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(10th in a series on Martin Tower)
Initial sketch plans for Martin Tower site at Planning Commission
4PM Thursday April 11 Town Hall
Martin Tower demolition May 19
The owners have submitted a plan for medical offices, retail stores, a gas station, a restaurant, and garden apartments for the 53-acre site.
It’s Martin Tower Monday.
In what would seem to be another step to foster a climate of approval before the Planning Commission meets, Councilman Callahan took a few minutes at the Council meeting last week to reflect on seeing the Martin Tower site plans at the private tour provided by the developer.
The audio of Council’s video capture of the meeting went dead, but, fortunately, Gadfly audio’d this portion of the meeting in which CM Callahan reflected on the wisdom of Council’s 2015 decision, calmed fears from competing interests, and praised the developers.
“Council wanted a limited amount of retail, and that’s exactly what we got, so I think the fear of having a third downtown is not going to be seen by Main St. businesses.”
“I think it’s a good plan. I know there’s a lot more residential living back there than the school district wanted. And I think that’s really the key of why we made the decision.”
“The school district obviously wanted more business less students. And the Main St. businesses didn’t want a lot of businesses. So there was a lot of competing interests there.”
“And I think the residents that were in that area . . . wanted more retail and places to go shopping, and I think it was a good compromise by Council at that time, and I think it’s going to be a good plan.”
“I’m very proud of the developers for doing what they did, and we’re doing the right thing.”
“A lot of the fear we had at that time, did not come to fruition.”
Gadfly will attend the Planning Commission meeting Thursday and will make the site plans available as soon as he can find them. In the meantime, he’s going to see what he can find in the old files to help him understand the issues that were “hot” in 2015.
Gadfly invites those with information to share!
Take the “Connecting Bethlehem” survey and encourage someone else also
