--------- I will call to order this meeting of the Bethlehem City Council Finance Committee. I'm Hillary Quiet, acting chair of the Finance Committee. Other committee members present tonight are is Rachel Leon. The clerk will please call the role. Miss Crampy Smith, Miss Quitec
present, and Miss Leon present. Okay. Um, there are six agenda items for tonight's meeting. All six items involve proposed budget adjustments. YouTube reminder, if you started streaming this
meeting after 6 p.m., please be sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of the meeting. Public comment. Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on any of the agenda items tonight with a fivem minute time limit?
Seeing none, we'll continue on to agenda item one. The first agenda item is to review a proposed adjustment to the non-utility capital fund budget grant for the gateway on fourth project. I will call on a representative from the administration to discuss this request.
Hi, Tiffany Whismer, DCED business manager. Um, we received a LSA local share account grant in the amount of $482,623. Um, the grant funds will be used for construction costs associated with
Penrose Gateway on Fourth affordable housing project. Great. Um, any questions from uh or anyone else from the administration who wants to speak about this? No. Okay. Um,
Miss Leon, do you have any questions? I do. It might seem like a silly question. What is a local share account grant? Hi. Um, so local share account is the uh gaming money that is set aside for local
projects. So there are two buckets of funds. Um there's one that is statewide, so projects from across the state can go in for for um grant funds from that bucket. And then there's also a bucket specifically for Northampton and Lehigh
County. So that is for anyone who is in Northampton or Lehigh County or an adjacent that applies for that bucket. And then there's also one in Monroe County because there's also a casino in Monroe and we can also apply for that one because we are an adjacent county to
Monroe. So the the the Northampton Lehigh and the Monroe ones are local elected officials. So um Lisa Bascll and Steve Sandson, they have a little bit more um discretion in how those get divvied up. So we're pretty reliably receiving around about this amount every
year when we put in applications for that bucket. And that has nothing to do with our host fees or anything like that. That's the regular money that we get. This is completely different money, correct? That we're receiving just because there's a casino within our area. Because there's a casino in our area, there is a bucket of funds available for which we can apply for
grants. Yes. Awesome. Thank you. That's the only question I had. Okay. No match. That is a great follow-up question. That is also great that there's no match. I don't have any further questions. So, I'll accept a motion and a second to
recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate rel legislation on tonight's council agenda. This is going to be fun. So moved. Second. The clerk will please call the role. Miss Leon I. And Miss Guatek. I. It passes to zero. The appropriate
legislation will be placed on tonight's council agenda. Moving on to agenda item two. The second agenda item is to review a proposed adjustment to the non-utility capital fund budget grant money received for the Rose Garden. I will call on a representative from the administration to discuss this request.
The city of Bethlehem received a grant in the amount of $50,000 from PA DCED for the revitalization of the Bethlehem Rose Garden. Um I'm just wondering if we have u specific plans for this these funds yet or if it's
uh we do. The budget is broken out um for improvements that will include asphalt pathways, um upgraded lighting, expansion to existing electrical service, um bike racks, and litter receptacles.
Wonderful. I know that the lighting was something that the um the volunteers were were looking for, so I'm glad to hear that. Um, anyone else from the administration want to say anything about that? No. Okay. Um, then I will accept a motion in
a second. So moved. Oh, sorry. That's okay. Uh, to to to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's council agenda. So moved. Second. The clerk will please call the role. Miss Leon. I. Miss Guate.
I. It passes to zero. Agenda item three. The third agenda item is to review a proposed adjustment to the general fund emergency solutions grant and I will call on a representative. The transaction um that you see here was previously approved at an earlier
finance committee meeting. Um for accounting purposes, the associated expense and revenue accounts are now being reclassified from general fund to the HUD account. Uh you will see this reclassification reflected in agenda
number five as well. Miss Liam, I think the only question I had was did we discuss recategorizing at the previous one or is there something new? This is No, it was put into the general fund at the previous meeting and now we're moving it out of the general fund into the HUD account.
We researched it um more and it's more appropriately put accounting wise in Yes. It's not a general fund expense. All right. Thank you. I don't have any questions about this particular maneuver. So, um I will
accept a motion and a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and place appropriate legislation on tonight's council agenda. So moved. Second. The clerk will please call the role. Miss Leyon I. Miss Quiet. I passes 20. Agenda item number four.
The fourth agenda item is to review a proposed adjustment to the general fund budget on lot septic systems. I will call on a representative from the administration to discuss this request. What? Anyone? I don't know well enough. I don't know
well what um all right. So this one as the memo suggests um health bureau is increasing other expenses to pay for handover engineering for consulting related to onlock onlot septic systems. Um, so we are required to have a sewage
enforcement officer and that has traditionally been housed in the health bureau. The person who had that certification is no longer working for the city. So while a new employee and actually two new employees are getting the training and certification they need to serve as the sewage enforcement
officer, um we are in the meantime using a third party um handover to do that work. Um yeah, so what happens is if somebody has on lot septic and they want to do certain types of work I think like expanding it or some sort of work um we
have to go out there and basically like certify that they're doing it um by by certain standards. A certified sewage enforcement officer needs to make sure that it's in the right location and they have to witness the uh what is it called? The perk testing percolation
testing that's done. Um this doesn't happen very often, but oddly like while we've been in limbo, we've had like like I think this is the second or maybe even third case that you've seen um at a finance committee meeting. So that's why we're here.
Thank you, Miss Leon. Any questions? Sorry, there's a question for me for me in my head. Just it's a crash land from vacation, I'm telling you. Um, so because the person who is trained is not like they're no longer with the city, this is just kind
of like we have this because we have to outside source it just for this one specific moment. Correct. Um, does it make sense to always have like do we need that position internally in the city if or like do these cases come up regularly? Um, or can it be
something that's just always thirdartied? So I that's a good question. We don't have a position that is specifically a sewage enforcement officer. It is a certification that an existing employee can sort of add to but not their repertoire, right? So, we don't have
like one person dedicated to that. Um, it is I I actually forgot what her title was. Um, it's just someone else with an awesome certification that benefits us, but if they didn't have that certification, then we would have to pay. Correct. Okay. Correct.
Awesome. Thank you. Y but as you noted, you're now training two people to be able to do this. So in some course of time, we won't need to outsource it any longer. Correct. Okay. Yeah. So um and and I will also say my understanding is that under the Pennsylvania Local Health Administration
law, Act 315, we are actually like required to perform these sorts of services. So in the same way that we are required to like inspect restaurants and it's the same person who does like the restaurant inspection. It's in the same area of health, we also apparently have to do the sewage enforcement which is
not intuitive but exists under the Pennsylvania health law. When I saw it in health I did wonder why is this in health and not you know so yeah exactly. So um well thank you. So, um,
I will accept a motion and a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's agenda. So, move. Second. The clerk will please call the role. Miss Leon, I. Miss Guate. I passes to zero.
Okay. Uh, the appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's council agenda. Apparently, I've forgotten to say that a couple of times. I apologize. The fifth agenda item is to review a proposed adjustment to the community development block grant fund budget
emergency solutions grant. This is part two of the first maneuver in item three. Correct. Um so basically just that uh these adjustments were discussed during the agenda item number three. For accounting purposes funds are being reclassified
from general fund to the HUD account. Actually, I have like a more general question for for you as opposed is it do you try and find ways to get money out of the general funding and have it tagged specifically so we can track money or is it cool to just have a lot of money in
the general fund because it you can do more things with it. That's just like an in general question again like that again. I'm assuming like tagging this as HUD that that means that goes the HUD because it's part of a section on the CIFA the schedule of
federal awards and it's identified by the federal government at the same category codes as your community um CDBG money your re home money it's that type of funding so that's why it has to be in this O9 account
okay so I guess I I don't think I'm asking my question right so I'm just going to walk through a I got it sach, $5 on gas, $5 like $20 is my general fund. Does it make sense to like have each of my little $5 tagged as this
specific bucket, this specific bucket? Or does it make sense to have money like this just in the general fund? Just put a lump sum of $20 in the general fund without any identifying it. Yeah, you have to ear mark it and put it into
categories. So you can um you have to ear mark it and say this is for this, this is for that because then at when we um also part of the audit you have to allocate um funds this
um report funds. This revenue was for this much was for police, this much was for fire. So you have to identify this revenue and only record it in those categories. Like we can't just randomly move money around. We can between fire,
police or different categories. We have to keep track of you just can't have a pot of money and decide. you have to ident have council pass it and there's um personnel costs, there's operating costs, there's um equipment and you council approves it
and we have to stick to what you approve. It's you create a law and say you can spend this much on equipment but um so we can move 5% between the lines but that's it. That's it. It can't be like a free-for-all. Awesome. All right. Thanks. So, it's
it's we have to stick to what you pass. Okay. Thank you. And then I I do note that um the Commonwealth subsequently increased the award slightly and so this isn't a straight 400,000 but a 4005,19. So, that's great. Um hey, more money for
this particular type of thing is great. Now, this is mainly passed through though. Um this is mostly going to um uh other service providers throughout. We're we're sort of the managers of this of this grant. Yes. So Okay, cool.
Um I will accept a motion and a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's council agenda. So moved. Second. The clerk will please call the role. Miss Leon I. And Miss I. Passes 20. The appropriate
legislation will be placed on tonight's council agenda. And we are on our final agenda item six. The sixth agenda item is to review a proposed adjustment to the community development block grant fund budget various CDBG and home budget adjustments. I will call on a
representative to discuss this request. various CDBG and home adjustments, including those um that are reflected for reallocation for the CDBG funds previously allocated for Friendship Park. The bids came in a little bit
under than what we expected. So, those funds will be reallocated to different projects. Also in this adjustment, we have um an additional award of home ARP
funds and home monitor repayments. Miss Leo, great. Um always thrilled to hear that something came in under bid. That's amazing. Um, anybody else from the administration
want to say anything? No, we're good. Okay, then I will accept a motion and a second to recommend approval of the administration's request and to place appropriate legislation on tonight's council agenda. So moved. Second. The clerk will please call the role on the motion. Miss Leon. I.
And Miss Quiet. I It passes to zero. The appropriate legislation will be placed on tonight's council agenda. This meeting is adjourned. Okay. Part: 2
Laura and company. Everybody going to get started? Yeah. Okay. Are we We are recording everyone. Just be aware. Good evening. I ask that we all rise for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag, United States of America, and to the republic
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Mr. Miller, please call the role. Mr. Callahan, present. Miss Grampy Smith. Miss Quitech, present. Miss Leard, present.
Miss Leon, present. Miss Wilhelm, present. And Mr. Cologne, present. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Councilwoman Camy Smith will not be joining us this evening. Moving on to citations. We do have one citation for recent city retirey Fred Davis. I do not
believe Fred is here. I believe I'm correct. So, we will make sure Mr. Davis gets his citation in the mail. Before we go through our regular agenda items, city council is going to conduct a public hearing this evening. Tonight's public hearing will be related
to a significant to significant proposed amendments to the city's subdivision and land development ordinance commonly known as and you will hear referred to as SAO. The public hearing is forformational purposes only. There will be no no votes
taken during the public hearing. In connection with this public hearing, there are two communications. Mr. Miller, please read communication 6A as well as 6B. The July 10th, 2025 memorandum and proposed ordinance from Craig Feifer, assistant director of planning and zoning, advising that the
Bethlehem Planning Commission voted 4 to zero on April 10th in favor of recommending to city council the adoption of the updated subdivision and land development ordinance, which is the subject of the public hearing tonight. 6B. The June 24th, 2025 correspondence
from Jillian Sites, chief community planner with the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, offering a staff review of the draft amended Salo. In summary, the letter states, quote, "Overall the city's updated subdivision and land ordinance is clear, concise, and supports current day best practices for
regulating subdivision and land development design and submission processes," unquote. Thank you, Mr. Miller. The public hearing is called to order. I will recognize a member of the administration to discuss the proposed revisions to the SAO.
