At their Feb. 5 meeting, members of Lower Saucon Township Council reviewed preliminary/final land development plans from the City of Bethlehem for an expansion on one of the Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII lots located at 1405 Easton Road.
That section of Easton Road forms the dividing line between the city and the township, and the industrial park is being built up on the city’s side of the road.
Upon viewing the plans for LVIP VII Lot 54, council president Sandra Yerger noted that the proposed addition to the existing building would more than double its size. She said it appears a second driveway would be added for traffic entering and exiting the property.
Township solicitor Linc Treadwell agreed with those observations.
Yerger added that her main concern is increased traffic on Easton Road.
Councilwoman Priscilla deLeon agreed and recalled that the township was supposed to receive a traffic study from the city for an Easton Road project, but said she could not remember which one.
Township engineer Judy Stern Goldstein said she would not add anything to the discussion since the project is outside of the township and does not follow its regulations. She noted that the plans are for an industrial building addition and said she could not comment on the traffic.
Ultimately, per the solicitor’s suggestion, council decided to contact the City of Bethlehem to see if they had commissioned a traffic study for the area.
The project is slated to go before the city’s planning commission in March.
That meeting will be held Thursday, March 12 at 5 p.m. in the Bethlehem Town Hall rotunda on Church Street. A controversial rezoning proposal for land on Creek Road that borders both Lower Saucon Township and Hellertown borough is also scheduled to be heard at that meeting.
The next regular meeting of Lower Saucon Township Council will be held Wednesday, March 4 at 7 p.m. at Lower Saucon Town Hall, 3700 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bethlehem. Meetings are generally held on the first and third Wednesday of the month and are open to the public. The agenda can be found online in advance by visiting the township website.
Lot 54 in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII in Bethlehem is undeveloped in this Google Maps Street View image of it from July 2019. Lower Saucon Township borders the city along this section of Easton Road.
