we call this meeting to order we're all going to stand for the pledge of the flag I pledge allegiance to to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep stands one nation God
indivisible with liy and justice for all first on the agenda tonight we're going to have a public hearing prior to the consideration of the regular agenda item city council will conduct a public hearing to receive comment concerning a request from
Cole oh snap first we're g to call the role Mr Callahan present Miss gmy Smith present M quch present Miss lard present Miss Leon present Miss willhelm present and Mr cologne president cologne will not be
joining us this evening the mayor is at something with the p cup Scouts and he will be joining us when he can prior to the consideration of the regular agenda item city council will conduct a public hearing to receive comment concerning a request from
Co vilus vilus Florence and Rashi LLC representing uh BP G Investments LLC requesting an amendment to the city's zoning map by changing the zoning District of 11-15 West Garrison Street from high density residential to Central
Business this privately proposed rezoning request is related to the proposed development of a 70 unit apartment building with commercial retail space on the first floor this public hearing is for informational purposes only there will be no vote during the public Hearing in connection with this public hearing there are two
Communications the clerk will read Comm uh communication 6A February 14th 2025 memorandum from assistant planning zoning director Craig Piper outlining the city planning commission's review of the zoning map Amendment proposed for 11
and 15 West Garrison Street Mr Piper report that the Planning Commission voted 5 to Zer to recommend approval of this amendment the clerk will read communication 6B February 12th 2025 correspondents from Jill sites Chief community and Regional planner with the
Le have Valley Planning Commission Miss sites assess that the rezoning proposal to build 70 Apartments an additional commercial or retail space at 115 West Garrison Street aligns with the lvpc future LV the regional plan by
facilitating mixed use infill opportunities in areas where additional development can be accommodated this public hearing is called to order I will now accept public comment starting from my right does anyone have public public comment regarding the
hearing to the center does anybody have comment regarding the hearing Mr sh Bill sh 1898 Avenue I'm rise in opposition and to the
resoning uh two reasons first of all uh I'm not a lawyer I'm an economist but my understanding is that this would be what's called spot zoning and spot zoning I'm told is
illegal and I can give you an example the supermarket at lynon and Johnson Drive I think it's called Azar now they've gotten variances over the years over decades and I made the argument one
night that if all these variances had been done at one time it would have amounted to a rezoning and that that would have been spot zoning which is illegal and attorney blacken sto who was representing the neighbors approached me
afterwards and said that was a great argument which means to me that that property then given the size that it has would have been spot zoning on Garrison Street we're talking about something a lot
smaller so I I do think that if you override the uh on this well actually it's not a question of overriding it's if you approve this it's going to end up in the courts and they're going to lose
so it would be a waste of time secondly this of course is desired in order to augment a large much larger project on Center
Street and that is a problem we got but we need to do something about what happened and this was while I was working in DC um well you remember my remark about Urban rol when Gordy Mau told me his
biggest mistake as mayor was urban renewal well there was something similar to urban renewal when a large residential section was rezoned from residential to Commercial Business
district and uh my memory is a little fuzzy on this but it's roughly Center was Center on the East and Main Street on the west and brought up to Union Boulevard now some of it got reone back to residential but not
all of it and in particular not this this block a huge mistake because what was happened there was a residential area was converted to Commercial Business District where there was no
height limit talk about a drastic uh or destroying the city in order to save it uh the proposed building there on Center Street strikes me as about eight stories it's
like the one on South New which is Nine Stories the same problem you take a commercial property and build Apartments where the height limit is greater than any residential district in the city the most intense dense residential is
RT and the limit on apartment buildings is three and a half stories now you have the same Sy at Hanover Apartments which is own limit to Commercial and they think think they can build apartments up to five stories because that's the height limit in limit
limited commercial uh so some of these developers are just seizing on Commercial properties that have a greater height limit in order to build bigger apartment buildings so we need more Apartments do
we really need more apartments in down there with a smaller parking garage I rest my case anybody else in the center have public comment regarding the hearing this evening and anyone to the
left I would now recognize representatives of the zoning Amendment petitioner to speak about the requested zoning map Amendment uh good evening um my name is Michael or shy with the law firm Co vilus forens RTI on behalf of BPG
Investments 2 and their petition for the resoning of 11 and 15 West Garrison Street changing them from RT to CB uh this is a zoning map change request so it's not a uh zoning change of the ordinance just a a change of the map uh
for the record the property was posted from tonight's hearing on on February 10th um it's just a little bit about PPG Investments too it's a local group of invest it's headed by Gabe and Drew moer here tonight uh they also own Bethlehem Property Group which is a local property
management company here in the city the group owns several other properties in the north side uh downtown area um BPG Investments is planning to build a mixed use apartment building in the 700 block of North New Street uh the group owns nine Parcels currently between North
Street and West Garrison Street and could build their proposed building on seven of those Parcels without the need for zoning relief for uh the zoning change we're seeking tonight however during their initial planning of this um project they determined that building an
on on all nine Parcels would give them greater efficiency in using the site provide more on-site parking and just be a better project for the neighborhood in their opinion uh the petition for hisone would allow them to build on all nine lots and and would return uh the parcels
at 11 and 15 West Garrison Street back to their pre25 zoning designation of CB um in a minute Gabe Moyer's going to walk you through the presentation on the screen and uh card copies were passed out to each of you um and he's going to
explain the difference between uh what they could build and what they want to build with the zoning change and why they think that's better um now just remind you this is just a conceptual plan at this point we're not promising to build this building as is um once the
petition for resoning is resolved they'll work with their architect Vince maruchi who's also here tonight uh in case there's any questions for him their Engineers engineers and surveyors they'll complete the appropriate Land Development and subdivision plan which would be submitted to the city's
planning department go through uh a thorough review by the city under the uh Soo the zoning ordinances and other city ordinances um so just just want to make sure that we're clear that this is just conceptual what they plan to build what
they can build um and it'll finally go through the Land Development process at that point uh just a little bit about the petitioner they' they have and are continuing to work with the community the city and its neighbors to provide an open and transparent communication during this process this is why they've
presented their whole plan why they're going to do this uh walkth through tonight with you guys um to to show you what they want to build in their their plan and their concept here and and why they think the zoning change makes it better uh we've already made some modifications after an initial meeting
with the city Administration this past fall and they've had discussions with the neighborhood uh and their neighbors and some neighborhood groups um we believe that this location and site are the right place for this kind of development due to its convenience to downtown its access to
public transportation it's only a block away from the uh Lance station on on getter Street um and and it's need and the site needs some Redevelopment I'm not sure if you're familiar with the site but um several years ago there was a large uh water main break and sinkhole
on New Street in that section and as such a couple of the buildings on these Parcels had to be raised so there are some kind of missing teeth as they say in that block so to to redevelop it now um it makes sense to to do something
that encompasses those parcels and and these other Parcels uh as noted before this project is consistent with the Lehi Valley planet commission's future LV Regional plan and was approved by the Bethlehem Planning Commission or recommended recommended by the betham
planet commission commission meeting uh on Thursday by a vote of 5-0 I just to note this is kind of a unique situation and I'm not sure you'll ever see anything like this my clients procured this property from a a um owner
who and his estate actually who spent about 30 years buying up these nine Parcels um so it's it's kind of unique in that situation that one guy spent most of his life buying Parcels he actually proposed a similar building to city council back in
2019 um and and it the resoning change uh did not go through at that time um but but what I think you you'll see here is is something that you may not see again in the city is so unique that there's nine not one guy bought nine parcels and wants to combine them to
build this building I'm not sure you're going to see that again so um just to point that out and then uh so Gabe Moyer's going to walk you through this presentation and we have um we'll be available for any questions you have thank you
attorney you don't mind going through the slides to make sure everyone around here can also see uh what's also in front of you all right so my name is Gabe Moyer I'm a principal with betham Property Group LLC uh I'm here as the developer
today representing BPG Investments to LLC which is the petitioner and the owner of the nine contiguous Parcels we're discussing tonight we're here specifically to talk about two of those nine parcels and that would be 11 and 15
West Garrison Street we are seeking this resoning because it will allow us to build a better building with lower average height more parking and just generally better appearance so we have about 10 minutes
or so of some slides I'm going to invite my architect up here as well just to provide a little more background information with the goal of hope hopefully having Council and those all here uh best come to a collective
decision that works for the city of Bethlehem so turning over to page two the this is a site overview of the nine Parcels so what you're looking at on the Le hand side are those nine Parcels in
blue the blue outline would be seven of them that are currently zon Commercial Business and then on the top right of that left diagram would be 11 and 15 West Garrison outlined in green those are currently zoned highdensity residential and that's what we are
hoping to have rezoned because we think it'll help us make the more efficient building on the right hand side you have a table which gives some details about the site and all nine properties so if I just walk through that first row 15 West
Garrison is currently zoned RT high density residential but prior to 2005 it was Zed Commercial Business it's about a little over 2,000 square feet in size which represents about 6.9% of the whole
site it's important to note that all nine of these properties were zoned commercially for decades prior to 2005 it was really only this small piece 11 and 15 West Garrison that changed in 2005 and we're here petitioning to have
those reverted back to Commercial Business to join the remaining Parcels zooming out to page three to give the group a little bit more get you oriented in terms of where
we're discussing and where the site is located this is the 700 block of North New Street in North Bethlehem it's called out in that red box and then that top image is a picture taken from the northern corner and then the bottom image
is uh taken from the southern Corner The Garrison Street Properties would be located right behind that building in the top right image one thing to note is there are lots there is lots of open space as
attorney Rashi mentioned and we think for that reason it is an ideal Place uh to hopefully fill new residences we're really here today because we want to provide transparency we want to show what we intend to do
with the site we've developed multiple plans we've been looking at this site for a very long time we also knew the prior owner our our our architect who will speak momentarily has looked at multiple configurations as well but we also want to gather feedback from
everybody uh to hopefully come to the best decision as a group so on page four is a side by side for what we're planning and here are two conceptual images of what we're looking to do on the
site the image on the right is a 70 unit mixed use uh building that is currently by right and allowed to be and would utilize the seven CB Parcels so that would be that blue outline we looked at a moment ago and then that image on the
left is a 70 unit mixed use building option that would require resoning and it would utilize all nine Parcels some of you on Council might remember a resoning petition that was brought back in 2019 for these same
Parcels it's important to note that our plan are quite a bit different from what was proposed in 2019 and it does reflect feedback that we received from conversations with Planning and Zoning the economic development department and community
members and some of the adjustments made that are reflected in our recommended plan here today are we reduce the unit count and provide for a step down into the Garrison Street neighborhood so that will provide for a better flow into the
neighbor neighborhood there's more parking in our recommended plan versus the prior plan so hopefully reduce any parking demands on the local streets we've also increased the number of two bedroom units versus one bedroom
and Studio units versus the prior plan our thought is that bigger units Foster more housing permanency and that will be more desired by who our target market is which would be workers small families those that want to live
downtown we also recognize the need for for sale units like Condominiums at a starter home price point so we are actually looking at this very closely and this has come on the back of just the ongoing discussions
we've had to learn about that in particular New Living units but in particular units that could be purchased and are in that starter home category so with that I'm actually going to invite our project architect Vince up
here and then I will come back just to make a couple closing comments after he spends a little time going through the differences between the two concepts thank you Gabe thank you for your time Council um my name is Vince maruchi um principal architect at
entropy Consulting I do have a bit of a long history with this project um most of which Mike gave uh the previous owner I did work for as an architect I was very involved with the the go round in 2019 I did the
renderings back then the plans I've probably looked at this project 10 10 different ways and I was there even when the sinkhole happened rescued a cap from the the one building named it sinkhole you know it was cute little thing but
anyhow um what we're looking at here when I was engaged by the new owners betham Property Group the directive was what can we build there on the seven Parcels Central Business there wasn't much of an interest to go through the
protected process of zoning variances rezoning city council and they knew they could get a building on those seven Parcels so looking at the alternative on Slide Five here I redesigned the concept
and it becomes if if you see in the inset in the bottom left uh becomes an L-shaped building there's inherent inefficiencies with this layout especially for the parking but most notably you'll see this is a taller
building um they are able to go up on CB uh much more than this but they're looking at six to seven stories um you know the the inefficiencies also lead to only 45 parking spaces in the retail
neighborhood retail comes down to about 5,320 square feet also you'll notice the facades are a little bit different um building code dictates construction types going taller necessitates a more
costly construction type so there is potential for Value engineering the facade a little bit um to account for those differences but this retains a same number of units just a taller building and more inefficient with recommended just adding
those two small Parcels to the contiguous Central Business Zone it really opens up the parking so we nearly double the parking spaces at 85 and retain the same number of apartment units at 70 this is a five to six story building
the variation being on North Street it's up higher so it's five stories as it drops down towards Garrison it becomes six just because of the grade change so given that they are also able to step back and I think Gabe Gabe had mentioned
this step down the facade and I'm going to skip ahead a little bit to slide number 11 where it kind of gives a comparison of the facades on the left is the recommended and you could see how that the facade is the building is lower and the facade steps down whereas the
byright building on the right the taller building you would have those seven stories essentially abing the lower uh RT District so giving back going back to this we do see you know the the imagery
that we saw before It just fits better with the neighborhood getting these two Parcels to join the others um it really helps fit in the fabric of the street there uh with that I think I could turn it back to Gabe and I'll wait any
questions thank you Vince regardless of which project we pursue we think a new mixed use development makes sense for this site in general but also the city of Bethlehem more broadly some of those benefits you can see here and those are on page seven in your physical
packet the project will help meet the need for more housing there's been a number of studies about this I don't think um that's news to anyone that's been listening to any of the council meetings over the past uh few years and one one study that particularly kind of
stood out and comes to mind would be the recent opening door study where they mention nearly a thousand units are needed in the city of Bethlehem to get us back to a normal vacancy rate so even though this is 70 units not near that amount it is a step in the right
direction also we contined to hear through our conversations the need for owner occupied for sale units something like Condominiums which we are actively reviewing and really consider that's a possibility for this area as well and
this building there's going to be significantly more tax revenue generated from having this building on this site as well we estimate that there'll be near roughly $300,000
a new tax revenue for the Beth home Area School District just in terms of the order of magnitude that's roughly 10 times what's generated on the site today mainly because a good portion of it is just vacant property in addition to that a new building comes with safer streets we'll
be filling in those vacant Lots so the less potential for loitering we'll be adding a new streetscape uh things like new lighting cameras that all helps promote Public Safety additionally just increased vibrancy
overall new residences new storefronts as I mentioned new streetscape clean sidewalks we constantly hear about the desire of local businesses we are pursuing a business ourselves on Broad Street that additional foot traffic should be good for them and we hope that
new residents there will will help promote that just to wrap up on the last page would be page eight it's a side by side of the two buildings if 11 and 15 West Garrison Street are rezoned we can construct a
more efficient building that incorporates Community feedback for a lower Building height adequate parking a seamless transition into the Garrison Street neighborhood and a generally enhanced appearance that blends into the surrounding area the resoning of 11 and
15 West Garrison Street doesn't necessarily mean a bigger building it actually means a much better more efficient building so with that thank you for your time and consideration fellow principal drew our architect Vince and attorney Rudi and myself are
all here and happy to take any questions thank you I will now recognize a representative from the administration to address this matter good evening good evening my name is Craig Pier I am the assistant planning
director for the city uh you have a memo uh written by me in regards to the Planning Commission meeting that took place this past Thursday Planning Commission did vote five to zero to recommend approval to Council on this request in that me uh packet also
includes the memo written by not only myself but the members of the administration including reviews and comments from our mayor so therefore it is an accurate reflection that the planning Bureau also recommended the approval to the Planning Commission without me going through that