Hi, good evening. Um, I am just going to start us off, but you'll probably hear uh from me the least this evening. I'm joined by our planning director, Kathy Fletcher, our assistant planning director, Craig Piper, and assistant city solicitor, Matt Dashler. Um, as
noted, we are uh presenting a few revisions and updates to the subdivision and land development ordinance, um, which we will refer to as the SALDO. And I just wanted to start um, before passing it over to the to the professionals uh, with some sort of just
level setting and and reminding everybody a little bit about the basics of land development and where the SAO fits into all of that. um because as we've talked about in many other contexts with different projects, you know, we know that there's a lot of different ordinances that govern the
land development process. So, well, you know, when thinking about what it is that we're talking about tonight, I thought it would be helpful to just um kind of set out what are the different um ordinances that govern what we do in the city with respect to land
development. The ones you're most familiar with probably are the zoning ordinance and the historic ordinances. And then the SAO is the third piece that really rounds out the whole picture. So, uh, the zoning ordinance, you know, in
summary, this is just a summary. This is not official definition, but the zoning ordinance, you know, in our view really governs how you can use your property and what and how you can build. And that is a lot of what we end up talking about in this room and end up talking about in public conversations when there's new
development proposed. And a lot of that is really governed by the zoning ordinance. Um the SAO kind of carves out a different space. The SAO um describes the processes that you have to follow when you're going through the land development process.
And then it talks about how your building that you're proposing fits in with um the bigger picture. And uh that includes there's some examples um here in the packet, but that includes things like how a project impacts streets, how it impacts storm water, you know, what
the traffic effects are. Those are the sorts of things that are covered um in a salo. And then for some specific areas in the city as you know we also have historic ordinances and um as authorized by state statute in those areas um we
are able to look at you are able to look at when issuing a certificate of appropriateness things like architectural elements materials um cover uh color of facades and things like that. Um and that's really the only place that you'll see those sorts of questions um answered in in land
development there. you know, this neither the salo nor the zoning ordinance can um dictate um what color a building is, for example. So, that's sort of the the full picture. Um the Salo itself is controlled by the P Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, and that defines the ways that
municipalities can regulate certain aspects of development. That's what you'll see in the SADO. and it further establishes limits on the ways that zoning and salo provisions can be used and requires that certain procedures and processes are followed. So then I just
put a few examples which I've already sort of talked about but what the salo does cover and what it does not cover. Um, in terms of the land development process, a few examples, you know, it might have different requirements for sketch plan or full plan sets that come
through the planning office. Defines the planning commission role. Uh, it puts out, for example, subdivision submission requirements or it uh covers how uh deeds are or how plans are recorded, for example. And then on that wider picture of development piece as I mentioned you
know if a project requires new streets that sort of the design of the new streets is covered by the salo. Uh there are provisions related to sidewalks and street trees and lighting and storm water management and those sorts of elements. Things that the salo does not cover. Um the use of land as in like
residential or commercial uses on a particular piece of land. The types of buildings that's not covered by the salo whether it's a single family or a multif family. that would be also a zoning provision. Um density, how many units are on different parcels, building heights, all of those are zoning
elements. And then as I mentioned, building design, facades, materials, etc. All of that is not covered by by a salo. Uh and finally, I've I've talked about this in various places before, but there's just a little graphic in that packet that sort of describes the flow
of a of a project. You know, a developer comes in with a project plan. you know, the first stops, you know, they might have a sketch plan, but the first stops are really um first, does the project require zoning relief? So for all of those elements that I mentioned that are not part of the salo but that are in
zoning um if there are aspects of a project that are not compliant with zoning the first stop is likely going to be the zoning hearing board to request variances um or special exceptions or in some cases as you've seen taking alternative route for a zoning text or
zoning map amendment and coming directly to you. Um but that all happens at the zoning hearing board and is only specific to zoning ordinances. Again, if a project comes in and is in a historic district, that will go through the HCC or the harb and then to city council.
And then after those kind of pieces are are addressed, you know, the salo really covers the the pieces that you see on the chart here, the city staff review and third party review. Third party might be, for example, LAN or the EAC. You'll see that there are letters from
those organizations about different elements of a um a land development and city staff. That includes not just the planning bureau, but you know, we send all projects out to engineering and fire and um you know, water and sewer, all
these different departments who are you know using the salo to look at a particular project. uh we provide comment review letters to these plans that come in and that's that's where those SAO provisions are coming in um and ultimately the goal would be to get
a a project to a clean review letter and that will go to the planning commission and the planning commission from there will make um recommendations related to all of those pieces that I discussed trees storm water etc. So, that's a a broad overview of sort of the process
and then I'm going to turn it over to Miss Fletcher to Fletcher to talk a little bit about our Salo and these revisions um specifically. Thank you. So, moving into the Salo in Bethlehem, um it was initially adopted in 1975.
There's been minor changes since then, but there hasn't been any comprehensive update. Um, and what you're seeing today is really a multi-year effort between all of the departments involved in the Salo review. And it's also been reviewed by LAN as well as the Bethlehem
Environmental Advisory Council. It's been discussed at multiple planning commission meetings starting in October 2021 and as recently as April 2025, which then brought us to today where it was communicated to council in April. Uh
the draft document was officially transmitted at the end of June. Today is the public hearing. There is no vote today. There will eventually be two votes um to be determined at a later date. So moving into the goals for this
comprehensive update, we really wanted it to reflect the current Salo standards per the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code. So things like the process for recording plans or what is required for different types of submissions.
We also wanted it to align with more recent documents that came out, you know, after 1975, such as our comprehensive plan, climate action plan, which is a a major focus that we'll go into a little bit further later, as well as the current zoning ordinance.
So, for example, some things that have changed that are in line with the climate action plan include that all traffic impact studies must include nearby transit routes and bus stops as well as if there are street trees, they're subject to approval by the city
forester. It also clarifies and simplifies procedures which makes development simpler to understand. So for example, for a lot merger, the deed can be provided rather than a full subdivision plan. So it just changes those
processes. And then lastly, it formally includes LAN and the Bethlehem Environmental Advisory Council in the plan review process so that we're able to hear their notes on these different proposals as
well. and I will hand it off to go into more detail. Thank you. So, in your binders on the left hand side are a couple additional documents and this is what we'll use as we go
through to uh try to simplify this document and focus in on some of the key changes. Um, the SADO when it was drafted and created does take into consideration what was developed in 75 for those items that haven't changed and are still applicable from the MPC. Then
we'll talk about some of the items, skip over those and talk more about the items that we've added. So the first document you have is just the transmitt letter that I just want to highlight that the planning commission did send along a favorable recommendation to adopt the document with a 4 to0 vote. The next two
documents are uh summary of the key items as well as a comparison between the climate action plan and the new SADO. These are the two documents we'll use ostensibly to summarize the changes. And lastly is the LVPC letter um with
their recommendations for approval. This is a 102page document. We're not going to read all 102 pages, but that certainly can be afforded to you if you'd like. We're going to start out with page well, let's start out with the memo. And uh I may reiterate some of the things that I want to highlight from
Kathy and from Laura, but there were five major changes to this document. One, climate action plan. We'll get into that extensively. Atlanta and the EAC formal inclusion, a streamline and further explanation for procedures for submissions for both major and minor
land developments and subdivisions. As Kathy mentioned earlier, a simplified process for lot consolidation. And perhaps most significant are the design standards for site layout. On page eight, we'll just start there with the modifications, waiverss, and
deferrals. and specifically just that deferrals for curb and sidewalk reductions in street widths or alternatives that reduce imperous coverage are listed in here. There are a couple items that we'll talk about what the applicant has to do to show the city
why they are uh requesting that deferral and why it should be considered and then that the planning commission is the ultimate body that would grant that deferral. Jumping ahead to section 1342. This is on this is the definition section and I specifically just point to 18 and 19.
Pages 18 and 19 talk about what is the definition of land development that it includes groups of two or more residential or non-residential buildings. Subdivision of land. Um what is excluded from a land development? For example, some conversions that don't
include more than two dwelling units and accessory buildings. Major land developments. This is a fun way of doing this. Major land developments are anything that involves 15,000 square feet or more of new impervious, 10 or more dwelling units or the extension of a public street. Minor is anything less
than that. Jumping ahead to page 23. This talks about subdivision. Again, it gives the definition of subdivision and it talks about the difference between a major and minor. It flips it from the way we did land development. A minor subdivision is anything five or more dwelling units
less not involving the construction of a street or new utility main. And if it involves two or more acres, it does become a major subdivision. A major subdivision is anything greater than what was just read. Moving ahead to 1345. This talks about
preliminary and final land development. All land development major subdivisions. We'll start with page 27. And actually I jumped ahead of myself a little bit there. I'd bring your attention to page 27 because it's a nice graphic and talks about land development
subdivision major minor and what's recommended and what is required. On page 32, we get into the procedure aspect. Uh this gets really detailed but there is a checklist that is handed out to every
person interested in doing a subdivision land development and they typically their engineers will go through that checklist and make sure that they are providing what needs to be provided. Something I thought of interest page 36 does talk about the ability to phase projects and what that process would
entail. For 1346, we get into the procedures for minor subdivisions and minor land developments and specifically lot line adjustments, lot consolidations. And as Kathy mentioned, the new
requirement or lack of requirement where you don't have to do the subdivision plan formally. In lie of that, you can provide to us a deed that would indicate what the new beats and bounds of those consolidated parcels would be. That'll help save time and money for those who
want to consolidate their parcels. Moving ahead to 1348. This is on page 48. And this is where we start to talk about um recording of plans. This is stuff that's picked right up out of the MPC. So, what you read in the MPC is what is
reflective in our own new salo. Uh, just one thing to point out, some of the things that are typical in here in our uh review letters, that's something Laura had mentioned. Um, under 134804, this is lifted right out of our engineers office and the requirements for uh record plans and CAD files so
that we have that stuff in perpetuity in our in our folders. on 1349. This is probably the bulk of what we'll talk about tonight. This is really where we start to incorporate as many strategies from the climate action plan. It begins on page 50, but we'll
jump ahead to page 52. Page 52, we'll talk about private streets. Really not climate action, but that all private streets are now required to be built to city standards. Therefore, if they are ever accepted over by the city, we don't have to go through any kind of rec reconstruction
process. Moving ahead to page 54 access management. This this is more of a safety. Wherever there is a subdivision or land development which contains an existing or proposed arterial or collector, the sh the city
shall require the ability to minimize the number and length of driveways. the ability to restrict ingress and egress involving lefthand turns, the prohibition on driveways from individual dwellings entering directly onto arterial streets, and the
construction of rear streets to link driveways or link parking so that if there is one point of access on a major street, we're not having multiple ingress egress for each individual lot and use. Moving ahead to page 62, we really start
getting into climate action here. At the top of that page, number 14, bicycling. All new and widened streets should be designed to consider bicycle traffic. Poorest surfaces. These are ones that allow storm water to percolate through the surface to allow infiltration. These
are encouraged in lie of solid surface and redirecting storm water to inlets. Um, in coordination with Atlanta, transit bus shelters shall be incorporated in all landscape designs. Jumping a little bit off a cap, items
required transportation improvements. New streets bordering a subdivision or land development are coordinated for widths, grades, and in such locations as deemed necessary to accommodate all different types of traffic and uses, be it vehicular, pedestrian, or bicycle.
