Council Approves Community Garden Sale Over Objections

Bethlehem City Council on Tuesday voted to authorize the sale of the lot on the southwest corner of S. New and W. Third streets to a developer for the purpose of building a six-story retail and office building there, according to published reports.

However, more than a dozen community activists and Lehigh University students complained about the sale—approved by a 6-1 vote—because it means that the existing Community Maze Garden will be destroyed, according to wfmz.com.

But neighborhood business owners hailed the project as something that would inject new vitality and bring more customers, according to The Express Times.

Councilwoman Karen Dolan cast the lone dissenting vote to sell the parcel of more than 7,500 square feet for $70,000 to Dennis Benner, not because she opposed the development, but because she wanted a written promise that the Maze Garden would be restored in another location.

According to Joe Kelly, the city’s director of Community and Economic Development, the city plans on relocating the garden, which provides fresh vegetables to some South Side residents, to a location a few feet south of the existing garden along the South Bethlehem Greenway.

Benner has proposed constructing a $14 million building that would add 90,000 square feet of mixed-use space on the site, with retail and restaurants on the first floor and offices on the five stories above.

Benner also proposes a $33 million project to take the First United Church of Christ property at 15-19 W. Fourth St. and turn it into a mixed-use complex featuring retail and student housing.

The financing for both projects—announced at a news conference earlier this month—hinge somewhat on Bethlehem’s bid to establish a new tax incentive zone, a Community Revitalization and Improvement Zone.

The commonwealth of Pennsylvania will establish two of these CRIZ zones in the next year and Bethlehem is one of nine cities eligible for the designation.