When I was a kid growing up, the area of the State Hospital was called Rittersville. Ritter had been a large landowner, and towns named after such were plentiful in Pennsylvania.
Paul Muschick, columnist for the Morning Call, has an article in the paper that the State Hospital won't be forgotten, because they're erecting a plaque about it. Paul must take those plaques much more seriously than the rest of us.
What they should do is rename that area Reillyville, and erect a plaque about how J.B. Reilly got the parcel for a fraction of its value, in a swan song move by Pat Browne.
above reprinted from December of 2022ADDENDUM AUGUST 18, 2023:J.B. Reilly has requested that Allentown rezone the parcel from institutional to mixed use to accommodate his plans. That request seems reasonable to me. My question is does Reilly plan to use the NIZ benefit through a land swap with the downtown map? While such a swap would greatly benefit Reilly, it wouldn't benefit Allentown or its taxpayers.
I saw that the city is in the process of rezoning the state hospital property, likely to be as broad as possible to accommodate whatever the developer is proposing. I've read that it will be mixed-use, which is understandable, but I haven't read if the proposed zoning will allow additional rental units. I would argue it shouldn't.
ReplyDeleteAllentown already has a large number of rental units, and I would say too many in proportion to single-family, owner-occupied homes. While rental housing has its place, it is not the same as privately-owned homes and rental housing promotes transiency. Simply put, people don’t stay as long or take care of their homes as well as they do when they are the owners. The transiency of the population contributes to problems in our neighborhoods and schools, and strains public safety resources.
Currently, the city has an unsustainable combination of too many low-income residents and too much rental housing. Both are incompatible with a healthy city. I welcome the inclusion of residential housing on the state hospital property, but it should be in the form of single-family homes on good-sized lots, not apartments or anything high density (like townhomes or duplexes).
Over the last two decades, Allentown has become a place where people move into until they find a better place to move to. That needs to stop. The state hospital property is an opportunity to help Allentown become the place where people want to move to and stay. The city needs to become more like what its residents are currently leaving for.
I realize that recent interest rate hikes are making the current home-building (and home-buying) markets more difficult than what they have been recently. But city planners and city leaders need to be playing the long game here. Interest rates go down as well as go up. But if they approve more rental housing now, that will always be rental housing and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will be squandered.
While more rental housing will harm the city, I do realize that rental housing is very good for the developer, since they will have a constant stream of income for years to come. But current and future city residents deserve to more than just having their income siphoned from them each month for a temporary place to live. They deserve a chance to own something.
That’s the American Dream. It should be Allentown’s also.
anon@4:33: Since I wrote the original post in December of 2022, Pat Browne has been appointed Pa. Director Of Revenue by Gov. Shapiro. I suspect Reilly will be able to do as he chooses with the parcel.
DeleteDespite all the sordid, behind the scenes political shenanigans that went down, I was still very optimistic that this site could yield a first class development that Allentown could be proud of. After viewing the concept plan, I'm so disappointed. Instead of the City's professional planning staff and the elected officials being in charge and driving the design of the project to get the best product, it appears as if the developer's engineer is in charge of putting forth a design with little redeeming value that will generate the most profits. It's essentially a massive suburban sprawl style medical office/apartment complex. Upwards of 80-90% of the site proposed for development would appear to accommodate multi-family flats with the central focus/heart of the project not a walkable mixed use town center core, but a huge blob-like zone of multi-family flats. The retail/restaurant/ mixed use zone is a tiny little blip way off the beaten track that appears to be too far away from the rest of the development and will no doubt act like a suburban shopping center with little day to day use by pedestrians. With all the medical office and apartment uses, I'm shocked they didn't propose a warehouse, but hold on there's a nifty chunk of "flex business space" along River Drive that is certainly going to be a warehouse, since the only purpose of this plan appears to be maximum profits. The provided open space is sparse, as the undevelopable hillsides are providing the bulk of open space, big shocker there. One has to love the isolated/detached 1/2 mile long suburban style cul-de-sac that will provide for the very sparse supply of single family dwellings. I could go on and on.