Jumping over to page 63 at the top on item number one. I thought this was also of interest where stateowned streets are. If PENDOT doesn't want not want to accept the right of way, if the city chooses not to accept the right of way, the record plan
shall state that the right of way shall be reserved for future dedication if deemed needed. Another climate action item, pedestrian bicycle improvements and transit improvements shall incorporate um the ability to increase walkability
under funding. I also thought this to be of interest that in place of completing a required street improvement as a condition of final approval, an applicant may enter into a legally binding development agreement with the city for the applicant to fund the improvements for his or her fair share
of such improvement as dur as determined by the planning commission. So this is a payment in lie of next page over on 64 we talk about the traffic impact studies. Uh there's essentially three different types depending on the amount of daily trips
during peak hour. The purpose here implement recommendations of a vision zero climate action and complete states policies and programs. So that is now incorporated directly into our traffic impact studies. Uh there is some examples I want to talk about um to promote construction
transportation infrastructure which accommodates the pedestrian the bicycle mass transit. Again, it's that whole complete street concept. And I'll get into some graphics that we have later on in the document. Under full studies, two items. Um, the study
shall consider nearby transit routes and stops and how those can be incorporated into the development for any traffic impact study that involves more than 100 new trips per day. um mass transit access to the site
such as provisions for a bus stop and shelter shall be considered. And where a proposed development is adjacent to or near an existing or proposed land to route, the city may require that the subdivision or land development include provisions for mass transit or paratransit
access to the site in in consultation with Atlanta. Jumping ahead to another favorite of the planning commission on page 75 is green storm water design. Here within street rights of way opportunities shall be considered to incorporate planting and infiltration
areas in coordination with the layout and design of utilities sidewalks and streets where practical porous paving materials should be considered between the curb and the sidewalk. Jumping over to page 76. Rain gardens and bio swells should be installed and
planted to promote the infiltration and filtering of pollutants where appropriate. Consideration should be given to directing storm water from roof down spouts to suitable vegetated areas. Uh there's under item six methods
suggesting the capture of storm water runoff for later use for irrigation of landscaping. And then we also reference the Pennsylvania storm water best management practices manual. This is more about how storm water detention ponds are developed and what their final
look is. And more specifically in there, it references, you know, not just putting in a lawn, but using native species that would promote insects um and help with filtration, better filtration. So, jumping ahead or jumping back to uh
some of the safety items that we talked about and this references back to that traffic impact study. On page 80 at the top, it gives you a graphic on what a bumpout or sometimes they're called neck downs would look like. This improves safety in that it reduces the pedestrians's travel distance from one
part of the intersection to the next. It also helps in slowing traffic. Whenever you have a pinch movement within the street, it does force people to slow down naturally. Under sticking with that, under sidewalks and pathsways, pathways and driveway aprons here, we require that
sidewalks with curbs built to city specifications shall be required along each side of all new, widened, or extended streets. This not only helps with pedestrian safety, but it also helps with storm water management. Moving down to part B,
pathway and bikeway. If deemed necessary for the convenient and safe circulation of bicycles and pedestrians, the planning commission shall require that a subdivision or land development include the construction of a pathway or bikeway. So on page page 82, there's extensive
items on landscaping. I'm just going to highlight these include everything from street trees which are required along both sides of any um street and what oftentimes we'll find happen is where they're missing and a new development is proposed even though they weren't there with the previous development. We now
require them with the new development and all street trees shall be approved by the city forester using the approved street tree list. uh the SDO itself requires additional landscaping in section 1349
in above what would normally be required for buffer yards or foundation plantings. Uh it emphasizes what I'd mentioned earlier, the variety of native species, particularly in buffer yards. So we don't have just a row of green giants, but a multitude of different species to
help create some visual interest and a better screen overall. And green roofs. Green roofs are also referenced in our zoning ordinance. I've been fortunate enough to see one developed here in the city. I'd love to see more developed here in the city.
And lastly, another big item from uh our old ordinance to our new ordinance. We had at one point lifted out some design requirements of our zoning ordinance and move them into the SAO. And those are specific to site layout and design standards in our CL or
limited commercial, CB central business district, RT which is our high density, IRR which is our industrial redevelopment and our OMU which is our office mixeduse development. And I'll just highlight a few of those. Um surface and off- streetet parking should
be considered behind buildings and principal buildings should be pushed to the front of of the street. that parking lot lights should be reduced in height to 20 feet and include all of the typical uh cut offs and uh anti-glare and spill provisions that new
buildings over 150 ft. The urban designer in me loves this one. Shall include variations in roof lines, overhangs, architectural details, setbacks, colors, materials, and canopies, porches, and awnings to create visual interest and break up that
sometimes monotonous street wall. Um, applicants for new principal buildings will be required to submit architectural plans or elevations for the front facades and descriptions of the proposed materials. Pedestrian crosswalks on particularly
along arterials shall include a variety of pavers, patterned concrete, or stamped textured asphalt. That main pedestrian entrances shall face streets. And lastly, that one-story buildings should be avoided where an existing block contains two stories or
higher structures. So, that's a very quick overview of what is about three years of a lot of work from the planning bureau, the eight different review stops that we have here in the city whenever we have a land development subdivision, the EAC, the
LAN, and the planning commission. So, with that, I will take any questions that you might have. Thank you for the presentation. I will open it up to members of council for question or comment. The I'll start with Councilwoman Wilhelm
then and work our way down. Thank you for the presentation. Um and thank you to all involved. as the title suggests is a quite a comprehensive undertaking um and I think additionally representative of our city's very forwardthinking values. So I really
appreciate the work. Um I was wondering if you could say a little bit with regard to the EAC, how would you describe their current involvement in this process and what do we anticipate, you know, in terms of a deepening involvement? How do we anticipate that looking?
Certainly. So, so the the Seldo now formalizes their review. Right now, it's just a request on our part made to the EAC and to Atlanta as well. The EAC does provide every time we have a land development, we submit the plans to them for their review. They submit usually a
two-page letter back to us. Their letter does have some common items that they'll typically suggest. sheltered bicycle parking, the use of the C PACE program for solar, which allows the developer to uh take that cost off of the initial
upfront to investigate whether solar would be a good use at their project. It'll also include common sense storm water management um items like I'd mentioned in the best management practices handbook and they'll also refer to um landscaping and the use of
native species for encouraging pollinators, things of that nature. So it sounds like it's really more of a a continued relationship but in a more formalized fashion. Correct. Um you may not know the answer to this and I I understand that that's the case.
I know that the EAC had been doing some research on EV stations outside of sort of public garage settings. Um I was just curious as to whether um there's been progress made in that realm or we still working on that. Sure. So there's two ways um to answer
that. I'll I'll answer the first and then maybe Kathy or Laura can answer the second part a little bit better than I can. So, the EAC does also always use EV charging in every one of their letters and recommends that at least two stations be used and that ideally, if possible, solar panels are used to
charge those stations. And if the developer chooses not to install the stations up front, if they at least provide the infrastructure so that the stations could be installed easily in the future. The second part of your question is greater EV use throughout the city.
I know that at one point we were looking at trying to find places randomly throughout the city that would make sense for EV charging. Um I was not involved in that project going forward. So I would turn to Kathy or Laura to further discuss that. Thank you.
Yeah, I think actually think with the um hiring of a new sustainability um coordinator out of public works, I think that um EIC has been working pretty closely with that person on the on the EV piece and the research. I appreciate it's ongoing. Yes,
understood. Um with regard to new considering as well changes, you know, in funding opportunities in recent months, right? Uh right. Um do we anticipate I I expect there's a lot of enforcement required or additional enforcement required you know
throughout throughout these um ordinance changes. Are there needs will we require additional staff or can enforcement of these sort of deepened policies be handled within departments as is?
So when when you say enforcement, maybe the word I would use would just be follow up to ensure that whatever is the approved plan is actually what is constructed unless tomato tomato. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Yeah. So uh we we have a group of out of those eight
um review stops. Each one of us will go out and review what has been finished. There is a requirement of a progressive inspection program. So the developer anytime they want a reduction in their letter of credit contacts us and says I've now completed 25% of the work 50%
so on and so forth and we'll go out and ensure that that stuff has been done. That's inherent in the process. Now um and I'm fortunate to have those other folks so that I'm not the only one going out and doing all this work. So the example would be the city forester goes out and counts the street trees and the parking lot trees and make sure the
percentage of landscaping has been installed. The city engineer will make sure that the uh parking lot has been striped properly, signed properly. The building code, who's not one of our typical, not one of our eight review stops, also does some of this work at the end of a project as well.
Okay. So, if it falls pretty nicely into the existing structure is what I understand. Yes. Yeah. I I'll just add that sort of in response to a few of your questions here, what you're noticing is that we've already been doing a lot of the work um
that's reflected in these changes as as I think Miss Fletcher noted there hasn't been a comprehensive update to our salo since like 1975 I believe is the year. Um but in that time like we have been progressing in you know our processes.
We've also been you know having um climate considerations like there's a lot that we have been doing that just hasn't been like properly memorialized. So you know while there are seemingly major changes they're actually not really in practice major changes because
we've been doing so much of this work. We're just memorializing it, you know, because we've finally done the work of pulling it all together and and, you know, bringing it comprehensively. And you've seen we've done the same thing with our zoning ordinance, for example, like we might, as projects come along,
identify inconsistencies or, you know, some some holes and, you know, we don't come to you every single time we identify one of those things. We kind of collect it all and do it as a package. And that's that's what you're seeing here as well. Understood. I appreciate that distinction that's a reflection of what
we do not just of what we what we intend to do. Um last question with regard to the payment in lie that applies only to street improvements. So there is a there's one other area that does offer a payment in lie of and
that's where the city forester makes a determination that landscaping required landscaping cannot be installed and then a payment can be provided in lie of installing that landscaping. Typically, it's a street tree and then that that dollar value that's collected is then used to plant trees in other locations
in the city. Got it. Um, thank you. I appreciate your answers. Thank you, Councilwoman Leard. Yeah. Um, also thank you for the presentation and the extensive work and um, you know, to
everyone who this is your professional job. Thank you. but also um especially when we talk about the EAC, we're talking about volunteers who are putting a lot a lot of time and effort and uh expertise into this. So um extra thank
you for them for volunteering to take on such work. Um few questions I had one you mentioned that every landscape design uh or every streetscape design should um have bus shelter
included in the design. Um I am assuming that's only when there is a bus route there uh or there would be review like you said for a 100 trips right correct so I believe the language is you know
where applicable or or where it makes sense my language not the language in the ordinance um then it should be considered in addition uh it's required that we coordinate with Atlanta so we don't want to arbitrarily put a bus station in a place they go zipping past.
Got it. Um for the uh street improvements funding in lie of is there any benchmark based on other communities that have similar uh clauses
in their uh similar ordinances about how much work that shifts like how often is that taken advantage of? I'm thinking our streets crew is already at capacity, right? They're they're, you know, increasing their capacity and a lot and
they're doing great work, but we already know that we can't get to every street that we want to every year. So, I'm a little bit concerned that um if a developer would say, "Oh, I'm just going to pay for it." Like, sure, we might be
able to hire somebody, but what what would the logistics of that kind of shake out to? Sure. So, so two answers to that. The first um one is that any any such proposal has to go through uh our public works division department as well as our
engineering bureau which includes our traffic superintendent. So those folks would have to be um acceptable amendable to that request and then the reason being is they would then know if our street crew crews would be able
to do that implementation. So, we don't want to accept funding if our crews can't do the implementation. The second part about if if other municipalities are doing it, I don't know the answer to that. Maybe Mike or Laura might have a little bit of insight on that, but I don't personally.
Okay. Um, and so we would essentially have the right of first refusal if they would say or right of refusal. If they would say, "We'd like you to do this." We could say, "No, the city cannot take this on." And then the developer would
be required to do that street improvement. We have one such example right now uh over by the SGO is where the developer is going to do the street improvements. Okay. All right. Um and then uh for the storm water I you know I'm really
grateful to see so much um focus on environmental initiatives and the climate action plan included in here. Um I'm also aware that we recently started implementing a storm water fee. Um and so if we are simultaneously implementing
higher fees and trying to reduce the amount of storm water, which will take time for us to see the actuality of that, but um would developers that take efforts to put in swailes or um rain gardens or things like that to reduce
the amount of strain on the system, would they be incentivized in any way to do that uh through reduction or alteration of those fees? Yeah, that's a great question. Uh, the the the ordinance falls under public works and engineering specific, so I'm not as
familiar with it. I can tell you that that fee is based on a square footage of increased impervious coverage, and that's multiplied by 10% or 10 cents. So, it is a fee, but it's also a onetime fee that we add into our land development. Now, there's another fee in
terms of storm water and and perhaps attorney Dashler, who's a little bit more familiar with the the case law on this can discuss in a little bit more in detail than what I can. Well, we have a storm water impact the ordinance that does allow for ongoing
payments based on your impervious cover. So, theoretically, if someone's putting in a rain garden to collect some of the drainage, that wouldn't be considered impervious service surface. So there there would be a natural reduction in their fee or the fee would just not be
as high. It wouldn't be a reduction if you're not covering that area of the land with impervious cover. Then yes, that that would you would have less impervious cover. So there would be less of the ongoing fee. Okay, that seems quite logical. Um okay, that's all I have for now. I'm sure as I
take a deeper dive into the 100 pages, I'll have more. But thank you very much. Any other questions or comments? Councilwoman Quiet. Thank you. Um on page 86. Oh, and thank you for all of your work, everybody who's been involved in this process. Um it's something that
we've certainly been hearing about since um we came on u four years ago. Um and uh I know that there have been a few times along the way when we've done some work um with Miss Heler. So um on page
86 um item F that is um I believe you pointed that out as being new about uh submitting a set of preliminary sketches for elevation plans. Right. So it mentions um plans for the front facade a
description of proposed front facade materials and that these materials may be offered to the planning commission and other boards for review and comment. So, um there isn't this isn't in any way,
we were just talking about the fact that our um historic um conservation district or and our historic preservation district um those are the only places where there's actual sort of the certificate of appropriateness for things like materials and and facades
and and things like that. um what exactly is the impact that um the the comments could have in the in the Salo process? Yeah, great great question. So, this was taken out of the zoning ordinance back
when the zoning ordinance um had this in it. We did ask that request of developers. So, we had it at one point, we stopped and now when we bring this back online in the new SAO, we'll have it again. That being said, we currently request
that all developments come with elevation plans and facade materials and developers have consistently given us that information. And then as part of our review letter, we'll comment as planning staff on the appropriateness of
everything from the massing, the scale, the fenestration, the window patterning and door door patterning. um and whether a masonry facade is appropriate or masonry details are appropriate or if a cementitious sighting is more appropriate. Also down to like roof
lines, things of that nature. And then the planning commission to their credit which also has now a retired architect until recently um as well as a a civil engineer and others that have been involved in development will always weigh in on those and developers have
always been receptive to those comments. So it it brings a better product uh to the city. Okay. So there's there's it's not like if they said no or didn't didn't take the advice that there would be that it
would be a that it could actually stop the process. I I joked about this earlier today. I wish we had the authority to do that. We do not. So if a developer says I'm not going to put thin brick on this building, there's nothing that requires them to do that.
