The Allentown Planning Commission had a short agenda Tuesday \u2014 a single review of a plan for six townhouses in the South Side. \u00a0However, that one item for 401 Harrison St. drew plenty of pushback from neighbors who worried about issues such as parking and flooding.<\/p>\n
Currently a vacant lot that\u2019s used by neighbors for parking, the 16,886-square-foot parcel will be broken up into six lots by developer Sundu Enterprises. The Southside Homes at Harrison will consist of two-story homes with no basements and rear garages with entrances from Pear Street, an alley. Despite the criticisms from neighbors, planners still gave land development approval by a 4-0 vote.<\/p>\n
Planners granted preliminary approval last November with conditions such as staggering the facades and adding lighting. It is a project that initially was approved in 2018, but started over when Sundu acquired the land in 2021 for $1.375 million, according to Lehigh County property records.<\/p>\n
This time around, commission members were concerned about the driveways backing into Pear Street, which is so narrow that vehicles may have trouble turning in and backing out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese individual driveways are essentially 9-feet wide for the individual resident, and they\u2019re perpendicular to an alley that is permanently proposed to be less than 10 feet in width,\u201d noted Chair Christian Brown. \u201cSo I\u2019m wondering if that\u2019s not a realistic turning movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents who have garages in the alley confirmed that getting their cars and trucks into those buildings can be a stressful exercise as they try to avoid hitting their neighbors\u2019 property.<\/p>\n
Others were concerned about already hard-to-find parking along Harrison Street as the loss of the lot and the additional cars from the new development would make it even more difficult for trucks and snow plows to get through.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The lot] is currently utilized as a parking lot by neighbors and households,\u201d said Harrison Street resident Sylvia Yorgey. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason for that. That field is used for parking because parking is a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other big concern was the area\u2019s potential for flooding<\/a>, and several commenters noted that nearby Trout Creek has inundated the neighborhood numerous times over the years.<\/p>\n \u201cAuburn Street gets flooded to the point where we\u2019re stuck in our home on Harrison Street,\u201d said resident Donna Ortwein. \u201cI\u2019m talking like feet of water. I don\u2019t know how you\u2019re going to address that problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown sympathized with the residents, but said that Sundu is using the property lawfully. It was noted that because the project sits in the 100-year floodplain, and not the high-velocity floodway, a hydraulic study mapping exact water displacement is not legally required under current city ordinances.<\/p>\n City Floodplain Manager Hannah Hart said that determination comes from Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines.<\/p>\n Two reviews previously scheduled for the meeting, for a proposed data center<\/a> at 2401 Emmaus Ave. and a seven-story, mixed-use building near the burgeoning riverfront, at 2 Allen St.,<\/a> were delayed. Both projects will receive hearings at a date to be determined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Allentown Planning Commission had a short agenda Tuesday \u2014 a single review of a plan for six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,433,157,182,139,28,432],"class_list":["post-215440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-lehigh-county","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215440","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=215440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}