entire memo um just to make a few points that I heard from the applicants this is a very unique location this is a very unique opportunity where you see nine Parcels C cobbled together over about 30 years and to stress that it's important
to think the about these things more in terms of height massing and scale and that this project is just about the zoning map Amendment for tonight and this will still go through an entire Land Development review given more feedback from not only the city planning
staff but all City bureaus and then subsequently to the Planning Commission where the public will also be invited to make more comments and with that I'll take any questions that you might have thank you I will now recognize members of council for comment anybody to my left have any
councilman call Mr fer so so as it is right now uh they they they are allow without any city council um movement at all they're allowed to put how high of a building up there what is it currently zoned uh the seven Parcels are zoned CB
and the max height in that is 150 feet which which is what like 10 10 stories depending on the floorida floor Heights um it could go up to about 12 to 14 stories all right and so where where's the part going on uh is it is it under is this whole building up
on stilts so all all the parking is underneath yes uh essentially the the parking is on the lower two levels with the grade change down to Garrison you would have an entry on Garrison to a lower level parking and and I'm going to
switch to uh these don't really tell much of the story but then on North Street there would be a second level they're both ground level just two different levels because of the change grade so if you put 70 units in there at the one and a half multiplier where
where's the where's the rest of the parking going uh in central business district there's no parking requirement but just to make them more leasable it is desirable to add the parking which is and also discussions with the neighborhood even back in 2019 the
parking was a concern so that is part of the reason initially to put the parking in so there's definitely going to be overflow into the into the parking garage just running Street I I can't speak to that but you know it's uh it's possible I suppose the the
uh there's 85 Spots I'm not sure if you saw yeah this is the appendix a with the parking comparison so on the recommended building there's 85 parking spots um and there's going to be 70 units so so Mr
pyer with or without any movement from the city they're they're permitted to build um the recom or the the alternative what they're calling the alternative design by right that is correct right okay thank
you any other council members councilman so I I just want to confirm um that the uh structures that if if the zoning map uh change was uh was you know
goes through um that the spots on Garrison Street those properties that would come down they're actually going to be replaced with parking not apartments right there that's an area where you're going to have uh the first level parking
right probably the best image would be to look at this it'd be partially residences would partially where uh cars would enter the the parking okay um when I was looking at the big ones over the weekend um I noticed that it was
principally parking though for the most part I I actually had a couple of questions about the buildings that are presently on the um on garon Street um and uh I'm just wondering um uh it's I believe there are two units
in one of the buildings and one units one unit in the other is that correct that's correct yes and so are they currently occupied are they currently rented 11 West Garrison is currently rented 15 West Garrison is currently not it's in um it's presently vacant okay um
and so what's the rent at 11 West and and what are the what are the specs on that property so there are two units there I believe it's a one-bedroom and a TW bedroom unit and I want to say were
in the context of I want to say it's about probably about 1,500 for a one-bedroom or 1,600 for a one-bedroom and then the two-bedroom is around 1,700 are they up to date are there I mean the buildings are a bit old are those updated with you know updated yes
we did some renovation work um a little while back now so I would consider them pretty pretty dated pretty up to date okay thank you um and then um so I understood from the architect that uh you know uh going taller creates obviously more costs because of the the
code and so you do some value engineering is that why the balconies come off in the alternative design that's part of the reason yes okay um and and this is more of a comment than a question um as you said the in the CB
there's no parking minimum I don't have a problem with having less parking with this building that may sound controversial to some folks but um it's a certain perspective that I have in terms of uh you know dense residential um and Commercial the other thing is uh
the difference being the 8350 square feet of commercial uh retail versus 5320 um have you done a feasibility study to indicate that there's actually uh a a you know enough small businesses
that are clamoring for uh commercial space how I mean are you going to be are these going to be large commercial spaces that the rent is going to be difficult for small businesses to make what because to
me I'm just wondering if uh if we need that much new commercial retail when we have a you know fairly decent amount of I mean I was just driving through the neighborhood the other day and saw a number of empty storefronts so if you could just speak to that part of it sure
we think there is a need I think the the what I would primarily point to is I believe there was a like a Gibbs Planning Group study that actually was more focused on the North side historic district but that's not far away at all um and in that study they call out the
need for a significant amount of more commercial square footage to accommodate additional stores so I would point to that and one of the reasons why we think it makes sense to uh have more than 5,300 square feet and actually bring um
8,300 square feet in addition it wouldn't be one single space I'd imagine that probably um gets size in maybe five different units or so and we actually own a couple other properties that have
spaces of similar size and they tend to rent pretty quickly and pretty fast so I obviously we've seen a lot of growth in the city of Bethlehem I I at least in my professional experience and just through some of the SES I've seen that I
think are pretty recent um would think that there'd be good uptake for for the commercial units so you're thinking like less than 2,000 square foot spaces sorry and maybe just one more comment I guess the the commercial space is required by the zoning code yeah I'm
not and I'm not disputing that obviously it's CB sure and then I'm sorry I missed your second so you're thinking they would be less than 2,000 square fet each so we're not talking about big cavernous spaces that would I agree that's what we would Target yep that's helpful to know thank you very
much Council thank you for that thorough presentation everyone I just had a couple questions um for the building the larger building that is on the corner of new and North what is that right now is
that all residential is it residential and com retail it's a mix of residential and it's actually commercial office space okay okay how how many residential units are in that building two two okay and
this currently occupied they are okay all right um the other question I have is regarding the parking one concern I have is while North Street is wider Garrison is very narrow and so have you taken into account that the parking entrance and
exit is going to be on Garrison and I'm I'm concerned about that as far as the narrowness of that street and the fact that there's other homes on that street with you know parking right on the street maybe I can invite my architect
up who's done a little more y I just wanted to comment um so yeah as you mentioned New Street is is plenty big uh Garrison we would be pulling some cars off the street uh as far as parking goes
but also um going through Land Development there would be a thorough traffic study done um and that's typically when they would recommend infrastructure improvements you know and changing if need be Chang at intersection I can't really speak to
what that would be but once the traffic planning gets in there they will recommend any improvements that would need to be made for the traffic studies so just to clarify So when you say you would be taking some parking spots off the street that would be from people that are living there now well currently
uh some of the tenants have street parking there uh th I those and they could speak to it for sure but those apartments on Garrison I don't believe have off street parking currently uh so yeah so we could lose some street
parking it sounds again that that would come out during Land Development it would be whatever the city Engineers would recommend is what they would be on the hook for okay great um the one question I had and I'm not sure if this is where for the city is the fact that
there was a syho there previously and it was attributed to a water main break but I just want to the city or the architect um as far as the safety of building given that there was a previous sinko has that all been I'm sure thoroughly researched maybe I can just make a quick
comment on that the history there was I I actually don't it's tough to characterize it as a sinkhole because what happened previously is there was a water main leak underneath North New Street that kind of eroded some of the land underneath the properties and that
unfortunately caused the properties to Sag and had to be condemned and torn down that has since been rectified um with but the parcels remain there vacant when we go
through when we continue on with the Land Development process and begin to do surveys and geotechnical Analysis and those type of things we actually start to analyze the land um if there are any anything we come across like we can remediate at that time which we would
intend to do um so that would be that would be the process to kind of address any any concerns if they were to arise but we're not aware of any today at this point okay thank you and my last question I think maybe it would be for Mr Piper I'm not sure but I'm just wondering about um I know we keep saying
there's a need for um for residents is and um we just keep seems like it's Apartments which you know certainly is is good for many people but um I'm wondering about the vacancy and occupancy rate of Apartments I'm not sure if that would be you or or Miss Collins for example like do we know the
the one that's closest is the new boy development do we know what the occupancy rcy rate is there just I just want to get a handle on um you know the need for more apartments in that area so with respect to individual buildings I you know we don't
necessarily keep specific data but anecdotally you know the boydd has um um gotten certificates of occupancy gradually for for various floors so the first two floors came first and then they continued work on the higher floors
um I believe currently they are on Pace for what they expected which is still I think it's less than 50% but I believe that is just because of the timing of the um Theos and and getting residents in there so I think um my understanding is that they are they're comfortable
with the that they are um getting those apartments filled and then just more broadly in terms of the need for uh residen is you know in addition to our own study the lehab valley Planning Commission just uh rolled out their housing study as well which has a really
interesting tool that goes Community by Community not just in Bethlehem but you know the other cities the suburbs the townships and they're projecting out not only the immediate need but also the need over the next 50 years um for um you know new residences and you can kind
of toggle that by community and you'll see if you look at Bethlehem based on their data which is um pretty comprehensive that they are still projecting you know hundreds of units per year over the next 50 years and how many units are we looking at for where the wallness Street Garage will be
rebuilt um there there are not plans for that one yet I mean like the concept I believe it was probably around about a hundred but again they haven't actually you know fully designed that project yet or presented anything okay and then I
know Martin Tower is you know at a standstill but that was was that 1700 units uh no the zoning that is currently on the Martin Tower site allows for um 1,85 units 1,85 okay great is what they're currently Allowed by zoning okay
all right thank you I think that's all I have thanks so much G can I just follow up with one comment on the back of that our building or our plans are quite a bit different than the boids at the moment we intend to to have a high percentage of two better units and much
larger one better units versus um we think there's a a particular need for for those types of units um versus what's currently what's been brought onto the market by some of the other uh projects that recently come online a lot more Studios and one bedrooms in those
thank you I think that's that's great I and I like that you talked about thinking about owner occupied which is I think a real need in the city um and maybe affordable also thank you sure councilman
L uh yeah so uh could somebody speak to the public comment regarding spot zoning and um whether this is whether this isn't I assume it is not because that would be illegal so I don't think we'd be standing here or sitting here today
yeah this is a zoning map change and it's an adjacent District District so it wouldn't be not it would not be spot zoning because the neighboring and surrounding properties are already CB correct okay just wanted to make sure of that um why were those Parcels converted
back to residential in 2005 if they were CB prior to that the his so that was a result um of of a couple things one was to change that zoning that has been historically
commercial going all the way back to the 1950s from a commercial uh core which allowed for a lot of different types of development to focus that more on the downtown area so that area got changed um and it got changed Not only was it
not changed or changed off of CB but it was changed back to residential in that area because of the more residential nature of the street and because those streets are considered local streets whereas North new having an 80 foot right of way got the CB designation and
then further over on Union got the CL designation okay uh so it was sort of the same thing from the other direction of oh it's all residential over here so let's extend the residential this way and now we're shifting back a bit like
correct because it's on the edge okay um in terms of uh community outreach you said you've had some meetings with um Neighbors and uh businesses in the area and whatnot um so can you just describe um
what sort of community outreach you've done and what feedback you've heard from community members at least you know through what your understanding is yeah of course we have good relations first one would be our existing tenants so we gave
them notice months ago that we're even considering doing this change and it's a reason just just for Gathering feedback we live there as well we live locally so that was one um it's part of the reason why
um none of them have come here today to oppose it because they also actually think it makes sense for the area in addition to that L listened to numerous Council meetings we part of heard the discussions from 2019 um where there was um some
Community feedback that happened at that time and the to summarize essentially what people s uh at that time was the need for a better flow into the Garrison Street neighborhood which we made those adjustments adequate parking which is
why we adjusted the plans to increased parking and then also the need for more permanent type of units which is why we adjusted the unit mix to have larger units um in addition to that we've had a number of conver ation with the economic
development department with the city planning and zoning and in addition touching base with representatives of the north side alive group just to kind of gather comments and reflect that into into our
plans okay um in terms of the permanency and attainability um and the fact that you have current tenants in some of these properties would you be offering them dibs uh on new units and
potentially you know um easing them into any rate increases or keeping their rent ideally um so that if they wanted to stay in their own neighborhood they could we have great relations with our T I would love if they all came and and continue to reside in a building we
would absolutely make that offer to every single one of them we do have a couple of small businesses there we hope they take this new space actually one in particular has been asking for more space constantly we just this would be a
great opportunity for that um so not only have we do we intend to provide ample lead time before any groundbreaking were to take place so they could find accommodations during the interim but we'd hope to invite everyone back to to live in the new
residences as well okay uh and then I I believe my last question question is um on the nine Parcels that are there entirely recognizing some of them are empty right now of structure um how many units are total on the nine Parcels
right now 15 okay and how many of the those 15 are occupied right now of those 15 14 of them are
okay right thank you thank you for your presentation um most of my questions have been answered but I I one of one of them was regarding the commercial space and I'm glad to hear that you plan to divide it into smaller Parcels like like that we you know have seen and continue to see in
certain um development properties in the city large empty cavernous storefronts that haven't been rented for years and that almost regardless of what's Happening above that it doesn't matter how great that is that's what people see on the ground and and that's um not
something we want to repeat so thank you for that also glad to hear about your conversations with neighbors I I admit I expected more public comment on the matter tonight um so I I do believe that's an indication of the work that you've already done in the community and it sounds like you're committed moving
forward to having really intentional thoughtful conversations with Neighbors which I also appreciate um my remaining question question um well two I guess with regard to the the potential owner occupied are
you what are you currently thinking are you thinking a certain percentage would be condos where are you where do you stand on that on that right now and I know you're you're still thinking about it but I would characterize it
as we they are both they're both side by side in terms of the direction could go rental units or own are occupied um I think what nothing is really what's shifted is just our our dialogue that we've had over the past in anticipation
of this meeting and and doing some more research it's continuously come up um things like condos so it's really brought that into the fold as something that we we want to keep digging into and and pursuing we've done some preliminary work in terms of um the ability to do
that on this site it seems like it it'd be we the unit wouldn't really change much whether they become apartments or condos so it's something we'd love to love to offer and it kind of sounds like there's a good amount of demand for it um so we're looking at it very very
closely and that would be a decision that you would be making for the entire building or certain units it'd probably be for the entire building okay but we would look at maybe a mixed plan of sort have to get in that a little bit closer as we we further
along the plans just curious about that and then just one word that you were using with regard to the um you know the the building that will exist if the zoning change does not take place versus the building that will exist if it does you use the word efficient it's a more
efficient building and maybe that's an industry term I'm just curious to know when you say that word what do you mean do you mean more efficient to build quicker actual sustainability aspects to it what what do you mean when you say efficient primarily the additional part working
spaces you get and a lower Building height um that would be and then the other uh component would be more retail space so we pick up retail space that can be um roughly 8300 square feet versus
5300 we can lower the total size of the building which is feedback that we've heard there's a desire for and then we can offer significantly more parking so the combination of all of it and we think we'll be able to to because the overall construction cost would be a bit cheaper like Vince
alluded to um we think we could put some of that money into enhance facade so all together um that's kind of how that's why the word efficiency comes to mind so almost more user friendly is is how I'm interpreting what you're saying I would
characterize it as incorporating what we've heard people want better okay got it thank you all right great card about speaking last is all my questions have been asked I do also want to say I appreciate the idea
of condos um I'm interested about the feasibility of that and having seen Riverport if those condos remain condos like owner occupied as opposed to condos that then just ultimately become somebody's investment property um and I appreciate the smaller commercial
footprint like as uh councilman willhelm spoke to earlier these large cavernous uh commercial spaces tend to sit vacant for years and it does not do well for our foot traffic so a smaller commercial opportunities for smaller
business to really start up and grow in Bethlehem is something that's greatly appreciated sorry councilman cin I just have one one extra question um if if the V if the zoning variance is denied what's the plan for 11 and 15 W
Garrison the 15 West Garrison in particular um I would Char it needs quite a bit of work um so I'm not quite sure exactly what the plan would be to that that one is currently vacant um 11 West
