Allentown project approved after developers present improved
traffic flow ideas.
By this time next year, the American Parkway Bridge won't be
the only new construction on the Lehigh River.
Allentown's Planning Commission on Wednesday unanimously
granted final approval for the first phase of a $300 million development
planned for the city's waterfront, clearing the way for developers to break
ground on the site after nearly a year in the planning stages.
Phase 1 of the two-stage design calls for three brick-and-steel
office buildings with first-floor retail shops and an 80-unit residential
building wrapped around a parking garage. The project would be built by
Waterfront Redevelopment Partners, a pairing of Dunn Twiggar Co. and developer
Mark Jaindl, on the former site of Lehigh Structural Steel.
Developers needed the third of three approvals from the city
to begin construction on the complex intended for the western bank of the
Lehigh River. Development on the site, which begins south of the Tilghman
Street Bridge and extends north to the future American Parkway Bridge, is
expected to begin in the first or second quarter of 2014, now that the final
approval is in place, developers said Wednesday.
Developer Zachary Jaindl said infrastructure improvements
will be the first undertaking, but the first building — an eight-story
structure with a riverfront restaurant on the first floor — could begin to rise
from the site by June 2014, he said.
The first phase will take three to five years to complete,
Jaindl said. Developers do not expect to start the second phase on the northern
end of the site until the first phase is complete.
Developers presented the waterfront proposal to the city's
Planning Commission in December 2012, and officials have been pushing it through
the approval process ever since. Commissioners gave the project the second of
three necessary approvals in July with several conditions, including one that
required developers to present improved traffic plans before either of the
project's two phases received final approval.
Concerns were raised throughout the process about the
expected increase of traffic flow in the city's narrow waterfront corridor. By
city ordinance, all intersections must operate at a D level or better on an A
through F scale.
Two intersections near the waterfront development initially
appeared to violate that requirement: the junction of Front and Allen streets
and the yet unbuilt intersection of Front Street and American Parkway. But
developers have proposed several adjustments, including a new traffic light at
Front and Allen streets and the coordination of traffic lights up and down
Front Street.
Those changes were enough to convince city engineers that
the intersections would operate at the appropriate level, city planner Mike
Hefele said.
At Wednesday's meeting, Jaindl said traffic issues had been
"substantially resolved," but the project's engineers will continue
to work with the city. Another traffic analysis will be completed once the
American Parkway Bridge is completed. The target date is March 2015.
"With any development of this size, there's going to be
added traffic," Jaindl said. "But we're looking to rehabilitate the
area by reintroducing 26 acres of land that's currently not being utilized at
all."
Source: Morning
Call
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