A proposal to work up a design for development of Catasauqua Borough's Front Street property was accepted by the borough council last Monday over the objection of one council member.

A vote to accept the proposal of Spillman Farmer Architects of Bethlehem passed, 6-1, with Councilman Al Regits casting the opposition vote.

Councilman Vincent Smith reported the council's planning and zoning committee, which he chairs, had reviewed 10 responses to the borough's public request for a plan to develop the former FL Smidth brownfield property.

"We reviewed all the requests and recommend that the borough accept Spillman Farmer for the project," Smith said.

Regits contended he had been unable to review all of the proposals because they were not made available to council.

"This is another instance where there is a lack of communication about this project," he said.

Smith responded the documents were made available and passed out copies of a manual. He said there is a central storage location where council members can access details about agenda items.

Regits asked that the decision on awarding the contract be tabled. The motion failed for a lack of a second vote.

Council went on to approve the committee's recommendation by a vote of 6-1, with Regits voting no.

The proposal responses were not available for public review.

According to Smith, although the number of responses was high, few of the respondents were able to address the full scope of the request.

According to the Spillman Farmer website, the firm prides itself on its leading-edge position in redeveloping brownfields, citing a plan for the development of the Bethlehem Steel property as one of its accomplishments.

The architectural firm had presented a conceptual proposal to the borough in October 2012. According to Smith, the new assignment will build on those concepts.

"There will be meetings with the borough and probably with the public to finalize the development proposal," he said.

In other business, the council voted unanimously to remove 11 handicapped parking spaces in the borough.

Borough Public Works Director Jeff MacHose challenged two of the locations.

"We may not have signs on the spaces you identified, but there is an approved request for a handicapped space at all these locations."

This allows us to clear the requests that we have on file," said borough Manager Eugene Goldfeder.

The agenda called for a vote on the Community Revitalization and Improvement Zone (CRIZ,) but Goldfeder reported the vote would not be necessary.

"There is a legal requirement in the rules that were published on Oct. 31 that required participants to set up a legal entity before submitting projects. Setting up the legal requirements requires 30 days notice and that would put us after the submission deadline," explained Goldfeder. "There is no need for the ordinance."

Catasauqua had hoped to join forces with Coplay and Whitehall to qualify for the CRIZ program that would offer tax breaks to businesses interested in developing distressed properities.

Goldfeder indicated that the municipalities favored by the state for inclusion in CRIZ had been notified of the requirement privately and formed the necessary legal entities in early October.

Also at the meeting, Goldfeder reported bids for garbage collection were lower than expected which will show in a slight reduction in bills sent to residents. The contract with J.P. Mascaro & Sons was renewed for five years. Mascaro has the existing contract with the borough. According to Goldfeder, three companies had submitted bids for the contract.