(10th in a series of posts on 2 W. Market St.)
Gadfly loves to present the full picture on issues. All sides.
Thank you to Stephen Repasch of the LVPC for illumination in the previous post of that body’s role in this multi-step bureaucratic process.
The issue of the zoning petition on 2 W. Market that we’ve been following now comes to the Bethlehem Planning Commission 4PM, Nov. 8, Town Hall.
And Gadfly realizes he doesn’t have the full picture.
- There was that marathon hearing at the Bethlehem Zoning Board in 2016. What took so long before the decision in favor of Mr. Rij was made? It must have been a tough one to have taken so long. Must have been a close call. Gadfly understands the “resident” side, but what was the Zoning Board side? No minutes or transcript is readily available. The newspaper article makes it sound like the “pro” side was practicality (the building will be saved) and support from a nearby local business. I’m not sure I can see that decision taking all that time for those reasons. So, what was the Zoning Board side?
- So the residents sued. Gadfly supposes that, in effect, the suit against the City was against that Zoning Board decision. Is there a way to get any detailed Court documents that might help us understand how the case played out in Court? The residents won — Gadfly realizes that this is past “history” now, but is there any kind of narrative decision by the Court that would help us see how the opposing positions were weighed? Anything that lawyer Tim would share if one of the resident group asked?
- Now there seems a claim that after the residents won, the City was not pro-active in enforcement. If true, then once again we are missing the City side. If true, can anyone shed light on that?
Now, again, I guess this is all past history. This is a new petition and seems to be on different grounds.
But it was clear to see from resident commentary at the Oct 2 City Council meeting that the residents see this new petition bundled with that past history.
So if anyone can provide authoritative help filling in the missing pieces, there would be abundant Gadfly gratitude.
This thing about lack of a record of Zoning meetings without paying big cash for a transcript is awkward. Well, more than awkward. Could someone take minutes? Could there be an audio to which to refer (see how I avoided ending with a preposition)?