Garrison I believe pretty soon those tenants will will be on a month-to-month lease as well so I think we would look at what to do with the two properties at that point to potentially offer some uh maybe some additional amenity space for
this construction project if it were to go in um so we we we'd probably look to potentially tear them down there is there is the possibility of you knocking them down and turning it into a parking lot I believe there is if if um we'd
have to look exactly how zoning is but yes any other questions from Council all right so we have had our presentation in Council has had a chance to speak so I'm going to open it back up for public comment so thank you very much um starting on my right again is there anyone who wants to make public
comment regarding the hearing anyone in the center yes you do you have to um sorry I know we have quite a few uh new people and also I'm not used to this so two public comments here it is um so when
you come up to public comment just please say uh your your name and uh address the chair oh thank you very much good evening uh my name is Bishop I'm from Lehi actually just leave off W
Street uh so I have little context of the conversation but uh I just had a curiosity uh aex was talking about the inefficiencies of the alternative building I was wondering uh if he could
speak to maybe if we were to construct the alternative model what inefficiencies does it introduce to the space around it such that my question is is it possible that building the alternative design introduces such an
alternative that if we were to go ahead with it we could just go ahead with the recommended design basically my question is the alternative design with its inefficiency would it it introduce so much of an inefficiency to the surrounding space that it would just make sense to go with
the recommended design I guess thank you uh thank you for your question I'm gonna turn to y'all and ask you guys if you want to engage with these comments or would you rather conclude the hearing and address them
outside sorry um okay to answer the question as I understood it anyhow um maybe I should reiterate so you're saying the alternative design would create such inefficiency for the space around it as
well is that I if I'm understanding that correctly um the answer is yes uh and back to the point of you know can they those areas be knocked down and be parking the the fact is it does leave a sliver of property that is also
inefficient at its core as well I don't know if that answers but I'm happy to address any others thank you thank you um and in public comment just for those that are not used to uh the meeting structure it's a time for you to engage with Council we um do not go back and
forth with questions and answers um but you can address anybody in the hallway after we have a whole bunch of people who are willing to talk to you um so anyone within the all right hello uh I'm Scott Parkinson honestly I came here because my friend asked me to
come and I just wanted to see what was going on uh but much to my surprise uh I was a tenant of 700 block twice and lived in the raised department so uh this kind of an interesting subject to come up I will say this um although I
totally support Bethlehem um continuing its growth um one of the things I did see was the crack that went down Garrison so I'd be interested to hear about uh sorry Mr Moyer here uh gave an answer about the Integrity of the ground
because what I saw was pretty rough at the time the code inspector's name was Craig I can't remember his last name it was a long time ago and uh very fraught um but I do know that they weren't able to build upon that now I'm sure that uh from an infra infrastructure perspective
in modern times you are able to uh fix that stuff but uh I'm kind of fascinated as to how much we know about that problem because the time is explains to me and probably improperly by the in terms of the city uh he was
very blunt with me and uh it seemed to be a problem so I'm interested to hear what uh these he said geothermal studies they did in uh what they came up with to know exactly what the issue is in terms of such a large
problem project thank you thank you um anyone in the broad Center have questions regarding the hearing Mr sh he refer to me I just have a question if there's 70 apartments and only 85 spaces plus
commercial how many what's the breakdown of Studio one bedroom two bedroom units and if there's more than if there's two drivers in more than those that take up those those spots where's the rest of
the parking going to go if you're Al if you're taking off street parking away from the residents that current live currently live there I don't think that was addressed thank you Mr shy Mary Joe
McCool Mr sh well a few more comments Bill Shire U not being an attorney I'll concede to attorney Rudi that legally it may not be spot zoning because it's uh would be the same zoning as the adjacent
property but in the planning sense it's spot zoning yeah this has been a dormant problem sitting there when Bill Fitzpatrick was I
understand was a fellow that got part of this CB area back to residential but he now lives around the corner from me in West Bethlehem um he was president of the zoning hearing board as you may
know the as for the people who don't come there's a syndrome in this city and it's not just confined to this neighborhood people in this city are not
active enough in their City Affairs my next door neighbors are an example oh we're too busy to go to meetings or it doesn't make any point they're not going to listen to us anyway one guy in the the next
block uh came down to a couple meeting felt that he was just ignored never came back it's a real problem in this city which I feel very strongly because of my working years in DC where it's the other
extreme the residents of DC they work for the government or they work for lobbying firms or they work for trade organizations and they're used to dealing with government and it doesn't
um doesn't awe them at all it's a city that has maybe 10 times the population at most I'd say more like eight times but it has 50 neighborhood
organizations com combined into two federations plus there's the committee of 100 on the federal City um I understand from the chief that there's really only one well I shouldn't I shouldn't quote her but um there's
only a few block watches still operating in this city and it's our substitute for involvement so it's up to people like me uh we uh in
the previous Council we we were known as the STP the same 10 people U who feel a commitment to the city to speak out on these issues so I'm going to speak out and I'm going to keep
on speaking out this property and I sort of blame myself for not doing anything about this but but there's been a lot of other things to deal with this CB never should have happened in the first place um Bill Fitzpatrick remedied part
of it but there's still a large significant portion left and what's going to happen is what's happening on the south side now is going to happen on the North
side and the Bethlehem that used to exist won't exist as much anymore and there's a I'd like to make a comp comparison for you it reminds me of what happened to the
townships during the my working years in DC people moved out to the townships to get peace and quiet in space and other people moved out to the townships for the same reason and after a while there wasn't so much space
anymore were peace and quiet and they started complaining about the traffic and so on a similar thing is happening in Bethlehem people are not coming here because they are in love with six-story apartment
buildings they're coming here for other reasons but in the coming here they are transforming the city into a city of six-story apartment buildings so just words for words for
the wise thank you Mr are anybody else in the broad Center Mr an Alex Mr an Alex I saw your hand welcome back pardon welcome back oh thank you thank you Steve Steve welcome back come
on of Stephen an Alex 737 I did didn't intend to speak but the gentleman forced me I recall the U parking garage very similar to this
evening we heard the pros and cons and as Bill said his type of person has a best interest very simple the welfare of the
city and those like Bill who come to speak out are more concerned about the welfare of the city while those who speak in opposition are here for personal gain
and taking what Bill said one step further it's unfortunate for some reason but those behind that desk seem to pay less attention to those who speak for the
welfare of the city as opposed to those who speak for personal gain why I don't know but bills alluded to it so if Bill sh is
correct in his Judgment of the zoning this whole public hearing is over because it's it might be illegal at face value so there's no issue here so if his words were taken
seriously this public hearing would be adjourned to see whether it's here on legal grounds but only one conso person alluded to spot
zoning in a very perfunctory matter so the people who speak here speak here for a love of this because of Love of the city and as Bill's mentioned there are fewer and fewer from
months to months year to year why because their views are not regarded they're listened to in fact in many cases they're not even listened to but members behind that desk not
showing interest at least to pay attention what's being said as some people here has mentioned and noticed so it's sad and fortunately people like Bill Shire and the young gentleman who's a
neopit and is learning how to speak here and will be a followup for Bill so I suggest that people behind that desk or table or
whatever pay more attention not and paying attention means following up and pressing for the legality of the whole issue if Bill is right and Bill's comments are basically
accurate because he does his work and as such as an asset to the city and city council should not look upon him as a danger as his doing their job but take him as a serious
advisor and pay very close attention to what he and people like himself have to say because true to their hearts their hearts lie for the welfare of the city and not for a personal
profit anyone else in the broad Center want to make a comment go ahead I saw you first um as others have oh uh my name is Cameron um as others have said uh I I I don't have a lot of information about
this I just found out about this uh during this hearing today um I just wanted to know what kind of information the city council has on uh the environmental impacts of this uh construction and whether the city council could
request um more information regarding the position of the tenants um not just from the perspective of the developer and uh his associates but also from uh just collecting the information themselves from the tenants about whether there are any infrastructure
inefficiencies that need to be addressed before this uh new construction actually happens and also um I I'd like to know whether this would affect a rent increase for the residents of that building um because uh the rents in uh
Bethlehem are already uh very high um I I'm sure I don't have to tell everybody and uh I just would hope that this doesn't end up making us have to pay you know $33,000 a month for you know a two-bedroom
and that's it thank you thank you as a reminder this is just zoning where they're not through the Land Development phase yet so this is just a zoning consideration um any other questions from the broad Center I'm going to make my way back any questions from go
ahead comment sorry comment hello uh my name is Cindy too I live in 18 West Garrison right the street from 11 and 15 West gishan and I just wanted to um so I'm here to express my concerns regarding the zoning
decision for 11 and 15 with Garrison as a resident um living directly across the street I believe that the proposed zoning does not align with the character of the neighborhood the existing structures and overall Community aesthetic reflect a certain style and
scale that the zoning um change May disrupt I'm concerned about the potential impacts on traffic parking and overall the atmosphere of the neighborhood I um respectfully ask that the Zone uh zoning decision will be
reconsidered and reflect the needs of the character of the community um also uh just to um speak on the community outreach I um with all due
respect I've never seen any of the gentlemen that came up to speak uh and the first time I just heard about this meeting I just got a letter in the mail stating that there was going to meet uh be a meeting tonight on this never had anyone approach me in regarding what was
going on um with the zoning besides the letter that was in the mail uh it is a concern um I did speak with a couple of my neighbors some were unable to make it because they were out sick and um also was a conflict in their work schedule as well
uh was here also for the meeting that was held I believe in 2019 with the zoning um and we have the same concerns with this building that they want to make um we uh have a major problem right
now with parking on Garrison Street it is a one-way Street it is a very tiny Street um there is uh a lot of issues with parking on that street besides if they make what um the woman had stated
about the uh 80 apartments that they're going to um parking spaces and if there is four people per living in per apartment then there's not going to be enough parking spaces for them besides
if they do the commercial property um which means that there would be no parking for the homeowners that live on garison and the people that are renting on garison uh I don't I feel
really um worried about what's going on um I feel like I would not be able to let my daughter to go outside now because there will be many more people living uh in the neighborhood it is a concern um so uh I just feel like if you
can take that into consideration um that I I don't know if there's anyone else here but um the neighbors that I spoke to um they did say that they only received the letter in the mail they've never said anything
else about them having anyone approach them about community outreach thank you and I hope you can take this into consideration thank you anyone else to the left hello Harry Faber better known as the
neoy don't know exactly what that means but um uh what yeah um first I want to thank Mr analex I it was such a this is the marks the first or the my one-year anniversary of attending city council so to see Mr
analex today it's been a while it was such a pleasure and I'm so happy that you called me ANF fight um now I don't know if everybody saw the same thing that I saw but I have given better presentations hung over uh in college
that was truly terrible um one they didn't State and maybe I'm wrong I heard 1500 1600 for the single bedroom but I'm pretty sure that was about the current rentals uh so I I could be wrong but I don't believe I heard any prices about
the uh ongoing units they said will considerer permanent ownership wow that is real assuring they didn't address again someone else brought up the environmental cost didn't address that uh it is very clear that they are
targeting the wealthy the business managerial class uh they have no intention of this being affordable they clearly only care about their own profits not about the well-being of the community and now at at Moravian I attended Moravian University uh one of
my senior projects I did was on socialized housing this isn't a new thing it was solved and a great example I urge everybody right here now I have a flip phone so I can't really look it up for you but red Vienna so in between
World War I and World War II the Communists oh God they took control of Vienna and they created some of the most beautiful socialized housing units that are still in place today and from my recollection of my report uh now Vienna
it's in Austria it's a very big city comparable to like New York or um San Diego uh the rent for these units adjusted for inflation now mind you I did this in 2021 and obviously inflation has gone up since then um but for a nice
one bedroom apartment with a living space and a bathroom I for I wish I remembered the I wasn't prepared for this but uh it was around the cost of $400 for something comparable today in New York City and the reason is when you
remove the profit motive right if we were to invest because again I'm totally for socialized public housing I think we need more affordable housing when you remove the uh profit motive and you invest once you have the property it's
there and so what they did these Communists is said okay we invested in this now we have it and guess what everybody is paying for maintenance and these buildings had schools they had do Do's office dentist's office they had
Parks and Recreation they had uh I'm pretty sure they also had space for parking and these were living livable communities this is possible not with a plan like this that was terrible again that I I am actually amazed that nobody
was critical or very critical as that was deserving to be they are clearly only interested in their own pockets they do not care about the well-being of the city that was atrocious thank you and then hello my name is Anna zaruka I live
on 341 B Spring Street um I'm glad that young man bought up Vienna because that is the whole point and a lot of people here are pointing fingers at the at our Council which I think is very rude and disrespectful I think they try to do their best job I also thought it was
very disre disrespect respectful that these are guests and that you are calling them out they did their job they did their presentation you don't like it you don't have to be disrespectful so I just want to set the agenda there first second yes all of you who are
complaining are as complacent as I am Vienna is in existence because it was a 50-year PL a plan excuse me that the city decided to put in place plans like that take full community commitment and
it's a 50-year plan uh Holland which has the best infrastructure in the world for bicycles their plan was a 50-year plan it doesn't happen overnight guys but we have given up our rights and city
council can't do any more than the zonings allow them to do we've allowed zoning to they have a choice if I'm not mistaken right you can put up that building correct nobody can stop them and the reason we can't stop them is
because we never did our job so if you want to change things people it's time to change the laws in the zoning don't blame them their hands are tied so we can call for all this social thing and everything but if we all Advocate our
Rule and just show up and we don't work to change and have great social and make betham a more people-friendly City we're not going to make it it's a long-term plan it's not just throwing out criticisms at people willy-nilly
because we don't like it today that's only my comment thank you right thank you last go around the room make all comments relevant to the rezoning or the zoning Amendment please uh I'm Tommy paresi I just had a few
points to make about um the idea of the recommended plan versus the alternative plan um it was stated that under both plans there' be 70 apartment units um and the maybe some of the key differences between them would be the size of the how many stories in the building and how many parking lots uh
parking spaces excuse me um I just find it a little bit odd that the number of of residential units is is set constant and maybe not intentionally but it kind of comes off as we're threatening to build a worse version with you know fewer amenities that are wanted if you
don't approve the zoning change um just as a hypothetical why not change all the other Parcels that are currently zoned for CB into residential if it's really goal to you know build more housing uh for the community which is desperately needed um so but my my general point is
just uh the importance of of building homes for housing for the sake of of of housing was a little bit lost I felt uh in the presentation so again I would just uh ask that for this zoning change really
um make sure that and and for development going forward that the idea of of housing people and having affordable housing is a priority and not lost to something like parking which is kind of trivial uh in comparison not that it's unimportant but again these are homes for people to live in thanks
thank you hello everyone Joe Daniels um didn't realize I was going to speak on this tonight but so my only concern with the developers is that they position these apartments the many apartments the hundreds if not thousand
apartments that we have in Bethlehem under the guise that it's NE needed that the more Apartments the cheaper the rents will be and that just hasn't happened uh the boy departments for example
they're at 20% occupancy as of yesterday the largest Department in that building is a two-bedroom at 860 square feet for $2600 a month who is that affordable for it's not affordable for the average
person living and working in Beth tayor Flats has a two now their taor flats are larger Tor Flats you can get 13,400 feet for two for two uh not even 2,000 $3600 a month
studios1 bedrooms are starting at $1700 a month not even 500 square feet my third floor of my house is bigger than some of these apartments so that's one of the things that upsets me the most is that you're saying these things under the guys that oh it's going to
make everything better and it's going to be more affordable and that's not the case because it hasn't happened yet and there's I don't know how many projects that have started ended and starting again so please developers when you come to this podium in this atmosphere with
the residents the people that live and work here in Bethlehem be honest be honest with what you're really wanting to do secondly even more important than the apartments is my concern is with the infrastructure of the city there are
literally thousands of people moving into the Lehi Valley in Bethlehem I'm concerned with the safety of our residents as it relates to our Emergency Services as it relates to our Public Works how much of this money is going to support them how much money is going to
