BETHLEHEM, Pa. — At a community meeting Tuesday night, First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem invited community members to help imagine what a planned mixed-income residential development on its Center Street campus might look like.
And they did, but not without opposition.
While a plurality of respondents in a survey supported townhouse-style construction on the site, along with single-family housing and midsize multi-family buildings, several residents said that would not be compatible with the area.
About a hundred people, mostly church members, attended the meeting, which church leaders say is a step in a collaborative process giving the community control of what is ultimately built.
“We really are leading this planning process through the lens of community engagement. Beyond some big-picture themes and concepts, there is no plan that's finished — we are building this plan together.”The Rev. Lindsey Altvater Clifton, First Presbyterian’s associate pastor for justice and community impact
“We really are leading this planning process through the lens of community engagement,” said the Rev. Lindsey Altvater Clifton, First Presbyterian’s associate pastor for justice and community impact.
“Beyond some big-picture themes and concepts, there is no plan that's finished — we are building this plan together.”
Adam Rosa, an urban planner for Chicago-based Collabo Planning working on the First Presbyterian project, told attendees, “You may be familiar with other types of plans or developments where you come to a meeting and somebody will show you what is going to happen.
“This is going to be the opposite of that. This is all of us working together to envision what the future of this campus can be, with the community as the center of that process.”
Project leaders do know a few things about what they want to materialize on Center Street in a few years’ time.
It will likely be a mixed-use development including low- to mid-income housing. Church leaders want the project to have a positive community impact beyond providing a place to live.
Whatever is ultimately built will help support the church’s long-term financial stability in a way that reflects their still-new identity.
Opposition arises
Shortly after the meeting began, a few of 10 or so people who identified themselves as living near the First Presbyterian neighbors interrupted to voice their displeasure.
One opponent of the planned development, Bethlehem resident Bob Agentis, said the church’s plans weren’t “compatible with the neighborhood.”
“Low income [housing] in this type of neighborhood… it's not going to work,” Agentis said. “It's a single-family neighborhood, it's a residential character and it's more suburban.
"It's not an urban development, and this is an urban development.”
“I was not terribly surprised to meet a little bit of resistance… We keep running into folks who really deeply believe that we have a plan that's done, in hiding, that we're just not sharing. And that's really not the case.”The Rev. Lindsey Altvater Clifton, First Presbyterian’s associate pastor for justice and community impact
Tina Agentis, Bob’s wife, agreed.
“The land at this site is not suited for access to jobs, food, groceries, medical care, pharmacies, and it lacks sidewalks and infrastructure," she said. "Of course housing is needed, but this site is not good for this."
Despite the conflict, Clifton said she was happy with Tuesday’s meeting.
“It was very much what I hoped for and expected in terms of getting church members and community members together in a room around tables, to start having some brainstorming conversations,” she said.
“I was not terribly surprised to meet a little bit of resistance… We keep running into folks who really deeply believe that we have a plan that's done, in hiding, that we're just not sharing. And that's really not the case.”
Survey supports plan
Before Tuesday’s meeting got underway, project leaders shared the results of a survey of just over 500 people asking what they would like to see the Center Street campus become.
A plurality of respondents supported townhouse-style construction on the site, along with single-family housing and midsize multi-family buildings.
Pluralities also endorsed support services such as childcare being offered on the site, along with uses for its ample green space like walking paths and an enhanced community garden.
“You're going to be our expert urban planners."Adam Rosa, an urban planner for Chicago-based Collabo Planning
From there, participants sat around a dozen tables, each with a giant satellite photo of the 32-acre church grounds. Rosa armed each group with Monopoly-like miniature plastic houses and apartment buildings.
“You're going to be our expert urban planners,” Rosa told them.
The groups worked together to place some of their plastic buildings on their table-size satellite map of the church, laying out their miniature shared vision of what the new development should look like.
Red and yellow string represented roads and footpaths, and laminated slips of paper stood in for amenities like an expanded community garden, an upgraded playground, or a grocery store.
Rosa and his colleagues will take the layouts created Tuesday and work them into three draft plans for what the site could look like.
At another community meeting scheduled for Jan. 17, project leaders will present and collect feedback on those three plans. That feedback will become a final plan in Feb. or March.
Once the congregation has arrived at a plan, it likely will look for a partner developer in April or June. Then, once a plan is complete, the City of Bethlehem’s lengthy land development approval process begins.