Yep. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments from members of council? I'll start with Councilwoman Leon and then go back to Councilwoman Lar. Um I had a question about the uh the sketch plan review procedure. So I was looking at the old Salvo and the new
one. So this specific section 1344.03A. No official action shall be taken on a sketch plan. Is that a new sentence itself? I I didn't see that in the old Salo, but is that just the general? That's always been the case. No action is taken on a sketch plan.
So, so sketch plans in the current SAO, I sum up as you give us whatever you have and we'll respond to whatever you've provided to us. The planning commission typically will not make take any action on a sketch plan. They only
may take action, let me rephrase that. When they do take action, it's because it was either deemed to be a site plan review, which is required under the zoning ordinance, or there is request for zoning relief, and then the planning commission may or may not send along a
recommendation to the zoning hearing board. In my tenure, they've always avoided any kind of recommendation to the zoning hearing board and they more look at sketch plan reviews as an opportunity for the developer to present to the city a pro a project before it
gets through too far engineered and and through the architecture process so that they can get some initial feedback. And perhaps as important, it gives the public a first opportunity to see a project or a plan before it goes through final preliminary final land
development. All right. My second question um has to do with uh consolidating parcels. Um you called it out a little bit. I haven't dug into that section yet. Does this change the process of consolidating parcels at all? It simplifies it. It simplifies.
It simplifies it. Yeah. So under the current SADO, you would have to hire a civil engineer, prepare a plan that would be recorded, and that engineer would also have to prepare a new meets and bounds or legal description of that new consolidated parcel. We've taken the
formal plan part out of the process um and just focused in on allowing the engineer to provide an overall meets and bounds description that can then be recorded. Okay. Um and the only other thing I wanted to say was I just the visual interest on buildings over 150 ft.
There's not a lot of buildings over 150 ft. Uh there's not a lot of places for buildings over 150 ft other than the IRR. Um but visual interest on buildings over 150 feet is extremely important or less unless you get these like cabins canyons of tall tall buildings. So
putting that in and codifying it the way it is is very I think that is a very very important step if we do start to see mass when it comes to to building scale uh visual interest is important. So thank you for that. Councilwoman Leard.
Uh yes thought of two more questions. Um so another in lie of example that you mentioned was uh the city forester could choose to um require payment in lie of um something like a street tree if it was deemed to be not appropriate uh for
the site. Um would that apply also I know there have been a couple of projects um bubbling up recently where historical trees have been um kind of contentious points. Would this allow the opportunity for developers to say
um we'd like to pay not to avoid planting a tree, but to have the ability to build where it might damage a historic tree.
So, I'll answer the question and then I'll give attorney Dashler the opportunity because he's a little bit more versed in this than I am. Um, Pennsylvania law allows a landowner to trim branches, to excavate next to their lot lines, and unfortunately there's
nothing in the Solo or the MPC that would prohibit that. Um, I am certainly sensitive to uh legacy trees, and there's two projects currently before us where two legacy trees are being threatened. Um, we encourage the
developer to avoid any kind of disturbance in what's called the drip line. So, if you think about the canopy of a tree and the water's shedding straight off the canopy and down, that creates a big circle. And we encourage them not to encroach upon that. We look for solutions where maybe
the site can be readjusted so that the building or the parking lot would not affect that legacy tree. That is also something that this the planning commission members are sensitive to and also look for solutions. Um in answer to your question it doesn't
the payment in lie of is for only three items street trees uh required landscaping like parking lot trees and buffer trees and any tree that was replaced or that had to be taken down as part of a redevelopment of a site. So if
you had a wooded lot and you met the criteria of 20 trees but you couldn't develop the site and replant those 20 trees then that would also be a payment inve. Okay. So it wouldn't be directly applicable but that whole situation isn't quite directly applicable to this ordinance.
It's it's not it becomes um unfortunately it becomes a civil matter between the two property owners. Okay. I mean, I I would just say if the tree is outside the city's right of way within the meets and bounds description of your property, you can cut down the
tree, right? Um Okay. Um yeah, I wasn't thinking of if the the tree is on the property. Um I was thinking of the examples happening right now where it's near the property. Um on someone else's property.
I I think my answer would be the same that that neighbor could cut down the tree. I mean, there might be a recorded plan, for example, where you need a certain number number of trees on the property. They could have to replace it, but you know, in and of itself, you can't stop someone from chopping down a tree, and they might be required to
replace it, but they can chop down the tree. Okay. Um, and then my other additional question is, um, if and when this is adopted, um, what would the process look like in terms of grandfathering? like
where would the cut off be for what um plans would need to fall under this new salo versus the existing one? Um if there are land of plans that are submitted in advance of the final
enactment of the ordinance um those plans get the benefit of the previous existing ordinance. I would say they also get the benefit of the post enactment ordinance. In other words, you can't enact an ordinance that kind of
takes away rights from the landowner as they existed before enacting the ordinance. But if if for example, the ordinance uh would give that landowner additional rights or be more favorable to the land owner in some degree, they can take advantage of the new ordinance. So you you can't make it worse
basically. Okay. But it would be uh anything submitted, not just what is approved before it takes effect. The plan would need to be filed before final enactment of the salo or a zoning change for
example. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from members of council? I just have one follow I just have one followup question to uh Miss Lair's question. When you're talking about a tree, do you mean just the visual
portion of the tree or is the the root system considered? So you said a tree in in the city's right of way. Does that mean just the tree itself or does that mean if the root system goes under the the street, is that root system considered part of a tree in the city's right ofway? I'm not a tree guy. I was just saying
that in the rightway because the city owns the rightway. So that's why there's greater regulatory authority over the trees in the right way. But it would it would be the phys the tree phys that we can physically see. It wouldn't be like the root system itself that's much wider than the tree.
Um, by that I mean like let's see, say there's a tree on like right next to a fence and we're saying that the tree is not the city's business because it's on the fence, but it's right inside of the property line. But root system for trees are quite large. So the root system it it's underground, but it would be in the
city's right of way. Could it because it would more than likely be running up under the city's street. So, does that make it in the city's right of way and give the city ability to talk about the tree or just the visual portion of the tree, the trunk itself? Well, I guess if the roots are running outside the right of way, it's it's
similar if the branches overhead are running outside the right of way. Um, I I' I've seen this on occasion. You know, for example, if if the trees on your neighbor's property, but the branches extend onto your property, cross the line, you actually have it's actually a trespass. you actually have the right to
cut the branches up the property line and bill your neighbor for the cost of doing so. So those kind of things are can be can be trespasses actually that are remedied by civil actions not necessarily the subdivision and land development process. Okay. All right. Thanks.
Anything else for members of council? Mr. Callahan? No, I just want to thank all of you for all the work. It looks pretty extensive. So I want to thank you for all the time you did. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Callahan. the I don't I don't have any questions that weren't already answered. I just want to want to
briefly thank everybody for the years of effort that went into it. We know anything like this is always a heavy lift like we talk about when we review other um comprehensive updates to ordinances. And I I do also just want to thank everybody for as you went through
the presentation and you pointed out places where the SAO was where processes were simplified or streamlined, but that that's not sacrificing scrutiny as it relates to land development. And I just think that's important thing to um balance, right? We don't want to be too
draconian on people as it relates to um property rights and what they can do and all these processes that we want to put people through. Um but at the same time as Miss Collins had recognized for years now we have been implementing things and now just everyone doing their part to
bring it in one package in front of council but while um you know making revisions where we're appropriate to to balance it out. So thank you. Anything else for members of council? All right we will have public comment. This is exclusively for the public hearing. Uh
we did have one person sign up in advance. Pardon Mr. Faber. Did you want to make comment on the salo? I will ask everyone to still recognize our five minute time limit. Hello, Harry Faber. And now I would like
to apologize my preparation naively assume that this was an entirely new ordinance. And I recognize my lack of knowledge, dare I say ignorance in regards to the overall scope, intent, or even legal restrictions of this ordinance. However, I still have some thoughts. Uh to my knowledge, uh this
ordinance does nothing to prevent rent hikes or evictions resulting from new developments. There are no community land trusts or rent control mechanisms um included leaving workingclass residents vulnerable to displacement. Uh I find there to be pretty weak
environmental protections for the working-class neighborhoods, specifically green in green infrastructure incentives as in uh 1449.08 08 C are voluntary, meaning developers can ignore them to maximize profits at
the expense of public health. Um, I'm not a big fan of the privatization of public space. Um I also let's see I I don't again I could be wrong but I didn't see any that there was I I
believe there's no requirement for community input beyond perunctury public hearings which are uh tend to be dominated by the uh developers and landlords. Um and some rebuttals that I might hear I've kind of
prepared a little bit as well. Uh, one, you know, the argument that strict regulations raise costs and hurt housing supply. I would argue that the real barrier to housing isn't regulation, it's profit. Developers sit on vacant land, flip properties, and build luxury units while working-class families get
priced out. We need non-market housing uh built and controlled by the people, not speculators. Also uh another developer argument would be we need to streamline approvals to speed up construction and to that I would say streamlining for whom?
Fast-tracking approvals just means more loopholes for developers while bypassing community input. I believe we need democratic planning where workers and tenants decide what gets built, not backroom deals with capitalists. Uh I know many people want progress uh
now. I know many people want liberation now and I do too. I also recognize the time it takes to build the right movement, to build class consciousness, to build the world we want to live in. But in my opinion, this ordinance is not a step towards liberation. I find it to
barely be progress. It is the same old concessions to the capitalist ruling class. I acknowledge that I do not know, let alone understand all the rules and regulations, statutes, and whatnot. But what I do know is that when a system, as Mayor Reynolds always
discusses the systemic issues we are dealing with, when a system intentionally produces poverty, suffering, injustice, homelessness, joblessness, while also artificially preventing progress and prosperity for all, specifically the working class and
those most marginalized. It is time for the system to be overthrown. The time is now more than ever before. Those are my thoughts. Thank you, Mr. Favor. That was the only person we had signed up to make comment. So I'll go around the room. Again, this is just for the public hearing which is
the Salo update. Anyone to the left want to make comment? Mr. Hackit, I m sir hack I'm going to I'm going to go around the room. Would would you like to make comment now about the salo, sir? Mr. Hackey, I customarily go around the
room. So, I just would like to keep progressing how I normally do. Hi, my name is Bud Hackett and I am a a Betham resident for quite some time. Um, I do not know or I did not read the
entire salo. I scanned it a little bit, but I do have a couple of points or questions to raise. One is it wasn't clear to me and it became increasingly clear as the gentleman spoke, but it wasn't clear to me what the changes were
from the previous document. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but as I looked at the document that was emailed to us, um, I couldn't tell what the changes are. So, I didn't know what the changes were. I didn't know what the motivation for
changes were. And I guess the most important thing I have to say is I don't have a sense of what the impact of some of the changes are and the impacts on what. Uh hopefully it makes it a much better city, but I don't know that there
seemed to be quite a bit of input from I don't know the eight stops or whatever you refer to it as. There was a lot of input for the for the government insiders. Um, I naively was not aware that uh this
document had been in progress for 3 years. Shame on me for that. I should know everything, but I don't. Um, but I'm particularly concerned about having a better understanding of what the changes are, what has motivated the
changes. I imagine that's policy items. Uh, the council woman talked about the progressive for our vision or something like that. So, what's motivating and what the impacts are? Is this going to make things better, worse, more expensive,
less expensive? I enjoyed uh council person's uh uh Leairard's comment on storm water fees. One of the first times I've ever heard council say we might get a reduction in a fee or revenue to the city. Um so, there's a
lot of uncertainty and you can tell me later. we're addressing uh the audience uh when the opportunity would be for folks to ask those questions, get that review, understand the impacts of the proposal. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Hackit. I will remind everyone council is not voting on anything this evening. So, council will have two votes on the ordinance at upcoming council meetings where there will be more opportunity for council to uh address the administration. Anyone else in the wide scent? Is there anyone
in the wide center who would like to make comment? Mr. Shir, I didn't see your hand. You'll be next though then. Okay. Bill Sher, 1890 Eaton Avenue. Well, let me let me start with page 86
since it was mentioned previously and I hadn't gotten that far, but I one sentence just jumped out at me tonight. Under um paragraph D, David,
second sentence, it says blank walls without at least one, this is strikes me as humorous. Blank walls without at least one door and one window shall not face an arterial street. Thank God.
