{"id":138177,"date":"2026-03-14T11:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/138177\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T11:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:09:12","slug":"south-whitehall-planners-ok-bank-project-parkland-transportation-center-review-canceled-allentown-area-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/138177\/","title":{"rendered":"South Whitehall planners OK bank project; Parkland transportation center review canceled | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>S. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. \u2013 The South Whitehall Township Planning Commission granted preliminary\/final plan approval for a bank Thursday night at the municipal building.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal, called Chase Bank at Roma, calls for a renovation project at 1603 N. Cedar Crest Blvd., on the southeast corner of the Cedar Crest Boulevard and Walbert Avenue intersection. The plan involves a dumpster addition, sidewalk connection and parking area changes. The 4,129-square-foot building is scheduled for the 1.36 acre lot with 52 parking spaces.<\/p>\n<p>Planners also approved two waivers associated with the project.<\/p>\n<p>Chase has Lehigh Valley branches in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, with another opening in Trexlertown.<\/p>\n<p>Parkland transportation center<\/p>\n<p>In two separate measures involving the Parkland School District, a preliminary\/final land development review and lot consolidation review for a transportation center were canceled.<\/p>\n<p>The district is proposing a new 17,600-square-foot maintenance building and improvements which include a fueling area, a bus wash area, 219 parking spaces for car and van parking, 152 parking spaces for buses, along with a pavement expansion and a driveway connection to Orefield Road. An existing garage will remain although an existing pole barn is slated to be demolished.<\/p>\n<p>The plan includes a lot consolidation of four tracts owned and operated by the district at 4362 and 4434 Orefield Road, 2675 Route 309, and 2619 Stadium Dr.<\/p>\n<p>A November 2025 township engineer review indicated that about 2,500 feet of Stadium Road is proposed to be vacated. The township should &#8220;determine the acceptability of this proposal.&#8221; A public safety commission review also expressed concerns about Stadium Road&#8217;s vacation, which would remove it from South Whitehall ownership. This, the commission said, &#8220;could lead to potential access problems if the school district decided to make future changes to the road or the land adjacent to the road.&#8221; The commission said it would be &#8220;difficult to make recommendations until questions regarding easements and street vacation are clarified.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is preferred Stadium Road continue under township ownership,&#8221; the public safety commission said.<\/p>\n<p>A South Whitehall planning review last November stated that &#8220;staff does not support the request to vacate a portion of right-of-way along Stadium Drive.&#8221; The planning department sought additional information from Parkland School District to ensure clear and adequate perpetual access will be provided to residents along Stadium Drive.<\/p>\n<p>A township zoning officer review dated Oct. 28 also did not support a street recommendation.<\/p>\n<p>St. Joseph the Worker<\/p>\n<p>A consolidation of lots review to install a solar array for St. Joseph the Worker located at 1879 Applewood Dr. was cancelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. \u2013 The South Whitehall Township Planning Commission granted preliminary\/final plan approval for a bank&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,24766,57344,9409,22638,664],"class_list":["post-138177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-chase-bank","tag-land-development","tag-parkland-school-district","tag-planning-commission","tag-south-whitehall-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}