increase our fire department for example we have all these buildings all these bright new shiny objects that I'm almost positive the construction on them could be a better than what it is Boyd theater doesn't even look that great four or five months later the facade is
fading is they've got sprinkler systems yes but there are there's a lot of room for a lot of damage to be done and do we have the infrastructure to handle it do we have the police force do we have enough policemen do we have enough EMTs
do we have enough firemen do we have enough people working the streets and filling all these dog on potholes that's going to just go on forever that's my concern do we have the infrastructure to handle all of this growth and to be honest with you I don't
think we do if I'm wrong please tell me I would love to be wrong in this fact that's all I have thank youy Ry catola 8813 laer Street betham Pennsylvania been a resident of Bethlehem since I was born I'm 76 going
to be 77 if the Lord Wills uh this affordable housing thing with these developers coming in it seems like they're making uh city of betham metropolis Soho I mean like you go to new go to New
York City you're going to pay like uh $3,000 for an apartment no every city should take control of the situation and put a lid on the amount that they can
rent because every city we become an example greater cities equal a greater USA if the developers are making luxury apartments fine first floor luxury apartment they could charge whatever
they want second floor mediocre comes down a little bit third floor affordable housing of whoever comes first they can get it if they're making only $22,000 a month they
shouldn't be paying more than onethird of that that's affordable housing as far as the parking goes parking authority is supposed to be an authority on parking and I went to many of their meetings and made it that
one permit per family otherwise they people if there's two people in the in a house I'd have two cars the second one has to go ahead pardon please tie it back to to the
zoning map oh the zoning okay Zing all right as far as I was talking about the parking because of the zoning the situation uh uh that doesn't count okay okay um all right well as far as uh as far as the zoning situation
goes uh the price uh the city can make put a lid on the amount because it's supposed to be onethird of the income is supposed to be affordable housing now we can enforce
that law in the city of Bethlehem to make it that people earning 1,500 would only have to pay 500 for a bedroom with a with with a a bathroom to
it you know it's it's it's just getting out of control it's not affordable housing it's like Mr sh said maybe we should get rid of the star of betham and put a dollar sign up there
God bless you all thank you and the last hand I saw was from you sir hi my name is Brandon mlck I'm on Broad Street uh I wasn't planning to speak but I keep seeing these apartments go up all over Bethlehem and I got to say as someone whose uh grandfather was
born in Bethlehem worked in Bethlehem his whole life my mom was born in Bethlehem I've lived in Bethlehem in various different places on and off for about 15 years now and does that look like Bethlehem to anybody like does that
anybody does that look like when you pull come into Bethlehem and you look around you see nice historic Bethlehem with the star and Hotel Bethlehem and all the lovely architecture we have in the city does that look like it belongs or am I crazy here am I the I haven't heard
anybody else say this but that looks like it belongs at the beach and the alternative option looks like it belongs in the Soviet Union so like is anybody are we are we even attempting to design to match the city or the aesthetic like everybody else has done a great job with
all the other problems of you know the parking and the affordable housing and all that but like it doesn't even look like it belongs here and all the other apartments they're building and I'm sure a lot of them are owned by betham Property Group have the same aesthetic where it looks like a hotel or it belongs at the beach or it's just ripped
out of a you know communist Trac like Ser seriously this is everybody thinks it looks at this and goes oh yeah that looks great that looks like it belongs in Bethlehem I mean I I don't know what the the rules are I understand it's not a historic
district but like shouldn't we as the community make an effort to have them at least design something remotely aesthetically pleasing and fitting in with the you know historic nature of Beth that that's all I got thank you and
thank you and we're gonna all right so this the last comment we have before heading into the sir the last comment we have before heading into the the council meeting hi my name is Rafael too I just
wanted to say um thank you Council for asking all the questions that uh us the people that we wanted to ask um living on 18 West Garrison Street I live right across the street from where they want to do this I would be affected with it
because of uh the tightness of the block and the reason why there's not a lot of people that are here that live there was some people moved away but that is a rental property block there's a lot of houses that are for rent we own our
house so as a as a person that's going to live right across the street I will be affected by it you know and I just wanted to say that um it's a tight block um I know he said that
um they they can knock the building down or whatever but I'd rather see a flat lot than a building standing like this right in front of my house where right now the properties that they have across the street look look like they're neglected so you might as well just
knock them down because uh the aesthetic look of it is not it's not appealing so so um I voted against it in 2019 and 2025 I still vote against it and um I'm hoping that you guys could see through that you know and uh thank you sir for
being a voice for the people thank you Council for answering all the questions that us you know us that uh live in the area wanted to ask and um thank you thank you and
uh so as we're wrapping this up as a reminder council's going to be voting solely on um a zoning map and they are not within the Land Development phase yet so just solely on the zoning map a proposed ordinance will be placed on the March 4th 2025 agenda for first
reading that concludes the hearing right moving on to the council agenda uh any question on the minutes before oh all right the minutes stand approved okay right
so I have a couple notes before we head into uh this meeting and I'll explain it further uh under new business but agenda items 8 A through 80 have been removed from the agenda as
well as 10g all right we're gonna open ex me can you just clarify what 10 was a 10f or G uh uh 10 10 G 10g is the certificate of appropriateness for 1304 Spring Street so it's 10 10 G
yeah all right so we're going to open up the floor for uh public comment um YouTube reminder if you started this meeting after 7 please make sure to scroll ahead so that the YouTube stream is current rather than a recording of an earlier portion of the meeting um as a
reminder public comment wait one moment please right so we're going to go yeah so do you want to go do we legally do we have to go off the agenda do we have to go off the resolutioners agenda
okay all right let's get through let's get through the public comment and then we'll talk about this all right as a reminder for uh public comment we do have a five minute time limit um it is uh a time for Council to listen to you but uh not to engage with questions um
and as a reminder we all live here so be respectful of your community members if they have a difference of opinion so starting with my people signed up Regina Padia is the first person I have signed up to
speak hi my name is Regina Padilla I'm born and raised in Bethlehem and now I live in allent town but lucky me I'll have this ugly apartment to move into soon um I would like to apologize for my lisp um as I've heard there's people in
this room that don't like speech impediments just start with that one thank you um I'm not here just as a concerned citizen but as someone whose family history is deep deeply tied to the rich Legacy of Bethlehem a city that was built by the hard work and sacrifice
of immigrants my great great grandfather Pedro Gonzalez was born in Mexico and came to Bethlehem in 19 196 to work at Bethlehem Steel for over 40 years he worked tirelessly at the steel mill from the time that he first steep foot in the city until he retired in
1959 he didn't just work for the company he was also an ambassador for it Bethlehem Steel sent him to Texas and to Mexico to recruit workers as a result he brought 1500 workers and 80 families to Bethlehem contributing to the growing diversity that has always defined our
community Pedro wasn't just our hard worker he was also a community Builder he helped organize the opening of the Mexican American azka Club and played a key role in founding the still-standing Puerto Rican Society he was a proud Mexican American who loved his home in Mexico and never took for granted the
Privileges of being an American citizen now as I stand before you today I urge Council to pass a welcoming City Bill similar to the one passed in alentown it's a commitment to ensure that our immigrant Community is treated with the dignity and respect that they deser erve it sends a clear message that Bethlehem
welcomes all individuals regardless of their background and recognizes the significant contributions that immigrants have made and continue to make to our community um we all know that Beth bethlehem's identity is deeply inlined with the hard work and
dedication of immigrants our City's growth prosperity and cultural richness have been shaped by them it is in fact the very least that we can do to pass the welcome City bill um especially S A policies um has already been put in
place to guide us in this direction uh this bill is not about politics or partisanship it's about fairness compassion and honoring the values that have made our city great it's about recognizing that the people who built Bethlehem like my great great grandfather Pedro Gonzalez they were not
just workers but dreamers who believed in a better future for themselves and their family um they helped make Bethlehem what it is today and we owe it to them I'm sorry and to the future of City to ensure that every person who calls Bethlehem home is welcome and supported
I would like you to put that on your agenda thank you thank you the next person I have signed up is Harry Faber first I would like to thank Mr Miller for uh the minutes for the last uh for the last meeting I you took my
comments and I appreciate you listening to them now uh as it pertains to the welcoming City or city uh bill that was passed in Allentown I have read the statements released by Chief cot and mayor Reynolds and I got to say I'm pretty disappointed the struggle is twofold a struggle against tyranny in
which we have to try to maintain our material and economic conditions for the good of people of Bethlehem while at the same time opposing the complete control and Rise of fascism in this country and this is why I can give some leeway to our mayor he clearly articulated the struggle we are up against and how important it is that we maintain
receiving a federal grants that is fair but then again the reasoning for not codifying a bill like that which uh was passed in Allentown is flimsy at best such a bill can't both be interfering with Bethlehem police department operations and not change anything which
is it and to address the nature of how the city must follow federal law I'd just like to propose a hypothetical what if a federal law was passed where each city was required to line up anybody who spoke publicly against the federal government or the president and execute them publicly would you follow that law
no no now let's say there was a law a federal order calling for the forced rounding up of people based on where they were born detaining them in cages for weeks to years before shipping them like human cargo to wherever it was that they were born that sounds just as sick and inhumane to me and I know you guys
Chief cot I've spoken with you multiple occasions you are a caring and loving person if you were a fascist you've done a very good job at hiding it but ice is not just an agency it is system of Oppression ice separates families throws people into detention centers and subjects them to inhumane conditions
we've heard this phrase before we're just following orders it's the same justification used by those who carried out atrocities throughout history ice ice agents are individuals making choices choices to tear families apart kidnap children and brutalize people these actions are not justifiable we
must not allow this terrorism to be normalized we cannot ignore the parallels between Isis actions and some of the darkest chapters in human history just as the Nazis rounded up Jewish families and place them in concentration camps Isis rounding up immigrants and placing them in cages literally separating families now the Nazis did
not directly call Jews illegal immigrants but their propaganda effectively portrayed them as a foreign unwanted element within German Society by stripping them of citizenship and actively promoting the idea that Jews did not belong in Germany effectively rendering them as outsiders with no legal rights within their own country we
must stop history from repeating itself we failed with the genocide in Palestine it is imperative that we do everything in our power to prevent and resist the forced removal and ethnic cleansing of our own population when we allow agencies like ice to operate without accountability we normalize the abuse of
power we send a message that it is acceptable to treat people as less than human this is not a world we want to live in and this is not a world we want to pass on to Future Generations I said many times that it starts here at the local level with the individual local governments have the utmost responsibility to stand up to this abuse
Council must not normalize the abuses committed by Ice Council must not normalized violence committed against the marginalized passing a welcoming City resolution can send a clear message immigrants are not our citizens are people first and always and we will not participate in the dehumanization of our
immigrant population because they are people we will protect our residents no matter where they were born and although I have problems with the mayor I believe he could be much more radical but at the last meeting during the mayor report I must commend how honest and direct he was about the
federal funding freeze was going to impact the city of Bethlehem mayor Reynolds is an incredibly intelligent and articulate man and whenever anyone tries to challenge him in a battle of words it always ends terribly for the Challenger mostly Callahan I mention I am mentioning the fact that he
is apologize uh I'm mentioning the fact that he's only 42 because as it pertains to agism as a young individual myself it is my contention that a large majority of the problems in this country are a direct result of the unwillingness of the elderly who hold and maintain
political power from stepping down and stopping and stop trying to control everything case in point I can easily argue that because the scen and genocidal Joe Biden refused to drop out of the race until July 21st the Democratic party ured the election of the fascist Donald Trump now the youth
may not have as much experience but we have alternative visions and that is exactly what we need it appears to me the older you get the more complacent you get I believe that to be the case of many people uh here not to mention in the state and the federal government you have accepted things for the way they are you refuse to fight for an
alternative let alone consider one look at the world your your Generations left my generation and those that will come after me to inherit it the real agism as Hillary put it is the oppression and disregard of the young Brilliant Minds who want to build a better world a world without corrupt ineffective bureaucracy
and their scheming bureaucrats a world without war and genocide and colonization a world where our finite resources and energy and time are spent and invested directly into the people to improve oh man I know gotcha all right thank you the next person I have um and just
in the interest of time I know y'all done this before can we do snaps instead of claps because I want to make sure that we hear everybody before the end of the meeting um the next person I have is I'm going to spell your first name I do not want to mispronounce it c i a r a
n and if you don't mind uh telling me how to pronounce your when you come up please hello Council uh it's pronounced Kieran no worries about that thank you I'm a student uh from Lehi University I'm also here to speak in favor of the welcoming City Bill let me share some
words from A A friend of mine another student at Lehi a Colombian student named Ruben while I may not have grown up in Bethlehem I cannot just sit around and turn a blind eye while my immigrant brothers and sisters suffer under an
Rive fascist regime that may sound harsh maybe even Preposterous to some but that's what the government has become the last time I spoke here I warned the city council that this was only the first step the recent onslaught of ice raids is not only a tool of fear but
also a test by our fascist federal government to see what they can get away with it seems my prediction was correct as in case you haven't heard there have been recent reports of ice snatching children from schools breaking into homes to rip apart innocent families and
censoring posts on social media make no mistake this is their way of silencing the opposition and breaching on our first constitutional amendment the right to free speech the right to criticize the government I ask the Bethlehem city council this who do you align with the
people of America or a government that seems to gleefully breach the Constitution at every turn I would also like to remind the city council that America is a country created by immigrants illegal immigrants actually the authority of the English Monarchy
meant nothing to the wampo people yet they still chose to help the pilgrims even in the Lehi Valley the Lenny lenapi helped the moravians when they first settled here admittedly it is impossible to know what their reasoning for helping them was but I have no doubt that they
understood that those early Europeans European settlers were simply in search of a better life and just needed a helping hand please disregard any notion of illegal and legal undocumented and documented labels such as these exist simply to
further divide us dehumanize immigrants and distract us from the larger issues our country faces disregard disregard the fear-mongering headlines about violent immigrants as a whole Collective shouldn't have to suffer for the actions of one or a few the American Immigration
Council compared crime data to demographic data from 1980 to 2022 the most recent data available a the data showed that as immigrant as the Immigrant share of the population grew the crime rate declined in 1980
immigrants made up 6.2% of the US population and the total crime rate was 5,900 crimes per 100,000 people by 2022 the share of immigrants had more than doubled to almost 14% while the total crime rate had dropped by
60.4% to 2335 crimes per 100,000 people specifically the violent violent crime rate fell by 34.5% and the property crime rate fell by 63.3% immigrants commit less crime on
average than American citizens and the vast majority 88% of people deported by Ice have never committed a violent crime something racists such as our president seem to overlook when I spoke last I stated that I was a proud Colombian this is still
true but I am also a proud American the United States has been my home and the home for both my Colombian and non-c Colombian families for decades to forcibly remove people from their homes from their lives is simply simply for the crime of not having the right pieces
of paper is not what America stands for it's not peace it's not Justice and it's most certainly is not Liberty for all while I may not live to see the day where those three ideals are truly actualized I know that by making Bethlehem a welcoming City we will be one step closer to bringing our home
towards the that brighter future thank you thank you next next person I see you thank you next person I have signed up is Tommy good evening Council I'm Tommy pesi um I'm here like many others to
also ask the city to do everything in its power to protect our immigrant neighbors um I want to be very specific at following up about a few things from last meeting uh to to throw out there some of the uh practices that were
were asking to codify into law uh that includes preventing City agencies employees from inquiring about sensitive data like citizenship status or immigration status and also preventing from recording or maintaining that data another aspect of it is prevent City resources from voluntarily going towards
facilitating or assisting immigration enforcement operations um so I do want to I respond to uh some comments made by Chief and also some other uh possible misconceptions uh we heard last meeting from from Chief cot that uh betham police department's focuses on enforcing
local and state laws I think that's a very good thing we also heard that BPD is uh Kia accredited which is a rare thing for police departments across the company excuse me across the country uh and what this accreditation means in part is that there is a Prohibition on bias against uh common traits of a group
including national origin or immigration status again this is a good thing this policy um we also heard that the police department does not uh participate in the 287g program which effectively lets ice defer functions of immigration enforcement to local authorities uh so
again these are all all great things that our Police Department is doing already and the ask is that we codify these practices into city law so they are permanent and they carry over uh between new mayor mayoral administrations new police Chiefs new