ReplyDeleteI can understand that Allentown's elected officials may not realize the plan's many many flaws and maybe the City's highly qualified professional planning staff cannot advocate for a better plan due to politics. I really hope the Allentown Planning Commission and LVPC advocate strongly taking a sledgehammer to this ill-conceived concept plan in favor of a better design that reduces the dominance of mult-family flats and is appropriate for the best remaining development tract in PA's third largest city.
You will own nothing and you will be happy about it. - World Economic Forum
DeleteLooking over the most recent design plan, it appears the State Hospital site will be VERY heavy on new housing. This appears to be enough new dwellings to require building a brand new Elementary School in ASD. You just can’t absorb 400-500 new students without building construction.
ReplyDeleteThe retail, office component to the overall mixture is far smaller than I anticipated. As for how many new rental units result, it will all come down to how many floors per building are permitted. Seeing how Allentown’s government officials trip over themselves to keep Mr. Reilly happy, I expect a few revised proposals to enhance the profitability of the builder. Who knows at this point? We could see a request to change 2-story buildings to 6-story buildings on the same footprint. Such a change would create a huge burden on Allentown schools.
NO, it is NOT true that multi-family buildings contribute an even multiple of incoming school tax revenue. For example, a 3-family building does not produce 3 times the amount of revenue to the school district as does 1 single family dwelling. This imbalance is a huge reason why Allentown has had such funding problems over the years. Our state legislators don’t seems to recognize this situation.
I agree with 4:33, this plan offers nothing but the same Reillyville designs with bland flats of rental only apartments. The commercial segment of the plan is vague at best. This benefits the developer when he sells his interests in a few years. There is nothing inspiring here and such a lost opportunity to incorporate some of the now demolished architecture into the “mixed-used” buildings. And now another lost opportunity to develop an inspiring project rather than just more of the same. Allentown needs owner occupied new construction in all price ranges. Renters are transient, they have no skin in the game. Renters accept crappy floor plans because they are not staying long. Yes, building for buyers requires more thoughtful planning and designing and more attention to better quality materials, systems and appliances. Developers are less likely to get variances for condos and owner-occupied units, but renters don’t care. The city should insist that at least half of this plan be owner occupied in order to be successful 20 years from now.
ReplyDeleteAllentown needs more homes built for owner occupancy. In 1997, 84% of housing complaints came from rental properties and the mix of all residential units was 51% owner occupied, 49% rental. Today the mix in Allentown may be 30% owner occupied, 70% rental with 85%+ rental in neighborhoods in the urban core. Converting owner occupied residential units to rental units and building more rental units rob Allentonians of the opportunity to own a home, establish roots, invest in Allentown, build wealth, and enjoy and promote the security of owning their own home, ie. it harms Allentown, those who live there and those who would live there.
ReplyDelete"Converting owner occupied residential units to rental units and building more rental units rob Allentonians of the opportunity to own a home, establish roots, invest in Allentown, build wealth, and enjoy and promote the security of owning their own home..."
DeleteThis seems to be what many of our political leaders are advocating nationally (and/or supporting through decisions where this is the result), so I suppose Allentown's leadership is no different.
The goal is for you to own nothing, and depend on them for everything.
God help us.
I'd sure like to hear what the Mayor has to say about this terrible plan being set forth. While he spends a lot of his time trying to understand why young Latinos in Allentown are under-employed and he would never miss a photo op with the 125 new ASD teachers, I'm sorry educators, I haven't seen or heard a peep from him about the tornado victims in East Allentown or about this plan...one of the most significant developments in Allentown's history.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest danger is that we would use the tract to warehouse welfare recipients. Other proposed uses are less bad. Best? Sell it to the highest bidder while not allowing *any* government involvement.
ReplyDeleteHousing projects now privatized. Interesting concept. But then does Allentown really help the individual homeowner. Purchasing homes in Allentown are one thing, improvements and maintenance are fraught with exploitation of the homeowner.
ReplyDeleteI think your missing the point. Allentown needs more privately-owned, single-family housing.
DeleteAnd it needs more residents that don’t need government assistance to buy and/or maintain their homes.