{"id":196573,"date":"2026-05-19T11:17:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/196573\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:17:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:17:43","slug":"proposed-zoning-changes-support-residential-nightclub-development-in-downtown-reading-reading-area-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/196573\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed zoning changes support residential, nightclub development in downtown Reading | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

READING., Pa. \u2013 Reading City Council held an evidentiary public hearing Monday night to hear about proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance to reduce red tape for residential and business development in two zoning districts.<\/p>\n

The amendments<\/a> would make adaptive reuses for residential purposes and the location of taverns\/nightclubs by-right uses in the C-C Commercial Core and M-C Manufacturing Commercial zoning districts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City Planner Emily Diaz-Melendez explained that the city wants to remove some roadblocks to property owners along the main corridor in the downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, they would have to go through a zoning hearing to get approved for residential housing units on the upper floors,\u201d Diaz-Melendez said. \u201cAnd so we want to remove that burden, especially with the new downtown housing grant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, council approved a pilot program to issue grants to owners of properties in the 200 through 500 blocks of Penn Street to help convert underutilized spaces on the upper floors into residential units.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Diaz-Melendez added that the planning staff concluded that the downtown areas are the only common-sense place to have the uses of taverns and nightclubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re still going to need all of the oversight, all of those permits and things like that,\u201d she added. \u201cThis is just allowing the use in the most common-sense place to put it, especially with all the issues that we’re having with after-hours clubs in the basements of random places.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Community Development Director David Barr told council that one of his objectives since being named to his position is to create economic development in the downtown by creating the favorable conditions for development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those (ideas) is to allow adaptive reuse by right in the M-C and C-C districts,\u201d Barr said. \u201cMany of these old, vacant, sometimes blighted factory buildings that we have, really have no future other than loft-style apartments.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet’s allow that to happen without a lot of bureaucracy,\u201d Barr added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n \"Reading
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reading City Council voted a new ordinance into effect, aiming to prevent an issue they say has sparked a great deal of violence in the city.<\/p>\n

Planning Director Simon Wangolo said the proposed amendments will help to create an active downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to promote active ground-floor commercial (spaces), and we would like to increase residential density and also introduce the culture of entertainment and cultural activities,\u201d Wangolo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Councilmember Chris Miller asked if anyone had given any thought to the quality of life for residents living above businesses, especially nightclubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Diaz-Melendez said she would like to assume that the property owners would keep in mind the residents as they design the units.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, they want the tenants there and they want to utilize their building, and so I would like to assume that these property owners are going to do everything in their power to make sure that it’s a harmonious relationship,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Council plans to vote on the proposed ordinance with the zoning amendments at either the May 26 or June 8 regular meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING., Pa. \u2013 Reading City Council held an evidentiary public hearing Monday night to hear about proposed amendments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1089,2001,22184,128,1095,130,129,87213,87214,1087],"class_list":["post-196573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-chris-miller","tag-david-barr","tag-emily-diaz-melendez","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-council","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-simon-wangolo","tag-taverns-nightclubs","tag-zoning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196573","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=196573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}