city councils if we really value these things uh and they good practices that that protect our neighbors we should make them law um I want to address maybe some misconceptions now uh that if we were were to pass uh legislation with these
protections that somehow it would violate uh state or federal law I I want to refer to allentown's Bill four that was enacted two weeks ago you can also look at legislation from the cities of York or Lancaster uh very explicitly in those in those bills this these uh
protections that we're proposing it it is all compliant with state and federal law it's it's it says that City resources cannot be used to assist or help with immigration enforcement operations except when mandated by state or federal law or court order that means if there's if ice comes in with a
Judicial warrant signed by a judge a federal judge uh that is specific to everything it needs to be that has to be complied with that's that's federal law but in cases where it's just ice asking around has a detainer request or an administrative warrant these these are
not legal obligations for our city to help ice we should not be doing that and my understanding is we're not currently doing that and we should codify these these practices into law to make them permanent and clearly Define what they are um another concern raised uh might be that if if these uh protections are
passed it would prevent uh the police department from helping undocumented uh people who may be victims of Crimes by applying to U or t visas I would also refer to the legislation mentioned in Allentown and other cities there is explicit allowance for the police
department to approve certification requests to help Crime Victims apply for those visas um so I don't think that would be a problem at all uh this another thing raised by uh mayor Reynolds in part was that passing this bill might allow for might might be some
false sense of security uh I respectfully I think that's putting words in the people's mouths no one is asking that Bethlehem unilaterally prevent federal agents from coming to the city right that's that's not in the City's power what we're asking is to do everything that is in the City's power
to protect our residents uh our our neighbors um and again that means do not voluntarily comply with ice do not voluntarily assist ice there's a lot of gray area where ice may want the city to do something and it's not legally required we're asking that the city commit to not assisting with Federal
enforcement of immigration operations so again I just go back to if if the the claim is true that that everything we're asking for is in place right now in the police department and in other City agencies again this is not just for the police department it's for every employee in the city um codifying is is
important because this would clearly Define these protections and it would guarantee they stay in place in the future as long as the law this ordinance you know is part of city law um I think it's also important Bethlehem as one of the largest cities in in Pennsylvania
this would really be serving to leader to other municipalities especially those who maybe don't have these these practices uh in place as non-legal policies um as an example of why codifying law good law is important I would refer to uh roie Wade which which
guaranteed the right for uh uh abortion access for 49 years and look where it is now it wasn't codified and we don't have a law so again please codify these protections under law thank you thank you the next person I have signed up is Joe Daniels
hello again everyone so for the past year and a half or so I've been speaking off and on about our rental properties and some of the issues uh with the poor conditions of them so kind of came up with a plan here um a proposal for mandatory landlord training and
proactive rental inspection programs and try and get through this as quickly as possible I'm just going to go over the objetive for the most part and some of the highlights uh but this would apply to all rental properties including student rentals I've actually spoken with some students who have voiced their
concerns over conditions of rentals as well um more research is to be done on that end but basically the objectives is to educate the landlords educate tenants enhance enforcement of housing ordinances through a tiered inspection system improving housing conditions by
holding landlords accountable uh which will hopefully reduce tenant complaints and disputes by promoting compliance and ensure fair and safe effective regulation of bethlehem's rental uh Market some of the components would be the mandatory landlord training and a
number of bullets underneath that which are you know Pennsylvania landlord tenant laws Property Maintenance codes things of that nature tenant training program which would not be mandatory it would be voluntary but it would explain their tenants rights under Pennsylvania laws the responsibilities for property
care and Lease compliance because it's not always the landlord's fault we have some professional tenants that take advantage and damage properties as well uh rental licensing and a tiered inspection system so with this properties with no history of violations
would be inspected once every four years properties with minor violations would be inspected every two years properties with repeated violations would be inspected annually and subjected to higher fees funding mechanisms are the landlords will pay annual rental
licensing fee which I believe they do right now to cover inspections penalties for failure to comply would result in increased fines increased inspection frequency or complete license revocation proactive code enforcement instead of solely relying on tenant complaints the
city will Implement a proactive inspection schedule a dedicated enforcement team will ensure compliance and follow up on violations uh tenant and landlord resources would be established which in part are already done uh through Community Action such as um
assistance for mediation for disputes things of that nature now the big question is funding how is this going to be funded through the rental licensing and inspection fees based on a tiered structure penalties and fines uh revenue from fines on non-compliant landlords will help fund the inspections and
training programs CBD GS uh and other state housing funds to sub subsidize enforcement some public and private Partnerships such as collaboration with local universities nonprofits legal aid organizations and a little bit coming from the city budget to get things
rolling expected benefits would include healthy healthier and safer housing for our Bethlehem residents who work hard to pay their rent and deserve that at a minimum reduce burden on Emergency Services again looking out for emergency
service Personnel higher compliance rates enhance reputation of the city yada yada yada the impementation plan would go over three years phase one target high-risk properties with a history of violation and major safety concerns phase two year two expand to
the mid-tier properties with minor pass violations or older housing stock phase three include all rental properties under standard tier inspection and evaluate and adjust based on uh data as it comes through um you know I know this
is a lot to ask for but again we have have little to no affordable housing the city is not in a position to just build nilly Willy we're looking at different projects that's two three four years out from now I believe the least we can do
in the interim is provide our residents with safe habitable rental stock by making sure these properties are up to code that putting these slum Lords on notice putting these professional tenants on notice as well because I I believe some slum Lords become that way
because of the bad tenants that they've had so they just give up on their properties and you know it is what it is we got to get this fixed and I believe this is one way that we can do it thank you very much thank you Joe the next person I have signed up is Ry katola Ry catola a13 law for Street in
betham Pennsylvania I know the the rent is going Skyhigh here in Bethlehem and um uh one of the things that kind of triggers back to where I had to buy my own house back I
put a third of it with my mom restera and my sister when I bought the place on the south side when I was a teenager for $6,000 and now the value of it is at $1 140,000 on the southide
if you get a place for 150,000 and three people are in in conjunction with the place you're going to have a mortgage with your taxes and your insurance for about
$750 a month a lot less than you would pay for rent that's one idea now of course if you're getting them now places are going for about 150,000 on the southide and they're afford they're definitely affordable
better to buy your own place than rent don't fall into the category of paying the high rent more than you can afford as far as the Immigrant situation we all were
immigrants our country was built on immigrants but now we have this ice thing going on I don't think ice is nice where it's deporting people pulling them from their families like that and
especially when it comes to the Mexican people everyone from South America should be able to come to the United States as freely as they want and go back there should be no
borders reason is because we built this we took Texas New Mexico Colorado Arizona Southern California from the Mexican people I'm not Mexican I'm Italian but
the thing is I don't think that's proper that we got Santa Ana at gunpoint and said to him you we won't have you hang if you sign a document to get the land to us it's like going to a poker game with a gun with no
money you know this isn't proper for everyone in South America if they want to come here and they want to go ahead and make some money and go back if they want to be if they want to be uh citizens that's their prerogative they
don't shouldn't have to be forced to be citizens only if they want to that's as far as like pulling people and transporting them and mistreating them
like they are the city needs to definitely look at the rules that ice is doing if it's not proper don't let them come in uh that's where I stand as far as it
you can I don't know take care God bless thank you next person I have signed up is Dominic do I have a Dominic as a reminder it'd be really great if y'all could snap so people can hear
their names being called good evening Council it's a privilege to speak to you tonight my name is Dominic trasi I live in downtown Easton but I'm a graduate of Moravian University I frequent this city very often I love it I care for it and I want to see it Thrive I'm here to show support for the introduction and passing
of an ordinance that required the city of Bethlehem to obtain and maintain a welcoming City rating offering city services to the great people who live here regardless of their immigration status it would also help prevent unlawful ice arrests emphasis on the unlawful part I think this ordinance would be a plain and simple Act of good
faith for what is an extremely vulnerable population if we do not act on this now not only are we making a very scary time for immigrants even scarier but it will erode the trust of the Bethlehem people who value compassion this city was built on immigrants who are we to deny today's immigrants the reassurance that their
own local government won't turn them over to ice even if they are law-abiding the statement put out by the mayor about Bethlehem being a city that values diversity and respects its citizens means nothing if we can't introduce these incredibly basic protections if it's true that the criteria in which bethlehem's police operates Falls in
line with welcoming City status then I say prove it not only that but this bill would make it so that a future city council can't decide to make it even worse than it is now for immigrants this isn't just about right now it's about ensuring a safe future for honest people the mayor cites the fact that officers
are sworn in with a certain moral code to treat Citi equally and fairly as a reason why we don't need this ordinance but these performance performative promises mean nothing in a world with rampant police brutality and racial profiling those same officers took similar Oaths Bethlehem can't be a welcoming City if you can't prove it
having a third party objectively judge Howard doing for our minority immigrant population is vital because we don't already have that outside unbiased perspective in her statement Chief cot says she's worried about local police having to be involved in upholding federal laws which means in theory she should support this ordinance because it
would decrease local involvement unless of course a warrant is issued in that case police would have to comply regardless if anything the ordinance means less work for the police department less following up on Ice leads or chasing after immigration statuses the police can promise not to collect immigration status all they want but what could our promises if we don't
have consequences for when they're broken there's also a fun fundamental misunderstanding from Chief cot about our cooperation with federal government we would still have to comply with the Federal Government after this ordinance passes that doesn't change this is a bill about respect and honoring the people that live here and it would set a
great example to neighboring municipalities follow in allentown's footsteps and do the right thing thank you for your time the next person I have is Hannah oh y'all didn't hear that Hannah is that that's you did you
say I don't know I can hear Hannah oh Hannah yeah okay good evening uh my name is Hannah grael I'm uh also from Bethlehem Pennsylvania um I've been a resident a resident here for my entire life and I proud to live in an area that feels as welcoming and
Alive as Bethlehem that being said there are still ways we can improve such as passing the welcoming city ordinance beyond anything else this seems to me like a humano human issue we need to recognize the value of human beings no matter who they are I hate the phrase no matter because it does matter we should
get to know the people who are are part of our community and we need to help support the vulnerable members of our community what would you think feel or do if it was you that they were working against is it simply a fact that our city it is simply a fact that our city was built by immigrants and we would not be the same without everyone that makes
up our community why do you think we have such good food music events and Community it's because we are able to recognize and appreciate the value in diversity and how much and how every person has a stake in the city we need to preserve that welcoming stance by passing the welcoming City ordinance
prove to the people of Bethlehem that they are valued for what they have to offer to our city and the fact that we are all human beings wanting the same things to live a happy fulfilling life I believe the best way to to ruin a thriving Community is to turn against each other and break the trust in the Rel and relationships that we have
developed instead we should use the power that we have to build each other up and demonstrate our strength as a community that values all of its members this is not just an issue for here and now but for the future generations and for the future of our city and country that's it thank you thank you the next
person I have is Valerie Valerie sorry okay okay first I want to bring up again a comment of mine that was not addressed at the last meeting which concerns An Occurrence two meetings ago to explain briefly when I commented two meetings
ago a side comment was made about me by a council member why does she always sound like she's about to cry when she speaks after the meeting I approached and said I always sound like I'm about to cry when I speak because I have a speech impediment the response I got
without any eye contact was so do I that was it I did not receive a private apology so at the last meeting I sought a public apology I did not receive an apology then either here here I am again I can bring it up as many times as I need to
but I think that's going to get embarrassing for Council so can we address that today moving on I believe we can make a welcoming CI ordinance happen here in Bethlehem now in town the majority of
council was against it at the meeting when where it was voted on at the beginning of the meeting and yet the meeting ended with the unanimous vote in favor seen the statements put out by mayor Reynolds and chief cot and just like in Allentown I find that they claim
to agree with a lot of the principles that such an ordinance would bring so what are the issues and how can we resolve them I want to start by referring to Chief cot saying any additional language included in a resolution would not meaningfully
strengthen any of our current policies in the line before that she actually writes about the potential for a resolution SL ordinance and in her closing statement repeats again about a resolution we're not asking for a resolution we're asking for an ordinance
a policy like what we have can be changed at will and an ordinance cannot that's meaningful um and mayor Reynolds refers to the beliefs of the administration the administration changes with every
election we have a local election coming up let's remember for that and not assume things will be the same today and tomorrow so to me the question is not whether we need an ordinance but rather how do we pass an ordinance that codifies immigrant Protections in a way
that works for Bethlehem the alltown ordinance passed after revisions in Bethlehem there isn't even a bill on the table yet so it's premature to say this or that detail precludes us from passing an ordinance if there is something from
that is stopping from wanting to pass the Bill allent town did propose a different wording if the change is not endangering immigrants there's probably a way to see eye to eye on it something that I find frustrating about Chief Cup's memo is that she starts and ends
the memo by claiming that this bill would not meaningfully change how the police department currently operates but that's not reflected in the body of the memo where she talks about how she believes Police Operations would be hindered by it and I'm really suspicious of the insistence that knowing someone's
immigration status is a necessary power for a police officer especially toward victims um Tommy referred to how the bill poos is very sensitive to the needs of immigrant Crime Victims regarding tnu
visas um and I I also want to hit again on this like mention of a fear that passing this kind of Bill LS people into a false sense of security and like you're not paying attention if
you think that I think because make no mistake it's just one piece of the toolkit that community members are using to keep our neighbors safe education is a huge part of the strategy many deportations have been prevented by
people knowing their rights so in addition to rights that apply federally we can educate people on what the bill means for them and on the other hand I find that a lot of the statements made at the last meeting by you know people
working for the city the chief and otherwise uh could lull people into a false sense of security I heard members of the public talking about people they know getting deported after being arrest by Beth arrested by Bethlehem police the respon from from Chief cot is that the
BPD doesn't have the authority to deport people that's true I understand the intent to reassure that this came across as dismissive when immigrant families were talking about their lived experiences clearly there was a chain of events that led from being arrested by
Municipal Police to being deported by isur by order of a judge um that was not acknowledged and just focusing on the wrong thing um I'm running out of time but we have the opportunity to be leaders on this so let's thank you
Valerie the next person I have is Anna hello my name is Anna zaruka at 341b Spring Street uh I'm not going to repeat what all these good people said because I just want to say that I agree with them all so on that uh I really feel that we need to move forward on that and they spoke very well I just
want to bring two other issues up uh very quickly uh one of them is underneath the bridge at Spring and K Koka a I think that is right um I know weeks ago I was I walk there
every day and um I saw these gentlemen looking up and I was going like what they're doing they put some sidewalk clothes sign barricades uh now this is weeks ago and the reason they did that I realized was because you know parts of the bridge are falling down and every
time I walk under there I'm going okay you know what are the odds that I'm going to walk there at that moment a piece of cement's going to fall on my head uh they've done nothing except for put those barricades and they walked away so there should be some sort of netting or something or you know just
you know whatever it needs to be done but it's ridiculous so like every day I kind of like okay 5050 chance that I get hit with a big chunk of cement and that would be the end of it so I don't know why nobody's pursued that and then this um the other thing I'd like to mention uh our Greenway you know we've made a
lot of progress with that and it's really great and I think if I'm not mistaken the intersection with the small streets that run perpendicular to The Greenway for the most part previously there were stop signs for the pedestrians uh or whomever was using the
greenway so we had to stop as the cars came through I think a lot of those signs have been um removed and I think that's great but I would want to encourage us to go even further that actually there be stop signs for the vehicles going in the alley and we'd
have pedestrian um priority bicycle priority so that would the make The Greenway a really effective little Avenue that we could you know walk bicycle and people on um in wheelchairs could freely move through that area that'd be really fantastic anyways have
