ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The company behind a massive development planned for Allentown’s East Side is set to lay out for city officials its detailed proposal — including a new school.
City Center wants to build hundreds of homes — in addition to offices and facilities for education, health care and other services — on the 195-acre property where Allentown State Hospital operated for almost a century.
City Center executives are scheduled Tuesday to detail the company’s “masterplan” for the Allentown City Planning Commission at City Hall.
They’re also poised to show their proposed “sketch plan” for a new school on the development, as well as its athletic field and new roads, according to the city’s calendar.
City Council last year approved a measure that lets City Center build homes, retail and more on the land that's zoned for industrial and governmental uses.
New roadways and open space features also are listed.
The state hospital served its first patients in 1912 and closed in December 2010. Dozens of buildings on the sprawling campus were torn down in 2020.
Allentown City Council by a 4-3 vote last year approved a mixed-use overlay district that provides the zoning framework for City Center's ambitious project.
The overlay district lets the developer build homes, retail and more on land that is zoned for industrial and governmental uses.
One of Allentown's biggest sites
The city planning commission unanimously recommended its passage, while Lehigh Valley Planning Commission urged City Center not to under-develop the site, one of the largest such properties in Allentown.
Tuesday’s presentation to Allentown Planning Commission comes two years after City Center bought the property for about $5.5 million.
Then-state Sen. Pat Browne helped push the deal through.
Northridge is slated to include new apartments, townhouses, duplexes/triplex/fourplexes, cottages, single-family homes, and senior living options to address what they are calling the “missing middle” of the real estate market.
Adding more than 1,000 “middle-income” units will alleviate pressure throughout the housing market, according to the company.
Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach has questioned the developer’s target market, saying she believes housing for “extremely low-income” residents would better serve the city.
The developer is facing hurdles related to numerous environmental concerns at the site.
Former dry cleaning and firefighting training facilities, an incinerator that left behind cancer-causing chemicals, a wastewater treatment plant and a 1,000-gallon underground storage tank are just some of the possible issues outlined in a remediation plan site developer City Center submitted late last year to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
At least 70 of the property’s 195 acres must be preserved for outdoor recreation at the development.
