{"id":287043,"date":"2026-09-16T05:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T05:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287043\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T05:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T05:28:09","slug":"school-district-township-in-northampton-county-begin-hearing-over-zoning-dispute-for-new-school-nazareth-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287043\/","title":{"rendered":"School district, township in Northampton County begin hearing over zoning dispute for new school | Nazareth Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

L. NAZARETH TWP., Pa. \u2013 The Lower Nazareth Township Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night began a curative amendment hearing that, if successful, would benefit the Nazareth Area School District.<\/p>\n

The district’s efforts to build an elementary school on a five-parcel, 43-acre tract near the Hecktown Road and Country Club Road intersection have proved challenging. In May 2025, the district’s school board approved the lot’s purchase for a $1.7 million price tag. However, the land is zoned for agriculture. Last July, township supervisors voted 4-0 to deny the district’s request to rezone the property to allow the facility.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


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

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Lower Nazareth Planning Commission recommended rejecting a curative amendment that would benefit the Nazareth Area School District.<\/p>\n

This led to Tuesday night’s curative amendment appeal. The argument, while multifaceted, could be summarized in that the township’s restrictions where the school district can or cannot locate school district facilities encumbers rights granted to NASD by the Pennsylvania Public School Code.<\/p>\n

Julie Wagner Burkart, an attorney representing the school district, told supervisors the district conducted lengthy research to select the location. She added there are only three zoning districts in the township currently where the school could be built.<\/p>\n

NASD Superintendent Isabel Resende testified how the district came to the conclusion to build the school at the Hecktown Road and Country Club Road intersection. A report authorized by the school district projected population growth. The location of the proposed elementary school would best address that projected growth. Resende testified that NASD considered 32 different properties.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


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

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Nazareth Area School District is preparing to once again make its case for rezoning land in Lower Nazareth Township where it wants to build a new elementary school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cross-examination focused on the study’s validity, conclusions reached from it, and why the district selected the site it did. The superintendent acknowledged the district was aware when they acquired the property that it was not zoned for a school and that the township indicated to the district in written documentation they would not change the zoning to accommodate NASD.<\/p>\n

Matthew Deschler, an attorney representing the township, noted Tuesday night that sound planning principles were utilized to establish the zoning laws and that they should not be discarded easily to benefit NASD. He added that the Pennsylvania Public School Code does not allow school districts to build schools wherever they want.<\/p>\n

The district currently has three elementary schools which, according to the district, had 97% of their capacity being utilized. Further, NASD projects an additional 502 students will join the district by 2034.<\/p>\n

The hearing will resume next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"L. NAZARETH TWP., Pa. \u2013 The Lower Nazareth Township Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night began a curative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,30212,16167,55637,119494,119493,23820],"class_list":["post-287043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-elementary-school","tag-lower-nazareth-township","tag-nazareth-area-school-district","tag-pennsylvania-public-school-code","tag-school-construction","tag-zoning-dispute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287043","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=287043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}