a great night thank you the next person I have signed up is Sophie sopia Hi my name is Sophia I live in Bethlehem and I'm here to say the same thing that many of my peers are saying right now about immigrants while making it a welcome City here in Bethlehem I urge you to take action to codify
Bethlehem as a welcome City you guys say belam is already a welcome City yet we know in history how you when things are not written it's not guaranteed and immigrants cannot vote for you their daughters and sons can and all you can do is ask them to acknowledge them you not codifying Bethlehem as a welcome city is just
showing that you don't want to codify immigrants in their existence in this city you're only erasing them in their efforts by waiting as ice and Trump Administration terrorizes them immigrants built and continue to build Bethlehem with resources and Community they sacrificed everything to be here and make betham a home for everyone and
the council's lack of initiative and urgency to make this ordinance happen only reminds you who I need to vote for this election for my parents people came here last meeting asking to make a bill codifying Bethlehem as a welcome city and what was done in the meantime rather than taking initiative making
compromises and being professional as every meeting is always some sort of banter and always some sort of unprofessionalism you focus on raising rent and Zoning that hurts people like immigrants who do not complain and just continue to keep on giving and giving and what more do you need immigrants
already use their lives as payment to make Bethlehem what it is and so don't take any more please pass the ordinance to make B A welcome city thank you thank you the next person I have signed up is Victoria hello my name is Victoria and I am also from Lehi
and like many here I am a brad Latina with roots from Spain Puerto Rico and Colombia two weeks ago I stood before you advocating to codify Bethlehem as a welcoming City essentially following in allentown's footsteps not only do I continue to ask for that but as the
situation has become more dire I'm here to urge you to better protect our immigrant residents by also enacting clear and strong laws these laws should prevent City agencies from employe City agencies and employees from discrimin ating based on actual or perceived
immigrant status and from asking about or recording sensitive data like citizen status why are these protections so crucial in these two weeks of indecision more atrocities have been inflicted upon migrants across this country including
in areas like Bethlehem during this period families have been cruy torn apart as parents are separated from children ice has conducted raids on hospitals and funeral homes and schools and has patrolled the streets of major and adjacent cities excuse
me thank you profiling immigrants based solely on the languages they speak openly and how they look disturbingly there are also ice impersonators with malicious intentions on emerging with Excuse
me disturbingly ice impersonators with malicious intentions have emerged posing as helpers to eradicate immigrant presence in these weeks we have lived in constant fear the city council Silence has in effect sanction these ongoing atrocities how are we to live our lives
When We Fear leaving our homes every day without our papers and wondering if we're going to get stopped by some white truck and taken away from everything that we know reports have emerged documenting cases of individuals being forcibly taken into ice custody simply for
speaking other languages than English I an American citizen do speak another language and do fear that that something like that will actually happen to me and people like me this also happens or could happen to students and there have been reports of
that too you were elected on the premise to act in the best interest of people is passing something like this not in the best interest of the people you serve to protect are you so paralyzed by fear of doing the right thing that you stand idly by while your residents are
terrorized Isis closer to home than you all realize than we all realize and they are affecting residents more than you see just because you might think that we're safe does not actually mean we are and until there are something in place
codifying that Bethlehem is a welcoming City we won't actually truly have that security for those compelled by statistics consider this 50% of the detained immigrants now have not committed any crimes as reported by NBC
News moreover a significant portion of immigrants work in agriculture construction and cleaning jobs that many Americans are reluctant to take yet somehow we are accused of stealing jobs but if you do not believe me as someone stated in the last city council meeting Google is free please use it and for the
migrants in this room who are watching the live stream which translates we will not stop fighting until you feel safe until to the members of city council please reflect deeply on your decisions for these actions you take here will inevitably place you on either the right
or wrong side of History thank you thank you that concludes all of our public com all the people who signed up for public comments I'm going to go around the room starting to the left and as we approach remember a reminder of the five minute time limit and please
keep the sidebar comments to yourselves we want to hear what people have to say we're not trying to antagonize anybody here I saw you first hi um my name is scoten and I'm here to speak about just the statement that was made by the city um because last meeting
we were here just asking for a welcoming City Bill to be considered um but instead we got a letter that really just was really dismissed and not really wanting to even consider it or hear us
out um I think like everyone else who has been on the agenda immigrants deserve the opportunity to speak and like other people have said to really give you what what we're experiencing
right and like what we want not be spoken for because I mean a black and white statement posted on social media that that is the lowest effort right like these meetings can go on for hours
if we need to we're not just gonna be like oh great this this statement it's going to help me it's not what's really going to help is you guys listening listening to us giving us a chance to actually see like was anyone even involved from The Immigrant community in
the writing of that statement because as an immigrant I don't know where all of that safety came from um so yeah I think as a person of color in this city as a immigrant in
this city who has been here for several several years almost my entire life um it is our due diligence to be able to put together this bill review it and even if it's the lowest effort that this city can do and if we're already doing
what we what the policy supposedly if we're supposedly already doing it then why is it such a hassle to just stand up for us in a time when no one else is no one else is hearing us and no one else is worrying the way that we are um so
why not just hear us out like that's the first step right and we're not even doing that which is crazy um so yeah I I lost my phone because we've been here for so long and that's how important this is that we've stayed for hours and
didn't leave because this isn't just a job this isn't just a building this isn't just an apartment or a lawyer or my job this is my life um and I'm not a criminal my parents are not criminals
we're here fixing your cars we're here cooking your food like we're not breaking the law trust me we're not stealing your property and you can't even put a bill on the table like
wow that's that says a lot um so I hope you can reconsider that um and just take this loow hanging fruit to really just stand up for people who are vulnerable who are unheard who are doing their best
to survive um and who love Bethlehem and clearly I I hope that is made public and in law of support of immigrants so thank you thank you anyone else to
left hello um my name is EA Ward I'm a resident of West Bethlehem I've lived in Bethlehem for about 5 years I'm an active volunteer for the transgender Community I'm transgender myself I'm fluent in Spanish I have worked in
Spanish communities for over 20 years as a photographer I've seen what ice raids do to cities in New Jersey I've seen what ice rates du to cities in um New York City where I was born um not putting something like this on the table
is an insult to all of the residents of Bethlehem we are very diverse community we speak many languages and this country was built by immigrants now you've put non-discrimination policies into effect here with help of some people that I
worked within my orgs so grateful for them because when I first came to this community I was terrifed for my life working in the downtown people would come in with literal Nazi symbols on their sidearms in local restaurants I'd
never seen anything like that in my life now you can imagine what it's like when I have worked for different companies throughout the states and what it's like to have to deal with co-workers who are terrified for their
life for these raids I had a panic attack with the anti-lgbtq stuff going on trying to eras my identity and panic attacks at work thank God Work knew and was supportive but I am from I'm a first generation immigrant myself my parents
parents were first immigrants and I'm first generation here as well we need to put this on the table immediately so that the fear can be eliminated so that we can feel we can stand up to each other for a community that's really all I have to say on the
matter you'll probably hear more from me this is my first time speaking here at the council and i' just like to say thank you very much for hearing our voices tonight thank you for coming anyone else to the left hi uh my name is Sam and I live in Fountain Hill but it's about a 30 minute
walk from here and I work in Bethlehem uh so I just want to Echo the calls for a welcoming city ordinance um many of the people who spoke before me were very well spoken and I have to agree with um what they
said um and I just want to emphasize that if you're already doing the things that should make immigrants feel safe then why not codify it and one other thing to add would I
don't want to take up too much of your time but there are fear-mongering narratives spread about immigrants particularly those who are non-white you hear this dialogue about you know illegal immigrants being being criminals
being uh like taking jobs and I hope more people can reach the realization that these tropes pit fellow Working Class People against each other it has people worried that their neighbors are taking more from this pool of scarce resources but in reality there's enough
for us all and these tropes are not only harmful in that they pit Working Class People against one another but they're also profoundly racist thank you anybody else on the left turning to the center anybody else anybody in the center want
to make public comment Mary Joe Mar mle 449 Grandview Boulevard this is the beginning of my third year attending Council meetings the last meeting was long and laborious reminds me of those a year ago there was much talk and discussion about Bethlehem
adopting a welcoming city ordinance I have felt free to express my opinion andew Viewpoint until the last meeting tonight I am speaking with great trepidation I have even defended privately some council members after they were viciously attacked verbally
after voicing my opinion at the last meeting I no longer feel welcome as I was the only one speaking with a different Viewpoint someone speaking after me called me a racist I was told by someone attending
that I should leave no one on Counsel or within the administration came to my defense not at all welcoming unless the person shares the same Viewpoint shame on this governing body extremely despicable and
disheartening 12-year-old Joselyn nari Rachel Moren 13-year-old New York City girl 16-year-old Elizabeth Madina and most known lean Riley if you are unfamiliar with these individuals shame
on you Joselyn was raped and murdered in Texas Rachel a mother of five was raped while and killed while jogging the 13-year-old girl was raped in New York City while her friend was forced to watch Elizabeth was brutally murdered in
her home they can Riley a Georgia nursing student raped and murdered while jogging illegal aliens committed all of these heinous acts these were someone's wife mother daughter sister friend cousin
some of these actions occurred in sanctuary cities some were arrested numerous times for crimes but because of liberal policies were never tried a welcoming City policy or even the current policy only serves to enable
this kind of brutal vicious action why would Bethlehem police work in conjunction with Pennsylvania state drug task force to Cil the trafficking of drugs only to allow the possibility of other acts of violence to occur much as
this this activity is conducted by MS13 and Trend aragua gangs both are continually active in Allentown and Easton does Bethlehem honestly believe these gangs respect City borders This truly frightens me when I mentioned this
to a member of council I was dismissed rudely last year there was a t 2.6% tax increase the mayor and Council expressed concern regarding Federal funding because of the current Administration in Washington funding will decrease if
cooperation decreases like it or not I want these criminals out of my city I want to feel safe in my neighborhood at this point my feelings of safety are decreasing if funding decreases my taxes will only increase they already increase
at the whim of this Administration let me State for the record my vote goes to those who support my values and my pocketbook I am not alone and this past election proves me right I want the record to reflect that I am not a racist
my parents came from diverse backgrounds I married into a full-blooded Syrian family both my husband and I were completely accepted by each other's families I taught in a center city school my students included Muslim Syrian Hispanic Chinese and white
students all were treated fairly and with great compassion no complaints from parents several years back I had a conver conversation with a 22-year-old temple student the gist of this conversation ended with her calling me a white woman of privilege she began her
studies St majoring in Premed and graduated with a degree in social media management talk about a gross turn of EV of thinking events and thinking this body allows all form of speech supported by the First Amendment forgive me but
hate speech is not protected under the First Amendment thank you anybody else in the center want to make public Mr sh Bill sh I'd like to mention a study by the Kato Institute
which I've mentioned before which is relevant uh the Kato Institute is a it's more conservative than the Heritage Foundation which is the one that produced this project
2025 The kto Institute would be described as libertarian they want the smallest government possible but they're also ra rather academic and a couple years back one of
their researchers took advantage of a Texas law that requires the local and State Police in Texas to determine the immigration status of anybody who's arrested they compared these numbers of arrests
with the populations of three different groups native born citizens legal immigrants and illegal immigrants and the estimate of illegal immigrants was probably on the low side
the results were and by the way the study has been updated to include convictions not just arrest and anybody who's interested can go online uh Google Kato Institute C named
after an imminent Roman and uh arrests of immigrants and you'll find both articles which you could print out they found out that the group with the highest arrest rate were the native
born citizens next came the legal immigrants and the group with the lowest arrest rate were the illegal immigrants which is understandable because illegal immigrants don't want to
come in contact with the police and so that that's some solid research and uh Mary Joe and I agree disagree on this um there obviously there are some violent criminals who
have been convicted and they um should should be the ones that be first deported but the way it's happening is totally ridiculous I'm not going to pound the Lector again tonight um a little
history um turn of the last century there was a lot of immigration from eastern and southern Europe and it was a lot easier back then you just showed up at Ellis Island and if you weren't coughing whe they let you in basically that's an over
simplification but there was a backlash then right after World War I and the Red Scare there was a people were afraid to a lot of these IM immigrants were Communists and you had something called the Palmer Raids which I was not aware
of until recently Palmer was a federal bureaucrat I forget exactly what his exact position was but he was in charge of these raids and they were rounding up in immigrants and deporting them which
is um parallel to today one further story uh this doesn't have to do with immigration but it is similar um people of my age are familiar with
The Saga of Maran Anderson the celebrated contralto and the Daughters of the American Revolution who have a uh very nice Auditorium and called Constitution Hall in DC it's on 17th Street just
south of the White House decided that to disinvite her uh from appearing there so elanar Rosevelt it is said um prevailed on the powers of be so
that she sang at the Lincoln Memorial to a large audience it was very significant event sometime after that the Daughters of the American Revolution invited Franklin Roosevelt to
address their annual convention or whatever and the first two words of he uttered were fellow immigrants so the I'm very sympathetic to these calls
for stand up and be counted be a welcoming City but we have a president right now who is a very vindictive person he has threatened to cut off all federal aid to California because they do some things he doesn't like very
gently Bill start wrapping up okay very quickly then uh Sometimes the best I'm have mixed feelings but Sometimes the best form of resistance is passive resistance thank you well I could I just say one
more little thing next time oh come onel come on come on I will be here to listen afterward I promise next time anyone else in the wide Center no I will H the lect turn and I hear you I feel you I your pain is validated here thank
you my name's uh Micha o here 32 4th Avenue Bethlehem I've been in the Lehigh Valley all my life uh lived in Bethlehem probably close to 30 years I was very glad to see that um the eastn mayor and
the eastn police chief uh you know spoke against the welcoming ordinance and I was very glad to see that our police chief and our mayor did the same Bethlehem should not pass a welcoming city ordinance Bethlehem is a welcoming City
already um I would imagine if you pulled the 78,000 people in the city uh probably the opinion would be a lot different than what we've heard here tonight most people love immigrants they want to see legal immigration they want to see it done right but they want
criminal illegal immigrants taken out of the country it's a danger to our community it's a danger to our our society if I were to break into your house raid your refrigerator sit down in your living room you'd call the police because I'm violating your
personal rights and it's no different with this um just to let you know I do I think we do need legal immigration and for example I have two daughters inlaw uh Paola who's from Peru and my other daughter-in-law from
Nepal it took them years to get into this country but they came in Legally we do need to form immigration it needs to be we need immigrants in the country but it needs to be done in an orderly and legal process that's beyond the purview of city council that's a
federal thing we should appeal to our representatives to our you know people that represent us in the federal government to get going on that um just one other thing even though I disagree with most of what uh people have said here tonight I always learn something when I listen to opposing points of view
so even though we may not like what other people say we can at least learn one or two things in the course of that what's going on so thanks thank you anybody else in the broad Center hello my name is Ronald Johnson I can't always learn from misinformation
though I most of my community members here today uh are not criminals many people who are working in the restaurants um fearing work site raids from fascist Immigration and Customs Enforcement are not criminals they are hardworking individuals trying to
provide for their families I would like to mention that on February 5th the United States uh justice department uh released a um Mor memorandum or
moratorium um that essentially as on February 5th that uh about restoring the death penalty and what that entails is individuals um who they said Traverse
illegal aliens who Traverse the United States borders um the policy would apply to them so that means millions of hardworking families here in the United States are not just subject to deportation or torture in guanto
Bay but also subject to murder state sanctioned murder our communities are living within fear of State sanction Terror and I really implore uh and beg every member of
betham city council to consider the people that cannot speak here today the people who are fearful to go to the grocery store the people who are fearful to go to work every day my godparents
senior citizens worked here for decades are undoc we undocumented they self-de deported themselves out of fear I have to deal with members of my community who I love more than anything in this world and deal with their tears and
their crying and and their feelings of being dehumanized and their Perpetual fear so I beg every member of betham city council to recognize the human dignity of our community members to recognize that the city of Bethlehem was
created by immigrants from the Czech Republic from Slovakia from Slovenia from Serbia from southern Europe from Eastern Europe from northern Europe from all parts of Europe but also other parts of the world besides just Europe um and
