At Monday’s Catasauqua Borough Council workshop meeting, Mayor Barbara Schlegel announced she intends to veto the ordinance passed by council Nov. 7 to allow two-way traffic on Front Street.

“I am not opposed to the Iron Works project, but I believe council must look further into the decision on traffic and parking,” she said in an interview before the workshop.

In a list of reasons she presented to council members, Schlegel had a number of issues for council to consider.

According to Schlegel, the parking issue has not been properly addressed.

“There is no complete plan. ‘Wait and see what needs to be done’ is council’s attitude, and it is not acceptable,” she said.

During the initial discussion of converting the street to two-way traffic, the mayor had suggested the borough conduct a trial to get an idea of what kind of effects the change would have on residents, but the council elected not to do so.

“The issues that might arise were not properly evaluated,” she said. “What is going to happen to handicapped parking spaces if parking is taken away?”

Schlegel suggested council concentrate its efforts in and around the business district where most of the parking problem exists.

“We should get the business area finished first and then concentrate on the residential areas. We can go with two-way traffic from Pine Street to Church or Wood streets,” she said. “We don’t get two-way traffic completely on Front Street until PennDOT rearranges the intersection on Race Street. That could be out as late as 2020. I don’t see why we need to rush this along without proper planning,” she said.

Schlegel is concerned about the impact of the change on Second Street and Union Street residents.

“We have a petition from St. Mary’s Church and 70 residents in the immediate area with concerns on how this will affect their lifestyle,” she said.

The council had voted to pass the measure by a 5-1 vote, with Councilman Brian Bartholomew absent. He is expected to vote to sustain the veto.

A vote of 5-2 will override the measure. No members of council indicated they were willing to change their vote.

The measure will be voted on at council’s Dec. 5 meeting. If the ordinance is upheld, the new traffic pattern is scheduled to take effect April 1, 2017.