Perhaps it could be strengthened a bit. Maybe two doors and two windows. That's my comment. Um partly because I just got back from Wisconsin after spending two months there.
Um I didn't get through as much of this as I would like. In fact, only the LVPC letter in the first 10 pages. And the letter from LVPC was obviously written by a lawyer. And even though I'm
sometimes accused of being a lawyer, I still had to struggle to get through it. I think I understood it and the comments seemed to be reasonable. Um, I noticed in the media that the our
planning commission approved it, this ordinance unanimously. I'm wondering if they even had any amendments or even any comment. Quick story. When the zoning ordinance was
completely revised about 12 years ago and I was on the mayor's task force, our planning commission not only approved it unanimously, they did it without a single word of
comment. I couldn't believe it. What on earth is going on in this city? Unfortunately, our boards and commissions aren't terribly involved. And
that's too bad. We keep asking for volunteers. We need people. Maybe the reason people don't volunteer is because it's too difficult to accomplish anything. All right. To the ordinance itself. I have four comments so far. It's almost
a comment a page. I hope to have more at the first council meeting. The first comment is on page six under purposes and it says one of the purposes is safeguarding the interests of the
public, the homeowner, the subdivider, the land developer and the municipality. I would add one entity to that and that would be the neighborhood. You could argue that the neighborhood should be could be included in the
public, but there's an overlap between the public and the municipality and the public is mentioned for emphasis and I think it would be good to mention the neighborhood for emphasis as well. We have a zoning uh variance case on the
west side right now at 312 handover and I won't go into it but the neighborhood is up in arms and we'll see if that has any effect at all. The second comment is uh page seven
and this is uh has to do with um what what requirement for adoption and one of the things that uh it says here either the following occurs
the required improvements have already been done. Okay. or the city has been assured by means of a developer agreement and guarantees acceptable to the city of Bethlehem that the improvements will subsequently be installed.
I think we could use some stronger language there like what happens if or when is it determined that this has not been done? It seems like like you're going a little uh easy on the developer here and for
example what happens if it hasn't been done. Uh next comment is on um standards and where provisions, standards or
specifications of this ordinance conflict with those of any state statute, other ordinances or regulations, the more restrictive requirement shall ask you to be brief to wrap it up, please. I'll give you another good
couple seconds. Oh, what a dichotomy here. What a dichotomy. Okay, I'll finish this with a second comment and save the other two for later. Regardless of the source,
well, it seems to me you could have the source uh Harry Faber and I could come up with some requirements and restrictions and obviously that would not be acceptable. That's so that shouldn't be as broad as it is. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Shire. Sir, Joe Papowski running for city council. I'm going to be inspecting three rain gardens getting excavated tomorrow. I know what we're talking about here. A lot of what we have in this is awesome. It's really great, especially what they're doing with the storm order. But
while you look at this and vote on it, I urge you to look at each individual thing and ask if we need this. Do we really need this? Because everything you have on here is raising the cost of the development of the property, which is having an impact on our affordable housing crisis. And that's all I have to
say. Look at each one. If we need it, put it in there. But if we don't, maybe we want to wait a little bit longer uh because it's going to drive up the cost of housing. And everybody sits here and says about developers making a profit. Developers are a company. Companies
don't go in business without making a profit. If they don't make a profit, they don't build houses and we don't have houses. So you have to keep that in mind. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else in the wide center who wants to make comment? Mr.
O'Hare. Hello, Michael here from Bethlehem, 632 4th Avenue. Um, just two couple of uh things I wanted to say. One was about the process of what's going on here. Um, I saw this ad in the Bethlehem Free Press or the Bethlehem Press, uh,
printed media, thank God for printed media, u twice, you know, in two weeks about this, uh, hearing tonight. And I was a little surprised that, um, I I kind of pay attention to what's going on, but, um, I'm sure a lot of people have no idea in the city that this is
happening. Um I'm wondering if um there's a city council leazison if this is published maybe in the Bethlehem newsletters if it's on the website that thing that that kind of stuff is happening. Um I was a little surprised that um this has been going on for years
and the first I really heard about it was two weeks ago. So I think that um just speaks to maybe trying to uh make people more aware of the process of things that are happening in the city. Um was there a city council liaison
between um the uh group that was working on this new ordinance versus what we see you know what we're what we're being presented here tonight. Also the difference between the old and the new SADO is uh really it's like a totally different document. Um I I looked at the
old SAO and the new one and they don't compare at all and that's probably the way it is. But um I was surprised at how different the document is. And um also um the the not notice in the paper says
and Mr. Miller was kind enough to give me a 100page copy of the the ordinance, but it says come to city hall to get the ordinance to get a copy of the ordinance. it would have been probably better, more convenient for for it to be on the website for people to look at it
that way or download it if they want to. Um so maybe just you know thinking about that in the future. Now, for the substance of the two things on the substance, um they're coupling the salo with the climate action plan. And when you look at what we heard tonight was so
rain gardens, solar p solar panel ready roofs, uh less imper less impervious surfaces, uh bus shelters, bicycle racks that are covered, um landscaping, rain gardens, all those sorts of things. That's going to act add cost to
development. uh that developer is not going to absorb the cost. They're going to pass that cost on to the the renter or the the owner. And uh two weeks ago, we were here talking about uh the community development block grant, which
deals a lot with affordable housing issues with the poor sections of the city. My concern is um when you add all of these climate action plan goals into this ordinance, it's going to raise the cost. it's going to create less affordable housing and uh people are
going to suffer more with as a consequence of that. So I don't know if there somebody had mentioned this if if there's a uh incentive for the developer to if they do certain things they they would be rebated they would you know not be uh charged for maybe city fees that
kind of stuff. I think it might be an incentive you know an incentive to the developer to to comply with these things. Um and again my second point was I think it's going to raise the cost of development which is going to create more uh problems for affordable housing
and you might wind up with a homeless encampment encampment in a rain garden somewhere. So thanks. Thank you Mr. O'Hare. Anyone else in the wide center who wants to make comment on the SO back center. Hello, my name is Francis Kuna. Uh, I
have nothing prepared. It's very short. Uh, I just came to see what was going on in Bethlehem. Didn't know what you guys were discussing. But a major thing for me is, uh, affordable housing in Bethlehem. There is none of it. Um, the development that keeps happening in this area pushes poor people out into
different cities onto the greenway. Everything else, you guys complaining about homelessness, this is what causes it. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Curuto. I have to say that most of most of the things that you recommend for affordable
housing are right on target. But one thing you're not looking at. Most developers, they wind up saying we cannot build this project for anything less than and they all stick together on this thing. One thing you should ask them and make this make this official.
How much are you paying for your products to make the thing the development? Where are you getting them from? How much you paying for labor? This all goes into cost. Maybe they should get some of the
homeless people to do some of the labor to build some of those developments that they can live in. That would bring the cost down. Maybe we should go ahead and find out across the board where in the United
States they will get the products they need, the material they need for less. Not that they go ahead and get it from somebody who they they know that they might get a kickback from. There's too much of this going on in our country. Those are the things you need
to look at. The materials, how much you're paying for the materials, how much you're paying for labor. Those are two very important factors and then the cost could go down and we can have affordable housing. God bless. Thank you, Mr. Carla. Is there anyone
else in the room who has not had a chance to speak wanted to make a comment on the Salo? I see none. So, I'll remind everyone, pardon, that the proposed ordinance will be placed on the city council agenda for August 5th, and that'll be for first of
two readings. The public hearing is adjourned. So, now we'll continue on to our normal city council meeting. Approval of the minutes for the July 1st council meeting.
Any comments on the July 1 minutes? Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment for any subjects not being voted on this evening. We do have four people signed up. Our first being well, thank you again to everyone from the administration who came out to make the
presentation. Get home safe. And we'll continue on to public comment. Miss Mary Tuloose is our first speaker this evening. Yes. My name is Mary Tulus, live 1528 West Market Street and I'm here tonight representing the Monerary Neighborhood Association
and I would like to thank council for its support and authorization of the 2025 Rose Garden Farmers Market. Uh this is the ninth year of the market and I'm pleased to report that it has really taken off. We a been averaging about 500
shoppers a week thus far with a record high of 800. We've always had a strong social media presence, but this year we were also able to expand our visibility through onsite marketing and thanks in large part to the city's support of
this. After extensive research with PPNL, very extensive, we received approval to install four promotional banners on utility poles along 8th Avenue. We purchased, mana purchased the flags and the hardware, and the city
generously handled the installation. Additionally, some of our events have been posted on the city's website. Both of these examples have significantly boosted our outreach. Unfortunately, PPNL has informed us that they will only
authorize the city, not individual organizations like us, to request pole use in the future. So, we're hoping to have be able to work with the city again uh for the 2026 market. We have seen an increase in vendor participation this
year with a total of 30 tables, although some retail vendors are only half season and attend alternating weeks. And just as an FYI, MANA provides support for several startups each year. Be it by helping with vendor fees, finding
affordable insurance, finding access to local licensed kitchens. This year, we also had a notable rise in applications from nonprofit groups, many of which have lost all of their federal funding.
Joining us, for example, joining our community, our market community, for example, is one of our local women's shelters. Their members are now preparing and selling shish kebabs at the market to raise funds for their shelter. We also have welcomed a group
of uh a group that provides meaningful employment opportunities for children with special needs. These young vendors share their talents and sell unique products that they have made. Uh, additionally, some of our vendors donate
their surplus uh, products to Essentials Cafe, a pay what you can restaurant serving the Westside community. We do not charge any fees to our local nonprofits uh, who work in the come to the market.
