City council approved Mathias Fenstermacher’s request to rezone his property at 2015 City Line Road from CS (Shopping Center) to PI (Planned Industrial) Feb. 4. He owns a 53,000-square-foot building at that address and wants the option of leasing the property to a manufacturer.

Photographer Ryan Hulvat addressed council during the public comment part of the agenda. He described frequent thefts, burglaries, and the frequent sound of gunfire in his neighborhood on West Broad Street. He said he has witnessed drug deals in his neighborhood. He told council members that the catalytic converter had been stolen off of his car.

According to Eric Shilling, writing on the website Atlas Obscura, “Thieves are attracted the platinum, palladium, and rhodium found in catalytic converters in low amounts.” He said one converter can be sold to scrap yards for up to $240. Shilling also said that SUVs are favored targets because their high ground clearance makes the converters easier to steal.

Hulvat asked the city to add patrols and to provide video cameras in the immediate neighborhood of West Broad and Keystone streets and at Keystone and Glendale Avenue.

He said, in one case that he reported, that he felt that the responding police officer was “dismissive” of the incident. Hulvat spoke with Bethlehem Chief of Police Mark DiLuzio. They conferred in the hall outside the meeting chamber.

Hulvat said there are about 30 kids including his own five children that play in that neighborhood.

“I don’t feel the solution is to move out of our 120-year-old home,” said Hulvat. “I’m just very concerned. Thank you.”

In other business, Lehigh University’s Associate Vice President for Facilities and University Architect Brent Stringfellow presented plans for the temporary closure of West Packer Avenue from its intersection with Vine Street to its intersection with Webster Street. He said the planned closure would last from March 9 through the end of April. The closure would ban motorized vehicular traffic.

Police authority in the permitted area (the closed portion of West Packer Avenue) with be the responsibility of the Lehigh University Police Department.

This temporary closure amounts to a feasibility test or study to assess the practicality of making a permanent closure of the street.

Stringfellow said the university plans to coordinate with Bethlehem Area School District and with Broughal MS to ensure safety of the students during the closure. He said the closure would be lifted for emergency vehicles, but that commercial and private vehicles will not be able to use the street. He said Morton Street would be the designated detour route.

Resident Ed Gallagher, a former professor at Lehigh University, spoke against plans by Lehigh University to close West Packer Avenue from Webster Street to Vine Street.

In other business, council heard a first reading (not to be voted on until the next regular meeting) of a proposed zoning and housing amendment to the Short-Term Lodging ordinance.

Hotel Bethlehem Managing Partner Bruce Haines urged caution on the part of city officials to ensure that AirBnB rentals and similar rentals can only occur in commercially zoned parts of Bethlehem.

Haines said he wants homeowners in residential districts to be present in the homes they rent. “Guests should be hosted by the home owner.”

He said AirBnB type rentals are “destroying neighborhoods across the country.”

“This is not the Jersey Shore,” said Haines.

Council approved several mayoral re-appointments: John J. Tallarico – Bethlehem Authority Board (water department); Dino Cantelmi – Bethlehem Parking Authority; Hillary Rose Harper – Fine Arts Commission; James A. DePietro – Fine Arts Commission; Patricia J. Zurick – Board of Health; and Lee Cunningham – Codes Board of Appeals.

Dr. Gallagher urged the Council to consider how well appointees are doing their job before re-appointing them.

Council member Olga Negrón concurred with Gallagher, saying, “We have an obligation to be the check and balance” when it comes to appointments to boards and commissions. She voted against Cantelmi’s appointment to the Bethlehem Parking Authority.

Council member Dr. Paige Van Wirt also voted against Cantelmi’s appointment, saying, “I do think the Parking Authority does have a huge public perception problem. I think the time has come for a community advocate to be appointed to the Parking Authority.”

Negrón described her recent trip to Puerto Rico to visit family and friends following the recent earthquakes there. Her voice breaking with emotion, she reminded the attendees that Puerto Rico had been “trembling” since the beginning of the year. “According to experts it might be shaking for six months, said Negrón. “It’s very scary.”

She said that the Hispanic Center (on East Fourth Street) has “received 14 families.” She urged council and the public to support a fund raiser by the Hispanic Center to be held in April.

Negrón said she hopes that the public, businesses, and even members of council can help the Hispanic Center Fundraiser (called Latino Festival planned for 3-4 April in the Iaccoca Hall on the Lehigh University campus. “Even fifty dollars will help.”

Council member William Reynolds, whose father recently passed away, was absent from the meeting.