I love European immigrants um but I would like it if immigrants from darker from other parts of the world were also treated like human beings thank you thank you does anyone else in the broad Senor want to speak hello can you hear me yep okay uh
my name is Logan Shire I'm a first year student at Moravian University and um you know I moved to this city because I was kind of enamored by everything about it and I found it to be a very welcoming place and it was somewhere where I wanted to you know move on to my
academic career and so I moved here because where I come from it's not so similar and uh what worried me you know recently with everything that's been going on is you know I was sitting in class and I got an email from the president uh all of us got an email from
the president of the University outlining what we had to do if ice agents showed up on campus and on top of everything else that we have to deal with as students and as Citizens and as people living in the city of Bethlehem you know as a
student having to balance Athletics and academics and work and going home and coming back and forth and doing day-to-day things while also having to worry about whether or not agents are going to come in a van and racially
profile you uh based on their perceived how they perceive you to be you know where you're from and it it scares the hell out of me to be honest because I have friends and I have family members whose uh you know immigrant status their
documentation uh at times has been in question and so you know on top of everything else I have to worry about having to worry about wonder whether or not my friends and my family are going to be profiled if they're going to be picked up and if they're ever going to
be sent away is it has a lot of pressure on an individual and has a lot of pressure on a community and that's a kind of pressure that builds up over time and that kind of thing can bring resent so you know I've seen the statement put out by the city of Bethlehem and I've seen the you know memos and everything
and I just like other people here have stated tonight I just wish that there would be some concrete action uh put down like a welcoming city ordinance um and the idea that it's you know a false sense of of safety or whatever the term
was used right now there's no sense of safety I mean I I know people that I've become friends with since I've came to college here who are afraid for their family members like I said what happens if you know it's it's happened here it's happened in the Lehigh Valley there was
a student at mberg who was picked up by Ice agents and detained and asked for their citizenship because they didn't look a certain way and this is something that the people of Bethlehem have to deal with now and so I would just ask that their elected officials uh represent them and that they stand up
for them and that they show they do as much as you can because I know there's legal limitations with federal law and everything but do everything that you can please I urge you thank you thank you and turning to the right side of the
room does hello uh my name is Cameron I'd like to thank the people who have shown up today and shared their very real personal and painful stories I'd also like to thank the council for listening and for for continuing to feel compassion for your constituents and remind you that although this is a routine meeting for you you are
legislating on people's lives and you are legislating on our fear I am here to urge the council to introduce and support an ordinance to declare Bethlehem a sanctuary City uh no one is illegal on Stolen land you are governing on traditional Lappy land land that was stolen and destroyed by the white
nationalism that this country was founded on the white nationalism that is rapidly increasing in our country once again and you have the opportunity to reverse that with your positions there is no humane way to argue for the rights of people to be here to live a safe life
to not live in fear to not be put in concentration camps for God's sake if I have to argue with you on this issue it is an indictment on both of our Humanity what I am saying should sound familiar to you because I said it to you two weeks ago a lot of people who have shown up today were here two weeks ago I
counted almost 40 people two weeks ago not none of whom were asked any questions by city council about what the verbage of the ordinance that we would like is how it might be applicable to Bethlehem or why the many immigrated residents of Bethlehem who spoke are afraid of Bethlehem city government
collaborating with ice after public testimony ended however city council asked the mayor and the chief of police questions that could have been asked directly to the people most affected in my experience this is unique to Bethlehem City Council in most of the testimonies I've been present to in various cities across the country my
Representatives at least had the treated myself and other res resents with enough dignity to look Us in the eye and they would usually ask qu us questions related to our testimony these actions treated us as if we are not capable of speaking on our lived experience as if
we are not worth speaking to not to mention they give us no opportunity to respond to the inaccurate claims this is why we are here again so let's clarify a few things that were said in the last meeting first off this is not a resolution we are proposing it's a bill second Chief cot has said that a
sanctuary City would give people a false sense of security does the chief of police not believe that we are secure what would make this sense of security false if we are legislating against the invasion of our city and removal of our people from my impression of Chief cot's comments the police policy is to not
collaborate with ice so why should so so we should feel secure why not legislate that security why not reassure your residents third the claim was made that there are no ice raids to the police chief's knowledge that have happened in this area and this is something that I know from personal experience is false I
don't want to speak on my friends private experiences too much but I have heard of multiple experiences and I have uh witnessed them as well and uh at least one example has already been already made headlines at mberg Council look around to you the people here are
peaceful now but we have numbers what do you think will happen when you reject this bill I'd like to end this by giving Council ample opportunity to answer questions until my time runs out and if I can't answer it someone else who testifies after me will be able to do any of you have questions this isn't
a time that we engage in question and answer okay then I will be reading the ordinance until my time is up let's find it here huh all right section two certified welcoming City designation mandated star
ratings the city during its 2025 certification shall obtain an initial rating and work to achieve and thereafter maintain a star rating of no less than three stars under welcoming America's certified welcoming standard 2.0 star system notwithstanding the foregoing the city May and should
continue the efforts to create policies and procedures and to take actions towards obtaining higher star ratings including those designated as four and five all in an effort to advance the city's commitments to ensure Equitable and inclusive policies and inclusive access to all residents including
migrants in to the city's governmental programming services and processes provide a culturally and ethnically diverse Workforce further strengthen the city's Workforce by improving integration promote and support the elimination of barriers to both child and adult education for immigrants
assure that the city's residents continued to be treated equitably and fairly without regard to their immigrant status disability language preference gender or sexual orientation and ensure that the city takes a lead in promoting these principles all
right um huh section three has oh here we go non-intervention with respect to citizenship and intervention requesting accessing or disclosing information prohibited no official or employee of
the city shall require into an individual citizenship or immigration status unless required to do so by the state or federal law or thank you very much thank you very much please ask questions if you need to anybody else in the wide center turning to the right
does anybody want to yes sir good evening Council uh my name is Bishop like I mentioned earlier I am uh I'm addressing you all in a third language uh you know I come from a country called bwana so I was s
international student at Lehi University I've lived in Bethlehem for the last six years did my undergrad here now I currently work for the University and I've have been a resident of Bethlehem throughout that whole period
And there's a couple of things I guess I I want to to address you know there's this slight of hand that people do that bothers me you know it's you know of course I'm a wonderful person I'm I know I don't have have any hatred in fact you
know I'm married to this wonderful diverse person and of course he's not a criminal but all these other people though are you know I I I my in-laws are so diverse and they're not criminals but your side of the family or your
grandparents I don't understand this argument it's of course the people that I know are wonderful but the peoples that are going to come themselves are not wonderful people they're not grandmothers they're not mothers they're not husbands themselves they are
criminals and there's this attempt to make the word immigrant synonymous to being a criminal and the first Ru of being an immigrant is actually as somebody mentioned we're not only law abiding citizens we're actually very law
avoidant Citizens first rule of being an immigrant is not to get in trouble so this idea that immigrants are synonymously and necessarily criminals and think of them and frame them from that point of view I don't think anyone
came here and ordered or argued that the city of Bethlehem welcome criminals unless of course you think the word criminals represents the word immigrant and I think that's the very definition of having a racist view because you think by virtue of people
being different they are prone to being a certain way criminals come in all shades and colors and shapes and forms some of them are black some of them are white B some of them up from everywhere so criminality is not an element of immigration by any argument you could
pull out so pointing to some issue and trying to make it synonymous to this group of people who are actually very vulnerable and actually need more law protection rather than less I think is something we should avoid and it's a very dangerous thing to do because we're
not criminals we are not criminals we're immigrants and to argue that is also to assume you know Americans or you know The Real Americans you know to to use some people's words are somehow immune to
this thing called circumstance we're not people move for all sorts of reasons and usually for very unfortunate circumstances usually for in search of better life and we all by virtue of Being Human are not immune
to circumstance it doesn't respect color creed or anything by being human we want better for ourselves that's why people move and I like to end with a quick story that I learned as a kid you know there was this story of a young man who was bullied at
school you know his bully would just beat him up do everything you know every day and one day this young man had to come up with a plan I guess and when he was confronted by his bully you know standing face to face and he know what
that man he knew was guess it's time to get beat up but this one day he looks in the eyes of his bully and then he draws a line on the sand and he looked right at his bully and say I dare you to cross it of course the bully is thinking what
is this what is this young man up to and the bully crosses the line of course and then the young man looks at him and says see now we're all on the same side you know humans have this interesting things we do where we draw lines in the
sand and create sides and somehow that prevents us from seeing we're all in the same side a lot of these conversations are had as if you know it's them against us or the is an ass and them we're all look around this is a room full of
immigrants discussing how we should treat ourselves but somehow we think we're talking about some other immigrants somewhere that are criminals that are not like us I mean of course we are all wonderful people but those are the guys that are coming my goodness what criminals they
are what we are talking about today is to make Bethlehem a welcome sitting for all of us in this room forget the people the immigrants are right in this room and we're not talking about some criminals elsewhere we're talking about the people in this room that don't feel
welcome in the city and feel unsafe thank you thank you turning to the right does anyone else want to make public comment uh hello city council my name is Sebastian zaruka I live at 341 Spring Street Bethlehem uh I've been a lifelong
well not lifelong but I grew up in Bethlehem went to the Liberty High School and grew up in Leigh Valley um honestly I don't have I wrote my own speech but after that I have nothing more to say I mean that was just everything that I think you guys need to
hear so thank you for listening thank you anyone else to the right all right that brings the first section of public comment to a close we're going to move on to uh public comment on ordinances and resolutions being voted on this evening
as a reminder 8A through 80 are removed from the agenda as well as 10f sorry for the confusion earlier it is 10f that is removed from the agenda so public comment on things being voted on turning to the oh wait have anybody signed up no
turning to the left no turning to the center Mr sh Bill Shire um just two very brief comments um I
support the idea of the salary increases which uh I advocated a couple years ago as I'm I'm aware enough what it's like to be a council member and a conscientious
council member spends an awful lot of time and certainly worth a minimum minimum of $10,000 a year and my other comment concerns uh have you taken 1304 Spring Street off the agenda that is off the agenda yes
sorry it's off the agenda the agenda yes it is not on the agenda okay thank you Bill um anyone else in the wide Center and we are not voting on a council increase tonight that is uh a memo anyone else in the
center anyone to the right okay that concludes public comment moving on to Old business do we have any old business all right uh moving on to new business um before I turn to my the my
fellow council members for their new business 88 through 80 were removed from the agenda because of that called um advertising advertising requirements we have very specific advertising requirements Publications have change so we have to advertise with someone else
so we have not met the deadline for seven days of um reporting so we are removing those from the agenda they will appear on the next agenda thank you to the administration for being being patient with those Finance items um did
you want to expand on that that's my aw cool also 10f was removed from the agenda at the developers request um and that will appear on a future agenda so turning to my left do any council members have new business
that they want to address Council I just have one question I'm not sure if it's Mr alal or who but the woman who out talked about the the bridge at conoga and um Spring Street if do do you know can you just give an update on that thank
you yeah through uh regular inspections the deficiency in that bridge was identified and we're just following up on that I'm sure that at the appropriate time we'll minimum secure the bridge meaning that we'll do some soundings where we knock off any loose concrete
and make sure that the remaining concrete that's up there is sound and unlikely to fall uh before we fully reopen it and the issue is completely resolved thank you anyone else to the councilman
quc uh thank you everybody for coming out I'm sorry that most of you left at this point um it's unfortunate I I do want to say that um I agree that we need to reject the false stereotype of uh immigrants whether they're documented or
undocumented is being more in some way more criminal than uh people who happen to be by the good luck born here or you know become naturalized citizens I really appalling um so uh and I was
particularly sad that Heather um Hannah grey left because I've known her since she was in kindergarten when she was one of my daughter's dear friends and seeing her stand up um on behalf of her community really warmed my heart today um and uh also I want to thank Eva for
coming and and speaking on another community's rights because solidarity between lgbtqia folks and immigrant communities and women and others um is really really important in this moment
uh when some uh of these very communities are trying to be told that they don't even exist so I I really appreciated her coming out um and speaking as well um I may have a different opinion about how we can best
protect our residents uh of every immigrant um status uh but my certainly my views on uh what's happening right now in our country uh do not differ so I just wanted to say that that's it thank
you Council to my right does anyone have any new business um Council l um yeah I have just a couple of questions to um follow up on the the policies that or the statements that
were put out uh within the past few days um in terms of and it applies to police policies and also to administrative policies I don't know who who could speak um to the administrative
ones but um so one question would be um where are the policies for City Administration like the language policies or for police uh um policies where are these written so we have
directives that govern the police department that basically set operations and those directives can be found online uh if you go to the city website you click the police department
there's a a section that says policies and directive um for example 1.1.4 which is prohibit against bibas policing can be found on that website and and individuals can read what the
directive States uh in regard to what we can and can't do you know if we want to stop somebody uh if we if we want to question them um different things that are there that are prohibited uh not only due to the Fourth Amendment but also as our accreditation through
klea okay um and those policies is there a process for if somebody were to want to update or change them like a lot of the comments have spoken to well what if it's not fantastic Chief
cot in you know several years what what are the procedures that the department goes through when policies are revised um you know or or changed so it'll start off at the the very you know line level
with uh the officers that may be subject matter experts and then it works its way off the police Administration um to be changed and go through a workflow uh but as well as uh taking comments from our community
working together with community members uh subject matter experts in the field um that's where we take a lot of our direction from and as well as accreditation standards so there are standards that have to be met in those policies and and
directives so okay that's where a lot of that that background comes from got it so the accreditation body reviews the policies regularly yes uh yearly on a yearly basis they review our policies and procedures uh as well as we have to
show proofs that we're doing what we're say we're doing um so for example the prohibition against biospace policing any complaints that come into the Bethlehem police department uh where someone alleges any type of bias-based
policing have to be investigated those investigation numbers that those investigations get looked over by the accrediting uh agency uh to make sure that we're we're complying with our process okay um and then the last part
of the question there would be what are the consequences for not following policy um I I assume that there's a complicated process because of Labor like um the unions and and whatnot uh but what what
is like the overarching way that it's dealt with on an organizational perspective we can lose our accreditation um on an individual perspective uh officers will be disciplined depending on what exactly
that infraction is that violation is it could be anywhere from dismissal to a uh a verbal counseling um okay written reprimand additional training so we have
a disciplinary Matrix that we we follow it's a progressive discipline plan but it it would definitely depend on the the violation got it okay thank you you're welcome um and I I had the same questions for the administration um in
terms of like for the non-p police Administration uh in terms of the policies that were referenced um in the statement that was put out like where those are written uh what's the process for updating or
revising them and the consequences for if somebody's found to be not following is there anyone here who's able to speak to those my recollection is they were largely police policies which ones Rec calling and I I do not
have I I could pull up the statement from online but I was recalling something about uh language policy um that I know there's going to be more work done through the health Bureau on but um about you know communicating in people's uh
languages and um our efforts for uh diversity and inclusion Etc um I know there was reference to like the different flag raisings which I know they're for ETC but um the one example that I'm
thinking of without looking back at the words right this second is the language policy yeah she mentioned Health there's a communication plan uh that the health Bureau is kind of spearheading and it's it's not only addressing the health Bureau but it's comprehensive it's
looking at all the various bureaus and departments in the city and trying to make sure that we're getting the best information out to the public in not only English but also uh I 30% of our population is Hispanic um I forget the
percentage of how many people speak uh a secondary language in their household but so we're better communicating with the public not just putting things out in English so that's currently going on right now myself and uh Chief Reich actually met with the communication