One issue I do want to bring to your attention is the city's online vendor application. And I don't mean to offend anybody. I know all these things are hard work, but almost all of my vendors describe it as frustrating. I would actually quote them numerous times
having heard the word nightmare. And a few have decided not even to apply because of it. To be very clear on this issue, this is not a problem with the city staff. The administrators, event
coordinator, tax and health people have been incredibly helpful and responsive. The problem is the app itself. The users, the vendors, they just want to apply for a permit. They don't want to learn a new program that they're not
ever probably going to use again or maybe once a year. I understand that the city is considering modifying or replacing the current program. I'll be sending along a short list of suggestions that I have noticed. But please understand, I would be very happy
to contribute in any meaningful way volunteer to improving this application and application process. Um I am uh uh I web development is part of my professional responsibilities at
Lafayette College. So I'm familiar very familiar with platforms and usability issues from both a user and design perspective. So thank you again for your support of the market. Please visit the market shop
with us and uh thank you. Thank you Mr. Loose. Next speaker is Mr. Keratollah. Hi, I'm Arty Keratollah, A13 Law Street in Bethlehem on the south side. I like to say um
here in the city, we're the main thing is to protect the citizens of our city of Bethlehem. If our civil rights are are uh hindered by outside of the city that's affecting the people in the city,
we got to do what we can do to push the civil rights being properly activated all throughout outside our city as well for our citizens. citizens go to Mayberry, uh, New Jersey,
RFD, in some little town that winds up getting police officers that don't respect the uniform that they have like we do in Bethlehem. They don't respect it. All they do is look at it as a way to go ahead and be able to push legally push other people around
and take their civil rights away. The way that we can put enforcement on this thing is to make it that any police forces they use excessive force using police brutality conditions on becoming
of a police officer, perjury, anything of that nature, their prospectives of getting JAG grants, federal and state funds will go down.
depending how many complaints they had to it may not be nothing. They might be on suspension upon getting those giant grants. We got to make this happen. Push the governor to push the other governors
throughout the country so our citizens in Bethlehem are protected with our civil rights. I had my civil rights taken away from me in Asbury, New Jersey. On my birthday, I was speaking and a police officer caught
me totally offguard. I didn't expect it at all from a police officer. He wound up saying when I said as I was trying to talk, I said, "I let me sit down while I'm talking. Mr. Ker, you're
out of here." He grabs me from behind, throws me towards the door. I wasn't even being abusive. I was talking nicely. He said, "And besides that, you're under arrest." I said, "What for?" He said, "Now you're resisting arrest." Because my hands were alongside. Grabs him behind my back,
throws me against the wall, puts the cuffs on me, throws me outside against the guardrail, puts me against the the uh his patrol car. He said, "Spread your legs. We're taking you in. We got to go through your pockets." He goes through my pockets. I guess of course that does that probable cause doesn't matter on
the streets but the thing is if probable cause should be if there's a reason for that but there was no reason if they're uh videos are working on their lapels all three officers those videos should be working when I when I go to that courtroom next week if those videos
aren't working I'm going to be up if I don't if it's don't get thrown away I serve time I wound up And I was injured greatly from this. He actually put his whole weight after he had the handcuffs on me. That
punk puts his whole weight to my back and messes up my side. Cracks my gives me a hairline fracture. Now, where is that condition becoming of a police officer? We don't do that in Bethlehem. We should not expect that to be done to our citizens of Bethlehem in any place
in New Jersey, in Kentucky, anywhere in our country. We should not tolerate this and go to our government to make it that they will not get their grants if they are using excessive force with police brutality conditions on becoming of a
police officer. Any things that are not proper for a police officer, we stand by for them. If they come to our city music fest, our police officers don't do what theirs what theirs would do. They should be doing the same. We need to push to
our governors to go across the board throughout the whole United States. Police officers that are doing this stuff, they don't get their JAG grants properly, they'll get less money and maybe no money from federal or state funds for whatever they're they're looking for with their police
departments. That's basically what I have to say. But I was injured when I was just trying to go ahead explain the situation and another woman was injured for no reason
at all. She lost her child through it and she couldn't sue because they had it all worked out that they were right. We got to stand behind our citizens. God bless. Thank you, Mr. Chola. Our next speaker
is Mr. Will Weber, Mark will Weber here to represent the Drip, the uh citizen advocate for uh sewer and water issues. Um that's a lot of fire. I don't think I can match the fire, but I'm going to talk about water, you know, fire and
water. Anyway, um I was when I was here last I think it was April uh I did mention that uh without these uh devices that will allow the citizens to measure their water usage as they get these new smart meters put in. And I
said, 'I guarantee you that somebody out there right now is accumulating a large water bill because they're not going to get their bill for three three months, a quarter where if they had the device, they would know within hours presumably if they looked at it or days uh that
something was wrong with their water. So sure enough on our site the drip uh a woman reported that her residence was charged for 26,000 gallons of water for the quarter. She normally uses five or 6,000. So four
times uh it's basically what I use in a year. Uh uh so it's a lot of water. uh probably going to be 250 300 buck penalty fine which is totally unnecessary if they would come across and put these devices
in which is being done all around the country. So instead this this these people are blindsided by one of these mega bills and as I stand here again tonight I'm telling you right now it's happening again. people are accumulating these
large water bills because these guys either through indifference or ineptness have not put in uh these devices. Now think about how unfair that has been because they come into your house, they go, "You got to take this new smart meter. You can't refuse to take it. You
have to take it. In fact, you can go to jail if you if you don't take it." Google Neighborville, Illinois, 2013. two women who tried to refuse uh installation of the water meter and they cuffed them and put the meter in while they were in jail. Uh
so anyway, yeah, if and this could be done and it's blatantly unfair. They come in, you got to take the meter, you have no choice on the model of the meter uh or the uh company of the meter. you got to take what they give you and uh and you're told that well maybe down the
line we're going to give you the the one thing that's good for the citizen that will allow them to uh not get fined like this. Um, now, uh, Senator Boscola
back in, uh, I think at the end of 24 wrote a nice op-ed about big electric and how the citizens are getting abused by big electric. Uh, coincidentally, no mention about water, however, and uh, I say to you, does it matter whether
you're getting mowled by big electric or big water? It's like, you know, you get mauled by a tiger or a lion. what's the difference? And uh you know, I don't know where we are in this, but it it's it really has to be done and it's being
done all around the rest of the country. Um there's something out there called Aquahawk. The last time I mentioned Eyes on Water, Aqua Hawk is being put in in it's already in in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Morgantown, West Virginia, Appleton,
Wisconsin, uh St. Labispo, California, and it allows the citizen to measure their water consumption by the hour. Now, I don't know whether we're ever going to get there. My my smart meter's been in for almost a year and a half,
but I've heard nothing about this device that would protect me or protect these people that just happened to. So, when does a citizen get something good done? you know, uh the the director is still making his six figure salary and they're
collecting all this revenue from these smart meters, but yet we don't have the protective device yet. And no mention when we will. And I don't know if we will because when it was brought up originally, he right away said, "Well, we'll do it for
businesses." But he danced around whether or not he would do it for the private citizen. Fred a stair would have been jealous of those uh dance steps. So he didn't I don't know if he will do it or he'll drag it out drag it out and as
he drags it out people are getting penalized and they should get a moratorum on these penalties because these guys have the ability to stop it and they're not doing it again through either indifference or ineptness
should be done. Thanks. Thank you Mr. Will Weber. Our next speaker is Mr. Faber, Harry Faber. Um, I actually have good news for once as it pertains to civil rights. I am honored uh to be a part of the Lehigh Valley Emergency Response
Network and I am pleased to announce that we have officially launched our hotline on Monday, our ICE rapid response hotline. The number is 6100-850-9930. Now, the emergency response network is a tool for education and communication. It
is not the end goal, but it is a stepping stone towards workingclass liberation. And at first, I would also like to shame the prank callers. Since its launch, we've already received a number of prank callers. And we are not just here protecting our migrant
community, but anybody who may be unjustly kidnapped by ICE or other federal agents, which is likely to come. And I would also like to shame the city government because I'm uh sure that you were aware that this was occurring and
still no one from Bethlehem city government showed up to the training nor the launch. I also would like to say how disheartening it is that anytime I see a member of this administration or council outside of this room, they are only concerned with campaigns. The other day
I saw Laura Collins at the joint and I can't fully comment as to what she was working on. But I can say the only thing I did hear was her talking about Willy's campaign after the mayoral race. And for someone who is a lawyer of the city, I am deeply troubled. But what I can only process as this city's lack of concern
regarding the kidnappings that occurred at the 510 flats. The last meeting practically acted as if they did not occur. Uh, also to further address last meeting, I recognize the well-intended nature of city council president. For the most part, you may not believe me. I
really try to recognize when everyone is well-intentioned, even when I couldn't possibly disagree more. However, we live in unprecedented times. I would argue it is out of touch with reality to ask anyone, especially the working class, to maintain any semblance of civility or
decorum at these meetings when just about everyone knows the horrors going on as a direct result of the American government after 647 days of taxpayer funded live stream genocide. After the construction of concentration camps on American soil already proven to be
violating human rights. After the destruction of due process, after the repeal of Roie Wade, after the government has enabled and abetted the plundering and destruction of our environment, after quite literally everything going on with the Jeffrey Epstein case, after time and time again
of being proven that this government is corrupt and protects the kingly lifestyle of the ruling class, I would ask, how the heck can anyone who has any sort of class consciousness or even the smallest thread of empathy be expected to
maintain civility when every bit of suffering is ignored. That is all. Thank you, Mr. Favor. That exhaust, excuse me, that exhausts our list who had signed up. So, I'll go around the room. Is there anyone to the left who want to make comment this evening? Sure.
Good evening. Mike Stafford, 909 Kauga Street, Bethlehem. Um, before I get to what I wanted to talk about, I just wanted to commend and compliment our police department. Um, I moved nine times before I graduated from high school. So, I lived in many different
states and um encountered growing up many different police departments and many different experiences and most of them were very good. But I can say unequivocally our cities of Bethlehem's
police department is at another level. I'm not being paid to say this and I'm not getting a get out of jail free card or anything like that, but it's sincere. So I think we need to really uh these meetings typically a lot comes up here
in the way of of criticism or complaint and sometimes wellounded, right? But um I'm a big believer in giving compliments when they're when they're due and deserved and they're very deserved and that's coming from a big context of
seeing many different police departments. So we have truly one of the finest. So we should be grateful for that. So um just I'm going to just tell a story real quick. Um, when I moved here 44 years ago, uh, young 22-year-old
kid, uh, from California, had no intention of staying here. I met my wife. I've been here for about 40 years ever since. Um, but I'll never forget, I had a job at Halddederman Ford over on Tilman Street up at the other end of Allentown. It was like my first or
second week living here. I was living with my uncle and aunt at the time. And uh I had to drive all the way over to Easton to the courthouse uh for some type of a document. I was getting, you know, all my all my papers, driver's license switched over and everything. So
I had to make the big long trek from Allentown all the way to Easton. And uh so and this is not a knock against Allentown or Eastston, but it's a compliment to Bethlehem. So, I'm driving and I'm going on Tilman
Street and I had this sense of city, metropolis, intense, you know, busy busy city, right? And and when I got to the curve where Tilman Street turns into Union Boulevard into Bethlehem, I'll never forget and I
couldn't put my finger on it. It was an intangible thing and I remember it to this day but I remember this sense of like peace and calm like wow what just changed that's strange you know and and it dawned on me uh I had just entered the
Bethlehem city limits right and I and I I remember driving down Union Boulevard past Nichman you know down through downtown Bethlehem and it was just this this feel it was just like a different feel it felt like a town, not like a
city, right? And then I got over to like the Williams Township area where Eastston Avenue turns into uh William Penn Highway and started getting into the Eastn area and that feeling left me and the city
feeling came back. This intense busy city feeling, not a knock against them, but there was no doubt Bethlehem was different. It was just different feel. And I'm sure many of you know exactly what I'm talking about,
which brings me to my concern. Um, this isn't a question. It's not a demand. This is just something to say, please think about this in the months going forward. Um, I've heard comments sometimes to the effect of, "We want
everybody to enjoy this feeling we have in Bethlehem." I think I was at a city council meeting once where one of the people said,"I I don't want anybody to be denied living here who wants to live here." And I remember thinking,"Well, that's noble and it sounds virtuous, but
like you literally can't have everybody living here. Otherwise, Bethlehem loses its Bethlehemness, right? Um, and I think we're at a crossroads. I really do. I think we're sitting at a precipice where we're going
to develop and build every last open space we have to make room for every and anybody. And it sounds noble and it sounds great. But at what point is the feeling that we get
when we come from Eastston to Bethlehem to Allentown going to go away and we're just another abstract endless enigma of a metropolis. I don't want to see that happen. So I'm just asking you in the months and years
going forward to just keep in the back of your mind you're the you're the guardians of what makes Bethlehem Bethlehem. Thank you Mr. Thank you. Is there excuse me is there anyone else in the wide center make comment? Mr. Sh.
Bill Shy again. I had two other things I was thinking of talking about tonight, but but I've got to follow what he just said. And he said it better than I've been trying to say it. There is something special about
Bethlehem. That's the words I've been using, the character of Bethlehem, and we're in danger of losing it. And it's Well, let me let me say this. this some
years ago there this um organization called umh forget the name of it but it was the movers and shakers of the Lehigh Valley and they had a focus groups and I remember I was in one focus group
of about half a dozen people and a young man was our moderator and he said the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission is predicting that 50,000 people will move here in the next 20 years into the Lehigh Valley.
And I raised my hand. I said, "Where is it written we have to make room for 50,000 more people?" Not that I'm against people wanting to live here. That's a nice thing in a way.
