Either residents of Catasauqua are resigned to decisions made by the borough council or they are encouraged by the notion of a European-style main street corridor through the business district. At the borough council’s Nov. 7 meeting, there was little opposition to a proposed plan for two-way traffic on Front Street.

Former Councilman Alfred Regits did oppose the action.

There was an occasional shout of “Where are we going to park?” from residents attending the meeting, but no sizable objections were voiced nor were there any skeptical displays shown when the idea was first proposed years ago.

Councilman Eugene Schlegel voted against the change.

“I can’t see the benefits to residents for a two-way street and eliminating some parking spots,” he said.

Council President Vincent Smith ran through his oft-repeated list of qualified experts who have endorsed the two-way street proposal. According to Smith and the majority of council, development of the Iron Works project, as envisioned by the borough, would not be successful without two-way traffic on Front Street.

Consultants from Taggart Associates confirmed two-way traffic is necessary in order to make the property attractive to potential developers. The borough hired Taggart to provide guidance on marketing the site.

Two-way traffic on Front Street will take effect April 1, 2017. The borough will continue to look at parking issues until two-way traffic is implemented.

Front Street will be two-way to Union Street. Changes to make the Front Street two-way to Race Street are dependent on how PennDOT designs the intersections along Race Street for Lehigh, Front and Second streets. There is no definite time frame for reworking those intersections.

Smith does not see a significant reduction in parking spaces along Front Street.

“This is not some idea we dreamed up a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “We have done a lot of testing and trials to make sure this will work. Our goal is to make sure we have at least as many (parking)spaces available in April as we have now.

“One way we want to increase parking is to have residents that have parking available behind their homes to use the space rather than parking on the street,” he said. “We want to develop parking along Canal Street also.”

The major concern for parking is in the commercial area near Bridge Street. A companion ordinance passed unanimously by council rearranges existing parcels at the Iron Works site into three new parcels. One parcel is reserved for the municipal building. The second and largest parcel is for a developer to take and meet the mixed-use requirements for the site. A third parcel is a slip of land along Front Street that can be expanded for parking. The borough is providing incentives for the selected developer to develop parking on the third parcel.

A key element in the development in aligning these new parcels is to allow the developer access to parking for the borough. According to borough Manager Eugene Goldfeder, parking for the municipal building will be shared with the developer to maximize the space available.

The borough received land from two property owners at 223 and 225 Front St., where buildings were demolished after fire ravaged the structures. The borough intends to use the property as a small parking lot.

Goldfeder also reported on the progress made at the Iron Works site.

“Soils are moved, and more appropriate soils were put in place to support the new municipal building,” he said. “Foundations are mostly complete. We expect to see steel erected in the next couple of weeks.”