There is an explosion of development occurring in the heart of our Lehigh Valley. Our open fields, lax zoning and planning regulations, and proximity to the big money of New York and Philadelphia beckon to developers of upscale residential, commercial and office space. As part of this wave of development, we become a battleground for the cookie cutter developers of fast food restaurants, supermarkets, superstores, drugstores and home improvement megastores. Everyone needs their share of this market. It is K-mart versus Walmart, McDonald’s versus Burger King, CVS versus Rite Aid and Home Depot versus Lowe’s.

Lowe’s wants its share of our home improvement dollars. Home Depot has two of its 1000 stores in Allentown and at 191 and 22 in Bethlehem Township and Lowe’s want to add to its 683 stores with a couple here in the Lehigh Valley. Joseph Posh, a local developer known for his imaginative and innovative techniques in placing CVS drugstores in every neighborhood of Bethlehem and environs, wants to develop a Lowe’s in a mall along the newly built Route 33 extension at Freemansburg Avenue. Also, developers Jack Loew and Larry Hirshland want to place one of these Lowe’s boxes on Eighth Avenue in Bethlehem at the site of the Durkee Spice plant, a 37 acre lot in the midst of a residential area, near Nitschman Middle School and on a street ill-equipped for the additional thousands of cars daily which the Lowe’s strip mall would add to Eighth Avenue.

The residents of West Bethlehem who would be directly affected by this development have organized an effective citizen lobbying group, NOMALL (Neighborhoods Mobilized to Assure Local Livability), which has exposed the problems this development will cause for all of Bethlehem, and the failures of development planning which have resulted in the pressure to develop this site as a commercial complex. This sited is currently zoned Light Industrial, and was occupied for years by the Durkee Spice plant. In 1996, an Australian-based corporation, Burns Philip Foods, bought the Durkee spice company for less than two million dollars. They closed the local plant and laid off 400 employees working good union jobs. The property has been appraised at $3.5 million for Light Industrial purposes. Burns Philip has insisted on $6 million for the property. Therein lies the genesis of the current struggle.

For one cannot sell a light industrial property at commercial development rates, and Burns Philip’s demands have made this property impossible to market as light industrial. They now seek a zoning change from Bethlehem in their pursuit of the maximum dollar. Over the last 13 months, this battle raged between the would-be Lowe’s Mall developers of the site and the NOMALL citizen’s group. The venues have been the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, the Bethlehem Planning Commission and now, Bethlehem City Council. NOMALL has energized the citizens of West Bethlehem, collected 1000 signatures from the neighborhood, and attended in numbers all the meetings. They have gathered their facts and their arguments, and made comprehensive and effective arguments which presented all the reasons that this is the wrong development, at the wrong place, at the wrong time for all of Bethlehem.

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and Bethlehem Planning Commission gave qualified approvals to the rezoning. They expressed concerns about the traffic problems, and about the proposed size of the project, which initially was to develop 330,000 square feet. The developers therefore reduced their final proposal to 220,000 square feet and took their case to its final arbiter, Bethlehem City Council, which has to amend the zoning from Light Industrial to Commercial Shopping in order for the Lowe’s Mall to proceed. The final plans for the site presented to Council include a Lowe’s Home Center, a department store such as Target, a Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant, and a bank.

On December 12, 2001, the Bethlehem City Council held a public hearing on the rezoning, which lasted from 7:00 PM to 12:30 AM on the thirteenth. Council chambers was packed. In the first two hours of the meeting, the developers presented their plans, with their assurances that the development would be limited to 220,000 square feet on the site. They tried to address some of the legal contradictions involved in their “application”, and promised $800,000 in traffic safety improvements.

After a break, NOMALL presented their arguments. They examined in detail the traffic problems, economic problems, safety problems for students at Nitschman and legal problems. The traffic dangers created by this development would be unacceptable. Ted Morgan, with the help of Gene Mater’s excellent graphics work, demonstrated that numerous intersections in the vicinity would be rated FAIL in terms of traffic safety, even with the improvements proposed. In particular, the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Union Boulevard would need a new lane, which would have to be taken from the side lot at Nitschman School, and which would make that intersection an even more dangerous pedestrian walk. Student safety would be jeopardized. The Eighth Avenue North exit from 378 presents an unsolvable traffic problem, as there is just not enough room for traffic to exit and turn left into the Durkee site. There will be accidents here. This mall would create more traffic on Eighth Avenue than there is on MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township. Eighth Avenue is a street already overburdened by existing traffic.

