LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — Lower Saucon Township residents have filed two appeals seeking to overturn a zoning change adopted last month that lets Bethlehem Landfill expand.
The adopted changes were the first step toward expanding the landfill. By seeking to throw out those actions, appellants hope to block the expansion.
- Lower Saucon Township residents have appealed zoning changes its township council adopted in December
- The changes rezoned land and changed approval processes, the first step toward doubling the size of Bethlehem Landfill
- The residents’ two appeals ask for the changes to be thrown out
In an appeal filed Friday in the Northampton County Court, the appellants say the township “failed to strictly comply with the publication and notification requirements” that Pennsylvania law imposes on zoning changes.
For example, the appeal asserts that township officials failed to specify the location of the land to be rezoned — a detail they say is necessary under the state’s requirement such announcements include “reasonable detail.”
The filing also argues that the adopted changes violate conservation easements on the land, and a court order would have to clear those easements before it could be rezoned for industrial use.
Appellants cite the Pennsylvania Constitution’s clause guaranteeing a right to “clean air [and] pure water,” among other things, arguing the proposed zoning changes violate that clause.
The group filed a second appeal Tuesday, this time with the township Zoning Hearing Board.
The second appeal makes many of the same arguments as the first, with one major addition: It says the ordinance was adopted because of the “contractual relationship” between the township and Bethlehem Landfill’s parent company.
“Contracts have no place in a zoning plan, and a contract between a municipality and a property owner should not enter into the enactment or enforcement of zoning regulations.”The second appeal from Lower Saucon residents to the zoning hearing board.
Both appeals seek to throw out the changes.
Lower Saucon solicitor Lincoln Treadwell said the township had not yet been served with a copy of the lawsuit.
“What’s going to happen is the court is going to decide the factual and legal allegations that are in the appeal,” Treadwell said. “I can’t predict what a court is going to do.”
The ordinance, adopted at a Township Council meeting in late December, helps clear the way for Bethlehem Landfill’s expansion by rezoning 275 acres of farmland for light industrial use, moving decision-making power from the zoning hearing board to the township council, removing many site planning requirements and creating a new exemption to land preservation requirements.
The changes, which were requested by the landfill’s parent company, are the first in a lengthy process to roughly double its size. If completed, the expansion would extend its useful life by 20 to 30 years, according to the company.