But Bethlehem right now is changing as we speak. Um, somebody who I respect has said that the south side is already gone. It's starting to happen to the west side
and the north side. Not that we can't make room for some more people, in particular affordable housing. That's another subject. We should use some vacant land that does exist to erect some housing that uh is not so
expensive. Like for example, the industrial park to the east of the southside, get some of that land back and build some decent housing that it doesn't cost so much. But the bigger question is,
are we going to retain what makes Bethlehem special? and he put his finger on it rather well. I've said in the past that uh Bethlehem is not a city, it's a town, but big big
enough to be interesting in almost every respect. And that is something special. There is a sense of calm, of relative peace. Yeah, we do have some aggressive drivers now. It's the immigration from New Jersey has
done that. But uh on the whole it's not too different from the city the town that I grew up in and it's there's something special about it and we really ought to try hard
to retain that special character. So that means we have to cast a very a lot of scrutiny on some of these changes that people want to bring. Uh, another
way of saying this is a good friend of mine who knows Philadelphia said that Bethlehem is in danger of becoming like North Philadelphia. Uh, she said that
North Philadelphia was once a neighborhood full of ethnic neighborhoods, the little neighborhoods all over the place. They're all gone. Now it's a sea of six-story apartment buildings. Sound familiar? Six-story apartment
buildings, five-story apartment buildings. They're coming. I recently had a long chat with Rocky. He's one of our better developers. Actually, they call him Rocky because his last name is unpronouncable.
He's a immigrant from Bulgaria, incidentally. And he and I have had several good talks. and he prides himself on taking properties that are in trouble and making something good from them. And
that was his name, his goal with the Boyd Theater Apartments. Uh, but I told him straight out, Rocky, it's too big and too plain, though it's a darn sight better than the
original design. He fired the first architect, which I it reminded me of uh Lower East Side 100 years ago. That was the original design. Anyway, I'm out of time again, but this is something that we need to focus on or we're going to
lose it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shy. Was there anyone else in the wide center who would like to make comment? Mr. Antalix. Well, well said girl. Stephen and Talics 737 Ridge Webster defines the term protest as a
solemn declaration of opinion and usually of dissent. Famous historical protest was the Boston Tea Party. A disguise as Native Americans was necessary
by local taxpayers since the British government considered the protest an act of treason with possible death as a resulting penalty. An interesting aspect of the recent protest at city council meetings has
been done by a majority of youthful elements of the community over the issue of human rights abuse internationally. Something new for Bethlehem. A very healthy sign for democracy's future depends on the positive
involvement of its youth on public issues. Consequently, one would expect respect and encouragement by its senior element. To the contrary, is actually city council itself who is
acting as a negative force. The strife in the Middle East has provoked many local college students to use the grassroots level town meeting to voice their protests, extending the meeting time well beyond
the normal limits. One council member suggested limiting one public comment section only to city business not being voted for the topic of choice. A request which in effect would be
muzzling the free speech of those youths whom they should be encouraged encouraging to be engaged on more public social matters. The human rights issue has come home to arrest for ICE managed to incarcerate 17
members of a working crew in this city. Of all the local community officials responding to the issue, Beth's response can best be described as lame to almost nothing.
Although there's been excessive official verbage verbiage at council meetings. A lot to do about nothing. You could rename the last city council meeting as
honoring the film Silence of the Lambs. Thank you, Mr. Antalics. Is there anyone else in the center who wants to make comment who's not had a chance? Anyone to the right? That concludes our public comment for
anything not being voted on. We didn't have anyone sign up for second public comment, which is any ordinance or resolution that we are voting on tonight. Is there anyone who would like to make comment on anything we're voting on tonight? Seeing none, we'll continue on.
Any old business from members of council, I'll move on to new business. Before I open it up to council, I will accept a motion and a second to reschedule the time of the city council meeting. Our next one, which would be Tuesday, August
5th, 2025 to 5:30 p.m. instead of our typical 700 p.m. start time. And this is since the meeting occurs during the week of music fests. So moved. Second. So a motion by Councilwoman Quiet, second by Councilwoman Wilhelm.
Any discussion on the motion? Mr. Miller, please call the role. Miss Leon, I. Miss Wilhelm, I. Mr. Callahan, hi. Miss Quiet, I. Miss Leairard, I. And Mr. Cologne. I passed 6. So the motion passes. That's
just a reminder to everyone. Our next council meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. on August the 5th. Gentlemen, I'm going to ask you to take your convers. Gentlemen, I understand. If I could hear you, the room can hear you. Thank you.
Understood. And then uh before I open it up to the rest of council for the agenda, because it came up earlier, our agenda is posted online by the clerk's office the f the by the close of business on Fridays. So, as it relates to something like the Salo and the 100
plus pages, Mr. Miller double checked while he was sitting here next to me. It is posted with all the city council documents online should anyone ever want to review them beforehand. Hearings are also uh publicized. They're they're advertised in accordance with uh statutory requirements.
Thank you, Attorney Stewart. Any new business from members of council? Mr. Callahan. Yeah, I just got a a few things. Uh m uh m miss the larkin company had um a presentation that uh the um
parking authority um a few weeks ago and they had said that there's they're doing 108 units in the white box that are one and two bedrooms but the website their website says 122 units. Do you know what what's your number that is? Is it 122 or 108?
I'm not I'm not sure. What are you t what website are you talking about? on on the Larkin company. Oh, they they posted about this particular project. Yeah. Oh, it said it said 122 units. I believe the most recent draft that they have was closer to 100.
100. Yeah. All right. Because they said at the um they they haven't they haven't submitted their formal plans. Well, actually, I take that. I apologize. They do have plans I think that are in for the August 13th HARB meeting is when they'll have
their first public presentation. Um I I don't recall off hand the exact number but I think it's closer to the 100 108 number than it is to Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. um all of you that commented tonight about the affordability and and um Beth and
how beautiful it is and everybody here here feels the same way, I'm sure. And I agree with a lot of the statements everybody made tonight, but there's there there's a catch 22, right? So yesterday, I don't know if anybody saw this in in in the morning call
yesterday, uh a national study was done uh by Rent Cafe and it's in if you look at it, it's in the bottom page of the front page of the morning call. It's a very good article and it it said that uh
the Lehigh Valley it the rental competitive index the competitive index for the whole country the Lehigh Valley score was 90.9 out of 100. The national average is 74.6.
That's astronomical. We are the second most popular or or or competitive rental market in the United States. It said on there that for every for every one unit that
goes up for rent, there's 14 people trying to get that one rental unit in the city of Bethl. That's astronomical. And it's a problem because if we don't if we don't build, what happens?
Supply and demand. The the the the the supply stays the same. The demand keeps going up and up and up. The higher the demand, the higher the price, selling price, and the rental prices. And that's what's happened because we haven't had I mean,
we think we've had a lot of uh development and apartments built in the city. We really haven't nothing near what what um we need to keep up with the the demand of the people that want to live here. Just like we all want to live here
and we think there's a beautiful place. There's thousands of people who come to Musicfest and come to our festivals and say, "Man, you know, I I live on Main Street right across from Real Works in those condos and I'm out there and people walk whenever I'm outside doing yard work. I I was I was just putting
plants out there the other day. Uh, I know it's hard to believe that that I would be putting plants out in front of my little place, but you know, I got a a green thumb and people every time I'm out there, people, hey, hey, what are these units going for? And they're shocked when I tell them. They weren't that expensive when I bought them when I
bought it. But it's the price. And they don't even go on the market anymore. They're all priv private sales, most of them. And I say this because we either build more units to try to alleviate
uh the the the the supply issue which will which should bring things down a little bit or we don't build more units and things get more astronomically uh expensive. My son owns two rental units, two half doubles. He bought them
uh probably about maybe seven years ago for 150,000. He fixed them up. He he I was looking at comps the other day in that area. $380,000 for a half of a double. That is It's
ridiculous. And that's a starter home. 380. Some same comps, same house. And I guarantee you a couple of them aren't even as nice inside as his because he remodeled them. And that's one of the issues. People, a lot of people want to
live here. And so they find a home that's beat up, what we might think is a $200,000 home. what 250 would be nice for a starter home for someone. People that want to really live here, who want to move here, that are getting older, are buying these units, putting 20,
$40,000 in them, gutting them, and and making all brand new kitchens, all brand new bathrooms, and either reselling them or keeping them and renting them out for astronomical rates. That's what's going on in the city. It's just not in the southside. It's I grew up in West Betham
over in Kwin Avenue. those homes that there were I mean they were like lower middle class of housing and the the price of those units over there are are getting at a price that I can't even believe my dad would roll over in his grave right now if he if he thought if
he knew the price he could get for the house that we grew up in. But um it's so it's a dilemma. It really is. And it's something that it's a catch 22 and we're damned if we do. We're damned if we don't because if we start building a lot of units, people are going to be upset
at that. So, um if we don't, it's just going to increase that intensity. It's kind of like I I tell people and and I'm not being mean when I say this, but um you know, some say, "Hey, Betham's getting too expensive to live here." I said, "I
know it is not just for me, but for everybody. Every time we raise taxes, it becomes more expensive to live here. Every time we add I don't I don't know what gentleman brought up the uh um the thing uh the new requirements in a salo. I think it was Mr. O'Hare. Is that was
that you about about the um about the new greenery, you know, things that you know that's in a salo. Every time we add things and make it more expensive to a builder or a developer or someone that buys a house and is going to rent it, every time we increase their costs,
those costs are just get those costs are getting added on to the renter. I have a rental unit um um a three-unit on Lindy Street. Every time I get inspected, I have no problem with it. You know, I had to put some new plumbing in. I had to do this, I do that. But I don't eat that
cost. I'm not going to eat it. I have to add that on to the the the rental. So, when the lease is up at the end of the year, I increase the rent. And that's what everybody does. I don't want to lose money. I'm I'm a retired school teacher. So, I bought that as an
investment property 20 years ago, and I don't want to lose money on it. You know, I'm trying I'm trying to create a nest egg for my kids for for when I pass. So, I'm not I'm not trying to lose money on it. I'm trying to just stay afloat
and stay ahead of the bills. And that's and that's what what a lot of people in the city are doing. So, I mean, it's a really tough situation. And I don't I I'm not sure anybody up here has the answer. And I'm sure none of you have the exact answer to do because if
we if we build more and more and more, people are going to be upset. We build higher higher higher, people are going to get upset. But if we don't build, there's a lot of people in this city who are not going to be able to afford to live here anymore. And unfortunately, this is my opinion.
I think the Southside rents in the next 10 years are going to be so astronomical a large portion of the people cannot live there anymore in 10 years, 10, 15 years. That's just my opinion. Because what you're seeing over there is a
vibrant area of restaurants, shops. It's becoming a younger neighborhood. I hate to say this, it's becoming a little bit more gentrified because things are getting so nice over there. And I and I and I fear that a lot
of people who've been living over there, if they don't own a home and they're renting, are going to be priced out of the market in the next 10, 15 years. that that's just what that's my belief, which I hope does not happen. So, I just say this because, you know,
everybody's in agreement at keeping Bethlehem a beautiful place to live. Everybody keeping our taxes low, keeping our city, our parks nice, the roads nice and paved, our schools great. But the nicer we make it, the more more people
that want to live here. I can't afford to live in Manhattan. I would love to live on um um you know the Central Park South. I can't afford to live there. You know, everybody would love to live there, right? But you can't I can't. So,
I have to live somewhere else. And I think that's what's going to happen in the city of Beth. There's going to be a lot of people who live here now that can't afford to live here and are going to have to probably move to a less expensive place where where there's lower rents like Katosaka or Northampton or um you know I don't know but Beth is
going to be very expensive city to live in the next 1015 years no matter what we do I think and that's just and I just wanted to thank all of you for speaking tonight because you know we start talking about these issues it it's a complicated thing but we're damned if we do We're damned if we don't. So, thank
you. Thank you, Mr. Callahan. Any other new business for members of council? Councilwoman Wilhome. Just because I see Miss Too is still here. Um, I just wanted to congratulate you on the Rose Garden market. I um have seen it grow over the years. I really
feel uh it is an ideal spot for such a market and been pleased to see increased vendors. Um, I'm friendly with some of the vendors there and know that your communication has been appreciated in the ways in which you have worked to grow the market. So, I I'm glad to hear
that the vendor process is being made um more streamlined. I appreciate your work with local nonprofits as well. Um, and um you you represent please pass it on then. Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other new
business from members of council? Councilwoman Leo. Um, uh, Mr. Will Weber brought up some really good points that I would love to talk about, but not right this this moment because I want to look into this Aqua Hawk and stuff like that. Um, but I did want to turn to Mr.
