At the Catasauqua Council meeting on Aug. 5, Holly Edinger of Sustainable Development for Lehigh County, introduced Envision Lehigh Valley as a public-sector controlled plan to develop a sustainable community plan for the Lehigh Valley. According to Edinger, a sustainable community plan considers the long-term goals of the community with economic, social and environmental factors.

Lehigh Valley received a regional planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2012.

"A portion of this grant will be used for public outreach programs that involve residents of the Lehigh Valley," said Edinger.

She said Envision Lehigh Valley will develop plans in five key areas: affordable housing, sustainable economic development, jobs and housing balance, climate and energy conservation and fresh food access.

In the printed material distributed by Edinger, the objectives are to increase the number of highly livable neighborhoods in the Lehigh Valley creating places where residents can live, work, shop and play without the use of a car. The various policy recommendations, according to printed material distributed by Edinger, will be summarized by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and included in a new version of a 2030 comprehensive plan for the Lehigh Valley.

Clarence Tabor took the microphone to offer an opposing view of the program. He said this kind of community planning will eliminate creativity and stifle individual initiative.

Virginia Tabor spoke to The Press after the meeting.

"This is centralized planning like we saw in the Soviet Union," she said.

The partners in Envision Lehigh Valley, as identified in the flyer distributed by Edinger, are government supported, not-for-profit groups or municipalities.