But the owner of one of the most prominent downtown Bethlehem businesses and member of the association said he disapproves of the changes and is considering legal action.

The DBA formed in the 1960s, merged under the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce in 1999 and has served since then as an independent council within the chamber.

In April, the association, which consists of three leading “officers” and 13 board members, voted to disband for a year. Meeting minutes and votes from the association are not public, but according to Tammy Wendling, manager of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, a “healthy majority” voted in favor of the restructure.

Neville Gardner, owner of Donegal Square and McCarthy’s Red Stag Pub and Whiskey Bar and a DBA officer, said the change would make the initiative more “grassroots” and encourage more participation. Gardner, who has participated in the DBA on and off for around 30 years, said it can be difficult to get business owners to volunteer their time on the board.

The committee structure would open membership to more than just DBA members — anyone who is a member of the larger Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce could get involved, though the committee will specifically focus on the Main Street region. Committees including marketing and promotions, events, and landscaping and beautification, have already been operating for several months as part of the Bethlehem chamber.

“What brought this move to a head was the fact that we were having difficulty getting people to take a leadership role, and a narrow board of just merchants, so we thought it would be nice to be able to go to a wider audience. The Bethlehem chamber has a lot of people who are very invested in the downtown, but who might work for different companies,” Gardner said. “So I mean really the operation of the organization — it’s just a name, I suppose, we are actually going to step up what were doing, I think, we are going to be able to do a lot more than we are doing.”

The DBA organizes dozens of downtown events every year designed to drive interest in the city’s historic downtown region, including Harvest Fest; restaurant weeks; chocolate, wine and cocktail trails; and Christmas Huts on Main.

Bruce Haines, owner of Hotel Bethlehem, said he fears ending the DBA’s formal operations in the chamber could take away business owners’ control over the events, marketing and communications traditionally handled by the DBA.

“The hotel’s attorney is involved, and so at this point we are … trying to figure out whether there’s a compromise, solution,” Haines said.

Haines, who took over the hotel when it was bankrupt around 25 years ago and revitalized it into a popular destination, said he sees the possible dissolution of the Downtown Bethlehem Association as losing control of Main Street’s “destiny.” He fears that the committees will shift focus away from Main Street, which he sees as the jewel of Bethlehem’s tourism business.

“To be honest with you, I can’t let go,” he said. “I put my heart and soul in bringing back this hotel as the anchor of a great downtown, and I can’t let go of what we’ve accomplished and to fall backward and lose control of our own destiny is very troubling to me.”

According to Wendling, responsibility for the DBA’s events and other initiatives will be transferred to more informal committees that meet once a month. All members of the DBA already are involved in those committees, Wendling said, and the trial period will also add five spots on the chamber’s official board that are open to DBA members.

Operating via these committees should actually return more control to merchants and other businesses, because membership is open to all members of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, with a focus on downtown Main Street businesses, proponents said.

Still, Haines said he fears less of a focus on the city’s historic downtown and what he sees as its many draws — including a recent honor of No. 1 Main Street in America from USA Today, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site status the city achieved last year. He called the chamber a “business-to-business” organization that he said lacks the ability and expertise to specifically market the Main Street region to prospective visitors.

“My concern about losing the DBA and just blending into the whole city is we lose that identity, and that’s why I’m so passionate about this,” Haines said. “We have lost the ability to control our own fate by putting us in the hands of the greater Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce which is a business-to-business organization.”

The changes are largely not public facing. Events will go on as usual, though Wendling said some details still are being worked out — for example, if events like Harvest Fest and Christmas Huts will continue to have the “Downtown Bethlehem Association” label tied to them, or if the event committee charged with organizing them will adopt a new title.

“We are a bottom-up organization,” Wendling said. “We want the merchants to drive this narrative forward, so we are just implementing changes based on what they have wanted, what we have heard expressed by many, and this isn’t so much getting rid of the DBA at all, this is more strengthening their voice and their footprint, and making sure all of our chamber members have the opportunity to support them and we just amplify their voice.”

Committee members will evaluate the changes after the year-long trial period, and hold a vote to either bring back the association or make the new structure permanent, Wendling said.

Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.