Boscola and thank you and your department publicly for uh, helping the business owner over in South Bethlehem. He called me um, quite uh, agitated about the co what could be the cost. Um and the city came out and was there as
UGI was doing their work kind of assess the situation and um Toby was very helpful in helping that business owner walk through that process. Um and the city support of that business owner really made it so that he wasn't going
to incur a cost that he can't incur. Um, so you know, I know that the residential aspect is something we we should all talk about as a council, but I once again want to thank you and your department for their professionalism and their um whenever they whenever they can, whenever it's something that we can do, standing up for the business owners
and making sure that they're able to continue doing business when they're on these tight tight budgets, not incurring additional costs. So just once again, thank you in your department and if you can pass my appreciation on to Toby as well. Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other new
business? We will continue on with the agenda. Mr. Miller, communication 6C, June 26, 2025, memorandum and proposed resolution from Police Chief Michelle Cot regarding special event parking during Musicfest 2025. The time period
will be from 12:00 p.m. on Friday, August 1st through 11:559 p.m. on Sunday, August 10th. North side and southside provisions are provided and are detailed on a map that is attached as an exhibit. And resolution 10C is on the agenda tonight. 6D
the July 9th, 2025 memorandum from city solicitor Johnsburg Jr. with an attached use permit agreement and resolution. Permit is the Bradberry Selvin LGBT community center and subpermmite is Arts Quest. The activity is the 2025 Lehigh
Valley Pride Festival. It will take place from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. on August 17th. Permit duration will be 9:00 a.m. until midnight on the same date. Premises will be First Street from Pulk Street to the Eastern Terminus and Founders Way between First and Second Streets.
Resolution attendee is also on the agenda 6E. A July 9th, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Lori Gillio, Grants Administrator for Community and Economic Development. Miss Jillio seeks authorization to apply for an emergency
solutions grant for up to $1.5 million from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development on behalf of Lehigh Valley's homeless service providers who are represented by the Lehigh Valley Regional Homeless Advisory Board. City would serve as a
pass through for this money which may be used for activities such as rapid rehousing, homeless prevention, and emergency sheltering. And resolution 10 is on the agenda. 6 6F a July 9th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Lori Gillio grants
administrator for community and economic development. Miss Jillio seeks authorization to apply for a grant through the multimodal transportation fund raising for ranging from $100,000 to $3 million from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic
Development. Request includes funds to improve the sidewalks on Getter Street, repair the roadway, and update the ADA ramps. Resolution 10F is on the agenda tonight. 6G, a July 9th, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from city solicitor John
Furke Jr. Memorandum recommends a non-exclusive video sharing license agreement with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The agreement would allow the Department of Transportation to share video and images from its traffic cameras with the city under specified terms and conditions. Resolution 10G is
on the agenda. 6H, the July 9th, 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Laura Collins, director of community and economic development, seeking authorization to submit the 2025 annual action plan consolidated plan and
proposed CDBG and home allocations to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. These documents are reviewed during were reviewed during the June 3rd public hearing held by DCED and a July 1st public hearing before city council.
And that resolution 10B is on the agenda this evening. Moving on to reports. I don't have anything to report tonight. Anyone from the administration? Mr. Evans is saying no. Thank you, Mr. Evans. We'll turn to our acting finance committee chair, Councilwoman Quiet. The
finance committee met earlier tonight at 6 p.m. in town hall. There were six budget adjustments on the agenda. The finance committee voted to advance all six ordinances involving budget adjustments to council tonight for first reading. Hillary Quitech, acting chair, finance committee.
Thank you, Councilwoman. We don't have any ordinances for final passage tonight, so we'll move on to new ordinances. Mr. Miller 9A. An ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending the 2025 capital budget for
non-utilities. Bill number 33, 2025 is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quitech. Discussion, Council, um I believe this is right. This is one of the things that we voted on tonight. And so I just wanted to mention that um
the uh the money came from Yeah. the local share u grants from Northampton and Monroe counties and they are being moved into um a revenue you know a line a budget line so that it can be used for
the uh gateway of fourth um development the affordable housing development thank you councilwoman any other discussion counciloman um I will also point out since we've also we've had conversations about affordable housing this evening there's very few
remedies for affordable housing that we have at the municipal level. So much of this stuff is dictated by the state. We can't do rent control. There's so much that we can't do, but what we can do are projects like like these that give actual affordable housing to a community. To Councilman Callahan's point, that has really beared the brunt
of development. I I genuinely believe you can study the housing crisis in the United States by studying South Bethlehem. Um but projects like this are what we have within our arsenal to to really move the needle when it comes to affordable housing. Thank you. Any other discussion?
Mr. Miller, call the role. Miss Leon, I. Miss Wilhelm. Hi. Mr. Callahan. Hi. Miss Guate. I. Miss. Lair. I. And Mr. Cologne. I pass 609B. An ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending
the 2025 capital budget for non-utilities. Bill number 34 2025 is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quitech. discussion. Town one. Hi again. And I'm glad that Moose is here for this because um this is $50,000 that's going for Rose Garden
Improvements. Um it was a grant and uh I can say that it's going to be used for upgrading lighting, litter receptacles, uh asphalt pathways, and I forget what the other things were, but um I thought
the upgrading the lighting and the litter receptacles in particular um were were good news that I wanted to make sure that you heard. Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other discussion? Call the RO. Miss Ley, I. Miss Wilhelm. I Mr. Callahan. Hi, Miss Quit. Hi,
Miss Leairard. I Mr. Cologne. I pass 69 C. Ordinance of the city of Bethlehem, Counties of Lehi, Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending the general fund for 2025. Bill number 35, 2025 is sponsored by Miss Crampy
Smith and Miss Quitech. Discussion Council. Hi again. Uh, so this is actually just a money move. Um, and you'll see in uh 9E, I believe the other side of it. Um, it's really just to move money from the
general fund into a HUD budget line. Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other discussion? Call the RO. Miss Leon, I. Miss Wilhelm, I. Mr. Callahan, I. Miss Cle, I. Miss Leairard, I. Mr. Cologne, I passes 609D. An ordinance of the city
of Bethlehem, counties of Lehi and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending the general fund for 2025. Bill number 36, 2025 is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quiet. Discussion, Councilwoman Quitech. So, this is really interesting. You all
might be interested in this. We have to have a um certified sewer uh inspector um on staff uh and uh for inspecting and being there on site when septic tank work is being done, which is very rare
in our city, but uh the person who had that certification left. So, we're just sort of between that time and training someone else in the department. So, we're just outsourcing the septic tank inspection work. Thank you. Any other discussion?
That might be interesting to somebody. It's all interesting. Call the RO. Mr. Miss Leon. I. Miss Wilhelm. Hi. Mr. Callahan. Hi. Miss Guy. Hi. Miss Lair. Hi. And Mr. Cologne. I passed 6 9. Ordinance of the city of Bethlehem
counties of Lehi and Northampton, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending the community development block grant budget for 2025. Bill number 37 2025 is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quuitech. Discussion. We'll call the role.
Miss Lem I. Miss Wilhelm. Hi. Mr. Callahan. Hi. Miss Quitech. I. Miss Leairard. I. And Mr. Colom. I pass 60. And final ordinance 9F. An ordinance of the city of Bethlehem counties of Lehi and Northampton
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amending the community development block grant budget for 2025. Bill number 38 2025 is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quitech. Discussion. I do want to mention about this one um
that uh this is coming about as a result of um funds that were allocated to the Friendship Park project and the Friendship Park project actually came in under bid. So we're able to re use those funds for other purposes. Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other
discussion? Call the RO. Miss Leon. I Miss Wilhelm. Hi, Mr. Callahan. Hi, Miss Guatek. Hi, Miss Leard. Hi, Mr. Cologne. I pass 6. Moving on to resolutions 10 A. Be it resolved by the council of the
city of Bethlehem in accordance with the municipal records manual hereby authorizes the disposal of public records in the financial services department as set forth in exhibit A. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quiet. Discussion. Call the RO. Miss Leon.
I. Miss Wilhelm. I. Mr. Callahan. Hi, Miss Quiet. I Miss Leairard, I and Mr. Colum. I pass 6 10B. It resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the city's program year 2025 CDBG annual action
plan and its home investment partnerships program annual action plan and 2025 through 2029 5-year consolidated plan action plan are hereby approved for submission to HUD by the mayor along with required assurances and
certifications. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Grampy Smith and Miss Quitech. Discussion. Call the roll. Miss Leon I. Miss Wilhelm. I. Mr. Callahan. Hi. Quiet. I. Miss. Leard. I. And Mr. Cologne. I pass 6 10 C.
Be resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that during the period 12 noon Friday, August 1st, 2025 through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 10th, 2025. And in connection with 2025 music festival, all violations of provisions
of article 531 parking generally and the subsections specified in the resolution shall carry the modified fines as specified in the resolution. The resolution is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quitech. Discussion. Call the role.
Miss Leon I. Miss Wilhelm. I. Miss Callahan. I. Miss Quiet. I. Miss Leairard. I and Mr. Cologne. I pass 60 10D. Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller andor such other city
officials is deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute a use permit agreement with the Bradberry Sullivan LGBT community center for the 2025 Lehigh Valley Pride Festival. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quiet.
Discussion. Call the RO. Miss Leyon I Miss Wilhelm I Mr. Callahan I Miss Quitec I Miss Leairard I and Mr. Cologne I pass 6 10E resolved by the council of the city of
Bethlehem that the mayor is authorized and directed to execute all application forms necessary to apply for an emergency solutions grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for the prevention of homelessness and related activities. And be it further resolved that the
mayor is authorized to execute such other agreements and documents as are deemed to be necessary andor related there too. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quuitech. Discussion. Call the role. Miss Leon I. Miss Wilhelm I.
Mr. Callahan I. Miss I. Miss Leard I. And Mr. Cologne. I pass 60 10F. Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor is authorized and directed to execute all application forms necessary
to apply for a grant through the multimodal transportation fund through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to improve the sidewalks on Ghetto Street and update the ADA ramps. Be it further resolved that the mayor is authorized to execute such other agreements and documents as
are deemed to be necessary and/or related there too. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quitech. Discussion. Call the RO. Miss Leon. I. Miss Wilhelm. I. Mr. Callahan. I. Miss Guate. I. Miss. Leard. I.
And Mr. Cologne. I pass to 6. And lastly, Teng. Be it resolved by the council of the city of Bethlehem that the mayor and controller and/or such other city officials as deemed appropriate by the city solicitor are hereby authorized to execute an agreement with the commonwealth of
Pennsylvania to grant a limited non-exclusive non-transferable revocable license to the city to use to use video imagery from its traffic cameras. Resolution is sponsored by Miss Crampy Smith and Miss Quitech. Discussion
council. Could I just have a little bit more information about this? Like is this um an existing agreement that we're continuing? Um what is the purpose? Like what depth of sharing? Uh do you know how far
does it go? etc. Absolutely. So, this is a new agreement um similar to the traffic footage that news media such as WFMZ utilize uh and some of the bigger news outlets down in
Philadelphia, they have cameras. Uh they have a camera agreement with PEDOT to view the cameras that are on like 76, the Skookul Expressway. This will enable us to view only the cameras that are in place that are owned by PennDOT on Route
378. So, it's not used for enforcement. Um, it's just a means similar to the news media of being able to bring up that camera and check the uh the the traffic conditions or if there's an accident, it could be
utilized for investigative purposes. Okay. Okay. But it wouldn't be used or couldn't be used for like um surveillance followed by enforcement. It would be potentially used to look back on something
to investigate, but not as like proactive surveillance. Correct. And we do not control. It should be in the agreement. We do not control the cameras. That's completely up to Pendot what direction they're facing. They're panning, they're tilting, they're zooming, all that good stuff. Pendot handles. Um, we're merely
just able to see that camera footage. Okay. And is this one camera presently? I realize they could add or change or whatever, but is it just one right now? I believe so. Yes. Okay. Maybe two. Northbound and southbound. I I misspoke. I apologize.
But and right around the bridge there. Yes. Correct. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other discussion, Councilwoman? And and just so I have it straight in my head, we're using their camera foot, like their cameras. They're not using any of our equipment tapping
into any of our databases or anything like that. Correct. Just us using their info. Correct. This is just a one-way share, their camera system. We're able to view the footage. Uh they don't have access to any of our cameras. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other discussion?
Thank you, Chief. You're welcome. Mr. Miller, call the RO, please. Miss Leon. Hi. Miss Wilhelm. Hi. Mr. Callahan. Hi. Missk. Hi. Miss Leairard I and Mr. Colom I pass 6. That concludes tonight's agenda. Get home safe everyone and have
a safe music fest. This meeting is adjourned.