specialist this past week um to to go ahead and work on that plan okay um and I think the other policy that I was thinking of was data storage um I know that we don't habitually um ask in the administration
for um information about immigrant status um so is there anywhere that that information would be kept even though it's not habitually collected like do we have any of those records kept anywhere only if it would
be in a police report I would think only police report in the narrative section off the top of my head I don't believe that we would have that information in in any databases in the database it would be in the The Narrative portion like in an individual report in a narrative if it somehow was relevant or
came up in that case that would be it okay um thank you those were the questions that came to mind welcome any other questions from members of council or any other new business um I I'm sorry can I ask I'm sorry I forgot can I just ask Chief cot
I'm sorry I just I have a couple questions but one is um are you aware of any ice raids in Bethlehem in the last well let's say months since the new Administration I I am not and and like I explained to uh some folks beforehand though I I'm I'm not always notified
okay uh so there are times where other law enforcement agencies will come in and give us professional courtesy let us know hey we're coming to serve a warrant at 123 Main Street uh I I have not received any notification of any ice uh activity here
in the city of Bethlehem okay thank you and I just I wanted to clarify um for those that had spoken earlier that my understanding from the Allentown ordinance is that the reason it was unanimously passed because they change the language from mandate to suggest the
the language is such that suggest they follow the welcoming city um policies okay so I guess I think this is a legal question for one of the lawyers in the room um does that really give the city a lot of legal bite because you're
suggesting you're not mandating and it you know is there really much of a difference as far as what we're doing now is everything is really following the welcoming policy especially the police um and is there really much of a difference legally if we do the
welcoming City like Allentown says would suggest or not have it I don't know who wants to I don't want to put I don't think it adds anything legally okay that's what I thought I wanted to just clarify that symbolic kind of a thing or but terms legally
it's not mandating so that that's suggest is a very um not strong word let's put it I guess depending on the situation okay the only other thing I wanted to say is I do thank everybody that came out um I can certainly understand and hear the fear um I know
it's is deplorable the times that we're living in now and I want to clarify too that um and I know I say this all the time but it's true I mean I've worked with immigrants and refugees for a long time but especially I had many if not most of my students were immigrants and
refugees um in the last 20 years in in my high school working and um I know people talk there were a lot of talk about people that are um illegal immigrants naturally being um criminals but and about the legal process you know
when when my ancestors came over it wasn't a process like Mr Shire said you get on the boat you come off to Ellis Island and if you don't appear like you're sick or you know carrying a a deadly um contagious disease you're okay you're in now it's really different it takes years and years and I know this
because of working with my students and I have a dear friend who's working on the border trying to get uh the people that are coming in to be legal and it just is a lot of red tape and a lot of um a lot of barriers but I know from my students and families what I saw all the time was
they the reason they came here is because especially the males once they were 12 or 13 if they didn't join a gang them and their parents would be dead and if the girls stayed there they would be raped or killed by the Guang members so they came to literally save their lives
all the kids and families that I had interacted with and I think that we really need to be clear that um you know that generalization and stereotype that they're coming here so they can do drugs and and do I mean sell drugs and do illegal things is is far far from the
truth I mean I it broke my heart to see the students and families I worked with because they literally gave up everything in their native land everything to come here to save primarily their children's lives and they um are so grateful to be here and
they're in a struggle a yearslong struggle to be legal citizens it's not it's not easy so um I I understand that I want to clarify for those who were are stating otherwise thank you thank you um before I ask my questions I just wanted to know I know
there was a couple statements made by the administration by the police and by the police Union did any of you want to talk about the statements that you made um now is a great time if not I'll just go into my questions sounds like we're good what I will say is is again I I
know I said it uh last meeting um things are constantly changing and evolving and we are trying our best to keep on top of all the different things that are going on in Washington outside of Washington we're going to continue to work with our Community Partners our community members
to make sure that we're doing everything in our power to make sure that everyone here in the city of Bethlehem feels safe and is proud of their Community um so that's something that I I know that uh I I don't want to speak for the administration but I know that Miss centuro and I uh recently met with some
community members last week to talk about um how to improve things and and how to go forward and continuing this dialogue so it's something that we we plan on continuing um but something I did want to reiterate is this for us this has not been reactionary um this is
something that has been long in the making something that we've worked on um even before I became Chief uh just because of you know as a detective lieutenant in charge of our investigations division uh we saw um how members of our community uh the most
vulnerable and marginalized we're being victimized over on the greenway uh so it's something that we've really been working on is trying to build better relationships with community members and and have policies and practices in place that would protect people um so again
just to reiterate I'm looking forward to continuing that dialogue with community members hearing people's perspectives and working towards making Bethlehem a better place for its residents thank you yeah I would just add it was said earlier tonight by one of the speakers
we are not immune from circumstances and and I think as the chief said we're in a very rapidly changing environment right now uh with the administration and what's coming so uh we're not immune from those circumstances and we'll continue to monitor those and I guess I
would add that's true of a police officer in the street too they're not immune from the circumstances either so it's very difficult to legislate absolutes in terms of police Behavior because they're not immun from circumstances and it's hard to legislate and predict everything that could
possibly develop so the policies Outline by the chief try to hire the right people you might try to be selective in who you hire make sure you have best practices and follow the gold standard of certification uh you do training you
pick your supervisors and then you you trust the people that you've sent out there to deal with those circumstances which may not be specifically spelled out somewhere in a policy uh at the last uh meeting there was a lot of talk about
the high-speed chase in West Bethlehem that ended with a lot of collisions and things of that nature and State Police matter didn't involve the city but the question was asked to the chief do we have policies on chases and she went on to describe we do and it outlines many variables that have to be
taken into account in the moment but you don't have an absolute policy that says You must never chase in a residential neighborhood because you could be Chas chasing a terrorist or a serial killer or something like that so it's very difficult to legislate absolutes and I'm was sort of
reminded of that with the speaker who said earlier that you know we are not immune from circumstances very valid points and chief cot I do have a couple of questions um because thinking about absolutes we've talked a lot about like the past couple of weeks about um
compliance versus over compliance things that we legally have to do versus things that we are not encouraging our officers to do has there been consideration given to different penalties for specifically these types of things over compliance
with Federal mandates as opposed to just keeping our accreditation and and our stuff up to Snuff if you know what I mean like we're we're continuing business as usual okay with focused laser focused on trying to provide the best quality Public Safety Services to
our community and what we've been doing is treating people with dignity and respect and going about our business um for example a a traffic stop we're not
walking up to that traffic stop asking people uh to provide their their immigration status that that's not how we conduct business here um we're not voluntarily sending information to various federal government agencies um
alerting them where potential families may be you know residing here in the city uh we're going to follow the law do not get me wrong we will follow federal state and local law uh but at the same time we're we're doing business to Bethlehem way and I I'm very very proud
of that I'm very proud of our officers and I'm proud of the the contacts uh that we have in the community the the the dialogues that we've been having back and forth they're hard conversations but they're necessary conversations and and we're going to continue to have
them so um so over or like preemptive compliance is just not the standard that Bethlehem PD does no it is not our standard over compliance is is not the standard we're we're doing believe me we have our hands full um just abiding by
what you know what our main primary functions are when it comes to uh state and local law and the last question I had was there was conversation about detaining earlier it was my understanding that we we can't detain in Bethlehem that even if we were
detaining anyone for any reason they're not here they're at the county so that's usually something that Northampton County prison or Lehigh County Prison would deal with the detainers that come from Ice would be for for a 48 hour hold
we don't hold people longer than I'd say six to eight hours downstairs in our holding facilities um and even then you know we we would hold somebody if there was a federal warrant or a court order but a detainer that's something that is
much more common practice at the uh the prisons in Northampton County or Lehigh County and reiterate we do use U visas that protect people and like regardless of their immigration status from reporting crimes we are I just signed one last week yes thank you very much
you're welcome right if there's no other new business from Council we're going to move on to communication communication 6 C 6C February 10th 2025 memorandum with an attached resolution jointly authored by mayor Jay William
Reynolds and Emergency Management coordinator Michael Reich to recommend adoption of lehab Valley 2024 Hazard mitigation Plan update adoption of the plan is prerequisite to receiving post disaster Hazard mitigation grant program
funds sorry resolution 10A is on the agenda um resolution or communication 6 D February 3rd 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from Health director
Tristan wenrich requesting a destruction of records from the health Bureau is wri reviewed the municipal records retention Act and the records listed on the exhibit ACC companying the memo fall within categories where destruction is permitted a resolution will be placed on
the March 4th Council agenda resolu or communication 6E January 29th 2025 communication from attorney Dennis Benner requesting to rezone one parcel and a portion of another at 8th Avenue in Martin Court from a CMU zoning
District to a CS zoning District the applicant seeks the zoning change in order to build an upscale Car Wash and or restaurant I'll accept the motion and a second to schedule a public hearing for April 1st to consider the request requested zoning map Amendment so
moved so we have a motion and a second any discussion on the motion the clerk will call the role Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M cramy Smith I miss quch I miss lard I and Miss Liam I
the motion passes 60 a public hearing will be scheduled on this matter communication 6f I'm sorry um sorry got um the February 12th 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from director of water and sewer resources
Edward boscola memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with Colliers engineering and design Incorporated Allentown to provide professional GIS services to assist with web server and software upgrades and related duties this is the third phasee of a multi-step project to upgrade the
city's GIS infrastructure cost is 41,44 and the work is to be completed by December 31st 2025 there are no renewals resolution 10B is on the agenda communication 6G February 12th 2025 memorandum and
proposed resolution from director of water and sewer resources Edward boscola and city solicitor John fburg Jr memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with hangley ar Aran seagull pudlin and Schiller of
Philadelphia to provide representation and advice for matters involving environmental laws and regulations before the Pennsylvania D and the United States EPA for purposes of negotiating the national pollutant discharge elimination system permit renewal
compliance and related enforcement matters cost is not to exceed $225,000 and the work is to be completed by December mber 31st 2025 the agreement has three single year renewal options for 2026 through 2028 at the same
$25,000 annual cost resolution Sensi is on the agenda Community Education 6h February 12 2025 memorandum and proposed resolution from director of water and sewer resources Edward boscola memorandum seeks authorization to execute an agreement with ntech
engineering Incorporated reading to assist with startup programming data management and training for new water information management system programs for the water and wastewater treatment plants cost is $7,500 and the work is to be completed by December 31st of 2025
there are no renewals resolution 10d is on the agenda communication 6i February 13 2025 memorandum from councilwoman Kira Wilhelm along with an exhibit and three proposed ordinances Miss wilhem recommends increasing the salaries of
council members the council president the mayor and the controller the memorandum states that more than a decade has passed since any of the salaries were increased as well as additional supporting rationale for a proposal ordinances will be placed on the March 4th Council agenda for first
reading onto reports president's report president cologne wanted to let Council know that he will be circulating a memo detailing uh our advertising period and what happened with the ordinances today for you guys to understand for all of us to understand uh turning to the mayor for mayor's reports does the mayor have
any reports no report just administrative order number 20253 I hereby appoint Ronald J donchez 9915 wford Lane Bethlehem to the betham authority this appointment is effective through January 2030 it's a
reappointment administrative order to reappoint Ronald J donz to the Bethlehem Authority resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss Wilhelm discussion cler will call the RO Miss Wilhelm i m Callahan I miss grmy Smith I
miss quch I miss lard I and Miss Liam I passes 60 if that concludes mayor reports we'll go on to the committee chairs attorne to council qu thank you the Community Development Committee will
meet on Tuesday March 4th 2025 at 6m in town hall there is one item on the agenda proposed amendments to article 534 involving the residential permit parking program Hillary quch chairperson Community Development
Committee thank you Council woman cramy finance committee will meet on Monday February 24th 2025 at 6 PM in town hall potential salary increases for elected officials will be discussed thank you we have new no new
ordinances or no ordinances for final passage and no new ordinances so moving on to resolution resolution 10A be resolved by the Council of the city of Bethlehem that the Lehi Valley 2024 Hazard mitigation plan is hereby adopted
as the official Hazard mitigation plan of the city of Bethlehem and that the respective officials and agencies of the city of Bethlehem identified in the implementation strategy of this plan are hereby directed to implement the recommended activities assigned to them resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and
Miss Wilhelm discussion clerk call the rooll Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss l i and Miss Leon I passes 60 uh resolution 10B 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 Colliers engineering and design Incorporated to provide GIS field verification resolution is sponsored by
Miss Leon and Miss Wilhelm discussion clerk will call the rooll Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I miss kmy Smith I m quch I miss lard I and Miss Leon I passes 60 Resolution or yeah resolution 10c 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 an agreement with hangley Aran seagull Pudin and Schiller to provide legal counsel associate with environmental
regulatory matters resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss Wilhelm discussion just I have one question Mr basca if you could come to the mic for a second please you can probably guess what I'm going to ask but depends on how much
you've been paying attention to the news um it's my understanding that there was an executive order that uh impacted new regulations uh on things like posos the the new guidance and the things that we were
just starting to kind of rev up that they were stripping them away have you heard anything when I saw this I thought oh these might be the people you might ask about what's going on here um but it's that is something that I saw during
my Doom scrolling at some point last week so do you have any any information on that I've also heard talk of either a pause or roll back on recent regulations I think the United
States Congress has the authority or the ability to repeal regulations that were recently passed within a certain time frame of the previous administration if I'm okay I'm not entirely sure of the
entire legal landscape of it but I don't think anything's been actually done yet I don't think anything's official yet in terms of pause or a roll back of any regulation so I think at this point it's just a lot of talk okay so far I just I
would put in a word for us to go ahead because of course we're willing we're perfectly welcome to have a more strict guideline just not a less strict guideline if I'm understanding things correct for example like the like lead services
we're we're still moving forward with the lead service identification and replacement plan nothing's changed so that's still Our intention I think it's a good plan regardless right everybody wants to remove the lead from our water
pipes so that's that's that's the long-term goal right so nothing's changed in that that regard thank you any other discussion clerk will call the rooll Miss willhelm hi Mr Callahan I miss grmy
Smith I miss quch I miss lard I and Miss Lam I passes 60 Resolution 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 an
agreement with ntech engineering Incorporated to provide new water information management system programs for the water and waste water treatment plants the resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss wihelm discussion CL call the RO Miss Wilhelm I Mr
Callahan I M grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard I and Miss leam I passes 60 and resolution 10 e certificate of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of the Pennsylvania legislature Bethlehem
resolution is hereby granted for 708 East 4th Street to install window Graphics all white one measuring 18 in in diameter one measuring 12 in by 40 in each sign to be centered within the window frame the resolutions are spon
the resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss Wilhelm discussion I call the rooll Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I miss grmy Smith I miss quch I miss lard hi and Miss Liam I
passes 60 Resolution 10f certificate G 10g certificate of appropriateness under the provisions of the act of the Pennsylvania legislature Bethlehem resolution is hereby granted for 415 Long Street to install a new storm door
two glass panels and an existing wood door and two RW iron railings at the front porch lighting fixture at the front door is also proposed to be replaced resolution is sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss Wilhelm discussion the cler will call the rooll
Miss Wilhelm hi Mr I miss gramson Smith hi Miss quch hi Miss lard hi and Miss Leon I passes UH 60 Resolution 10 H certificate of appropriateness under the provisions of
the act of the Pennsylvania legislature Bethlehem resolution is hereby granted for 459 Main Street to remove and replace the existing slate roof install new OSB sheathing install new 's Corning duration shingles and replace the existing Skylight resolution is
sponsored by Miss Leon and Miss Wilhelm discussion clerk will call the rooll Miss Wilhelm I Mr Callahan I M kmy Smith i m quac i lard I and Miss
Liam I passes 60 and resolution 10 I did I skip one I yeah I have no because the reing okay so resolution
10 we're good that was it cool awesome it's so thanks for having out hanging out have a great night everybody