Following a lengthy hearing March 10, attended by about 20 people, Bethlehem’s Planning Commission voted 4-1 to approve plans for Attorney Dennis Benner’s six-story Greenway Park Building, located along the 300 block of South New Street, along with an 626-space parking garage next door, to be owned and operated by the Bethlehem Parking Authority. The parking garage will be connected to Benner’s building by a pedestrian bridge located 19’ above ground level. This bridge will cross the Greenway between Third and Fourth Streets. Part of Graham Street will be vacated to accommodate the parking garage.

The ground floor of Benner’s 127,000 square-foot building will be retail, and Benner explained he is hoping that they provide some interactivity with the Greenway, which he described as much more than a “ribbon of blacktop.”

St. Luke’s will occupy at least one floor for clinical, teaching and administrative space. Lehigh University will move 140 employees from its Office of Advancement into the Greenway Building.

Construction is imminent and should last a year.

Entrance into the parking garage will be from New Street, with two lanes entering and one lane exiting in the morning rush hour. There will also be a separate vehicle exit onto Vine Street. The ground floor will house a Bethlehem Police substation and Parking Authority offices.

At Planning Commissioner Jim Fiorentino’s suggestion, all three projects were considered together. He was the sole dissenter after unsuccessfully attempting to have the matter tabled. “We are Trustees of the City,” he said, and argued that the city had failed to consider the impact of the project on residents of the city. These include what Graham Street resident William Seixas estimated as 21 children under the age of 14 near the parking garage, who would be subjected to the fumes of stacked vehicles. According to Lehigh University Professor Breena Holland, South Bethlehem air quality is already unsafe.

An annual “State of the Air” study compiled by the American Lung Association has consistently given Bethlehem and the entire Lehigh Valley an “F” because of particle pollution.

When Holland asked Parking Authority Kevin Livingston to explain whether the quality of life or health of residents was considered, Parking Authority Solicitor Jim Broughal directed his client not to answer. He said they were there to listen to residents, but not to answer their questions. He said he would answer questions posed by planning commissioners.

Under Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act, citizens have a right to speak and be present during public meetings. But they have no right to pose questions.

So Jim Fiorentino asked the question, and Broughal’s response was that the Parking Authority did no environmental study, but followed all the ordinances of the city and complied with the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance.

This brought an objection from Don Miles, president of the Lehigh Valley Sierra Club, who is also an environmental attorney with nearly four decades of experience in municipal law. Miles referred to a 2013 decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, known as the Robinson case, which held unconstitutional a state attempt to limit local government’s role in reviewing shale gas operations. According to the state’s highest court, such an attempt was a violation of a constitutional right to “clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment.”

Fiorentino accepted Miles’ argument, and reasoned the city needed to do more.

Al Wurth, another Lehigh professor, called the project an “assault on the Greenway.” About 1,200 square-feet of the Greenway is needed for the project, but more than twice that is being given back. Planning Director Darlene Heller disputed that contention, noting that the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) had no problem with this plan and stressed that the Greenway was built to be “interactive” with local businesses.

Though two Lehigh professors opposed the project, with each speaking numerous times, Lehigh itself plans to be a tenant. Adrian Washington, who is with the University’s Community and Regional Affairs Department, expressed the University’s support.

The pedestrian bridge came under fire as well for being too big, too wide, of poor design and capable of obstructing the view along the Greenway. Miles said his 93 year-old grandmother could use her wheelchair to go from the garage to Benner’s building and would need no bridge, which he called a “monstrosity.” But St. Luke’s Jane George disputed this, saying many of the patients visiting their offices will have mobility issues and will need that elevated walkway.

Questions were also raised whether free parking spots should be provided to residents who will lose their usual parking spaces as a result of the garage.

After listening to nearly three hours of complaints, developer Dennis Benner finally said, “I could be standing at that street corner and handing out gold bars, and someone would still complain.”

The project had its supporters, too. Dave Urban, manager at Comfort Suites, and Charles Patrick, owner of a local tavern, both said the deck would help their business.

After three hours, Bethlehem Parking Authority Jim Broughal’s phone started ringing.

It’s no ordinary ring tone. It was a quacking duck. He turned it off.

A minute later, the phone began quacking again, perhaps signalling that everything that could be said had already been said ... several times.

Though Fiorentino opposed the project, the remaining commissioners gave it their approval.