{"id":157386,"date":"2026-04-04T20:40:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157386\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T20:40:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:40:29","slug":"housing-proposals-for-bethlehem-restaurant-former-nightclub-properties-move-ahead-bethlehem-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157386\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing proposals for Bethlehem restaurant, former nightclub properties move ahead | Bethlehem Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bethlehem-pa.gov\/calendar-planning-zoning\/Meetings\/2025\/Planning-Commission\/Planning-Commission-7-10-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bethlehem Planning Commission<\/a>\u00a0approved land development plans for two projects Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>The first project was proposed for 934-946 Evans St.\u00a0\u2014 site of the former Casa Blanca Nightclub\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and 1004 Evans St.<\/p>\n<p>The applicant was looking for a lot consolidation to pave the way for a 37-apartment housing project.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 37 apartments, seven have two bedrooms, 29 have one bedroom and one is a studio, said David Hitzel of HH Evans St. LLC. Additionally, a parking lot with 40 spaces is planned for 1004 Evans St.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Evans Street lot, the apartment building lot will have 10 parking spaces, two of which are Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant, Hitzel said.<\/p>\n<p>There would be an entrance from Ridge Street to the apartments and an exit onto State Street.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the body approved waivers related to buffer yards and landscaping percentage, which was under the city&#8217;s 10% requirement, at 9%.<\/p>\n<p>The variances were approved in a joint measure by the planning commission.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the body approved the land development application, including a lot consolidation, contingent upon the applicant meeting the conditions of the city&#8217;s review letter.<\/p>\n<p>The measure also solidifies via covenant designating 1004 Evans St. as a parking lot for 934-946 Evans St., per a previous decision by the city&#8217;s zoning hearing board.<\/p>\n<p>Retro Burger property<\/p>\n<p>Planners also approved a land development plan for Retro Burger at 1223 W. Broad St.<\/p>\n<p>Offered by restaurateur Juan Carlos Paredes on behalf of West Broad LLC, the applicant proposes to remove the former drive-thru and construct a two-story elevated addition containing six multi-family dwellings, four two-bedroom and two one-bedroom units.<\/p>\n<p>Architect Karen Andrews presented on the project, which initially included a 40-seat seasonal dining area above the one-story existing structure. That dining area is no longer included in the new plans.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the project received positive marks from the planning commission members.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the right place for this project,&#8221; Malozi said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s good to see investment made in existing property,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The project met all conditions for building height, impervious surface coverage and parking, officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 The Bethlehem Planning Commission\u00a0approved land development plans for two projects Thursday night. The first project&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,629,71310,71308,71312,69669,71309,28,40154,71311],"class_list":{"0":"post-157386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-bethlehem-planning-commission","12":"tag-casa-blanca-nightclub","13":"tag-david-hitzel","14":"tag-hh-evans-st-llc","15":"tag-juan-carlos-paredes","16":"tag-karen-andrews","17":"tag-pennsylvania","18":"tag-retro-burger","19":"tag-west-broad-llc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157386","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=157386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}