A change to the boundary of the Centre Park Historic District will remove a vacant lot on Thorn Street from the district, clearing the way for its use as a parking lot.<\/p>\n
City Council recently passed the measure 6-1 with Council President Donna Reed voting no.<\/p>\n
Council\u2019s decision advances development of the property behind 730 N. Third St. as a parking lot for the Platinum Bar, 220 Douglass St.<\/p>\n
Officials said the change is one of several conditions tied to a land development plan previously approved by the city\u2019s planning commission.<\/p>\n
During a lengthy discussion at an earlier committee of the whole meeting, Reed said removing part of the property from the historic district would set a troubling precedent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re opening a can of worms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The vacant lot, also identified as 743 Thorn St., should first be legally separated from the North Third Street property, Reed said, noting that would reduce the risk of future legal challenges.<\/p>\n
Councilman O. Christopher Miller echoed those concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the issue about the parking,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019s the fact that you\u2019re taking one property in a historic district and saying that part of it can be in the historic district and part of it can be out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recognizing the portion along Thorn Street as a separate parcel rather than the rear of the North Third Street property would preserve the integrity of the historic district while still allowing the business to use the lot, he said.<\/p>\n
Reed recommended deferring a decision to allow further evaluation. However, Councilman Jaime Baez Jr. and others objected, noting the owner had followed the city\u2019s approval process and invested significant money to solve neighborhood parking concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that we should table this,\u201d Baez said. \u201cThe business owner isn\u2019t asking anything of us. They\u2019re investing and they\u2019re finding a solution to a challenge that neighbors mentioned \u2014 that they don\u2019t have enough parking \u2014 by providing parking to their patrons.\u201d<\/p>\n
The discussion shifted after council solicitor Michael Gombar reviewed county property records and found the parking lot already had its own parcel number and Thorn Street address.<\/p>\n
Miller said the clarification addressed his reservations about splitting a single property between two regulatory categories.<\/p>\n
Councilman Raymond Baker said he also shared concerns about preserving historic districts but concluded the vacant parcel was well suited for parking.<\/p>\n
A city official said the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission must certify historic district boundary changes that add properties to a district, but state certification is not required to remove a property.<\/p>\n
Before the vote, Platinum Bar owner Raul Tolentino urged council to approve the ordinance.<\/p>\n
Speaking through Baez as an interpreter, Tolentino said he spent two years and significant money to create an off-street parking lot that will ease neighborhood parking problems.<\/p>\n
He also questioned why the city would continue to place obstacles in the project\u2019s path.<\/p>\n
The parking lot has been controversial for years.<\/p>\n
Neighbors have argued that additional off-street parking would intensify the bar\u2019s use by bringing more traffic, noise and activity into the residential neighborhood.<\/p>\n
The zoning hearing board rejected a similar proposal in 2023 after finding it could adversely affect neighboring properties and traffic on Thorn Street. The owners returned with a redesigned 18-space plan in 2025, which the board approved with conditions.<\/p>\n
Before construction can begin, the owner must still satisfy planning commission conditions and obtain council approval to remove on-street parking on Thorn Street for driveway access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A change to the boundary of the Centre Park Historic District will remove a vacant lot on Thorn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-258937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258937","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=258937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}