From a regional standpoint, it is important that we start to recognize that this type of development adds nothing to our economy. The low paying service jobs created by Lowe’s will be at the expense of money taken from local businesspeople and businesses. For Lowe’s will not add money to our economy. The money spent at Lowe’s would have been spent at local stores such as Akroyd’s, Cantelmi’s, or Moyer Lumber. This mall would compete directly with the already struggling Westgate and Lehigh Shopping Centers, as well as with the downtown Bethlehem development just completed at Broad and Main (and largely empty). On the other hand, a light industrial application here would create better paying jobs with benefits, with money rippling through the local economy. Finally, this is a case of a local community being coerced into a land use by a multinational corporation which wants to make a couple million extra from their holding. NOMALL presented these arguments, and more. For a more complete analysis, see their website at www.penweb.org/nomall/ - check the “What Mall? No Mall Document” report presented to the Bethlehem Planning Commission.

Attorney Don Miles pointed out in detail the legal problems in the approach Council was using to address this rezoning. He pointed out that “contract zoning” is not a proper zoning approach. In other words, Council’s job is to decide in principle the best zoning use of this parcel, not to zone to suit a specific “applicant”. He listed numerous specific legal issues that could be raised to invalidate Council’s approval of the rezoning.

The meeting went on till the new day, as resident after resident testified against the rezoning. There were numerous points of view, some passion, some humor, but uniformity in opposition to the Lowe’s mall. No residents testified for this project at this official public hearing on the issue.

The vote on the rezoning was scheduled for last night, January 15. In the face of the well-organized citizen opposition, it appeared that Council was prepared by a narrow margin to not allow the rezoning. Council members Jean Belinski (a staunch and articulate opponent of the rezoning), James Gregory, Magdalena Szabo and Michael Schweder were ready to vote not to rezone. At the last minute, however, Lowe’s pledged to James Gregory that they would use local labor to build the shopping center, and he changed his vote. This writer assumes that local labor means union labor, as Lowe’s is notorious for using non-union labor in both construction and operation of its stores. It is ironic that the decision turned on an issue which has nothing to do with land use, traffic safety, or the long-term economic implications of the project. It turned on a short-term local fix for the local construction unions. As was noted by NOMALL presenter John Gatewood in December, in economic development terms this mall is the equivalent of a sugar donut versus a substantive meal. This was a junk food decision. Will Lowe’s pay a living wage, extend benefits to a group of full-time workers. NOT!

So Bethlehem City Council slithered out of a tough choice last night, and tabled the matter with an amendment that the rezoned area be reduced to the 220,000 square feet necessary for construction of the mall. This is a legal fiction which has little substance, as the use of the site will be restricted completely to this commercial development, and in years to come a change to expand can be entertained if it is deemed profitable by the developers. No other use for this land will be achieved once a mall is gerrymandered into the center of this parcel. There will be yet another public hearing on the new, “reduced” acreage for rezoning, but the handwriting is on the wall. The four City Council members Bob Donchez, James Gregory, James Delgrosso and John Callahan appear to be ready to vote for this project.

NOMALL faces some tough choices. Their struggle will be extended more months as further hearings and meetings are scheduled. There are no new arguments to be presented and Council could have ended the battle last night with a vote to deny the rezoning. The reality that four members want to pursue the matter means that these same four want to vote to approve the lesser acreage for development, which means the same mall would be built, the same traffic will be introduced to West Bethlehem, the same economic impacts will be visited on the community. Legal battles on the rezoning are possible, at the cost of much time and money.

As our region gets absorbed into the suburban traffic nightmare which our local planners seem to view as the apex of human existence, healthy neighborhoods like West Bethlehem are feeling more and more pressure. Numerous residents of West Bethlehem described their pride of neighborhood and City. They also expressed their fears of the destruction of their quality of life which would cascade from such a development as the Lowe’s Mall. The ripples of this battle will be felt throughout the Valley, because NOMALL has demonstrated that the people of Bethlehem would benefit, as Council member Michael Schweder stated, from a longer look at the possibilities of this site. They have petitioned and they deserve redress, and in this case that means no mall.

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