{"id":132524,"date":"2024-07-08T21:34:33","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T01:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=132524"},"modified":"2024-07-08T21:34:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T01:34:33","slug":"city-of-allentown-seeks-community-input-on-proposed-zoning-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=132524","title":{"rendered":"City of Allentown Seeks Community Input on Proposed Zoning Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>July 8, 2024<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The City of Allentown is excited to announce the launch of ZONE Allentown, a comprehensive project aimed at updating the City\u2019s Zoning Ordinance, Zoning Map, and strategic revisions to the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (SALDO). This initiative will ensure that Allentown&#8217;s zoning regulations reflect current needs and future growth, allowing for more housing production and promoting a vibrant, walkable, and sustainable urban environment.<\/p>\n<p>ZONE Allentown is derived from the Allentown Vision 2030 plan, the City\u2019s comprehensive 10-year blueprint for guiding economic growth and physical change. One of the key &#8220;catalytic actions&#8221; recommended in the plan is a complete update and modernization of existing zoning regulations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Goals of ZONE Allentown:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Remove obstacles to the city\u2019s economic development goals,<\/li>\n<li>Streamline development review and approval procedures,<\/li>\n<li>Encourage development in targeted growth locations,<\/li>\n<li>Incorporate updated design standards and new place-making tools,<\/li>\n<li>Promote walkable mixed-use development patterns,<\/li>\n<li>Protect stable residential neighborhoods,<\/li>\n<li>Offer a variety of housing choices for city residents,<\/li>\n<li>Ensure consistency with applicable laws, and<\/li>\n<li>Incorporate illustrations, graphics, and navigational features to make the updated ordinances easy to use and understand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The ZONE Allentown project was developed through a multi-year, multi-phase effort involving city staff, consultants, and a project advisory committee composed of community members.\u00a0<u>The project is still currently in a draft stage<\/u>, and its next phase includes discussing the proposed changes with residents and stakeholders to obtain feedback and suggestions.<\/p>\n<p>The City\u2019s Planning &amp; Zoning Bureau will hold the following open houses:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tuesday, July 9, 2024:<\/strong>\u00a0East Side Youth Center, 6-8pm<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wednesday, July 10, 2024:<\/strong>\u00a0Fearless Fire Company, 6-8pm<\/li>\n<li><strong>Thursday, July 11, 2024:<\/strong>\u00a0Theatre514, 6-8pm<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Planning &amp; Zoning will also hold office hours at City Hall on July 10 and July 11 from 9 to 11am each day.<\/p>\n<p>After considering comments received during this public review phase, the draft ordinances will be revised and proceed to a formal review and adoption process. The goal is to adopt and implement the new ordinances by the end of 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Review Draft of the proposed Zoning Ordinance, Zoning Map, and SALDO can be found at\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.allentownpa.gov\/zoneallentown\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.allentownpa.gov\/zoneallentown&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1720573983472000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3UcaT8GrvH9GFioN4UNDCu\">www.allentownpa.gov\/zoneallentown<\/a>. For questions or comments on the Public Review Drafts, please contact\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:zoneallentown@allentownpa.gov\">zoneallentown@allentownpa.gov<\/a>\u00a0or attend one of the upcoming meetings.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-scaled.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-132526\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-791x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-791x1024.jpg 791w, https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-232x300.jpg 232w, https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-768x994.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-1187x1536.jpg 1187w, https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-1583x2048.jpg 1583w, https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-300x388.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Zoning-Outreach-Flyer-scaled.jpg 1978w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nGenesis Ortega<br \/>\nCommunications Manager<br \/>\nOffice of the Mayor<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.AllentownPA.gov\">http:\/\/www.AllentownPA.gov<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 8, 2024\u00a0\u2013 The City of Allentown is excited to announce the launch of ZONE Allentown, a comprehensive project aimed at updating the City\u2019s Zoning Ordinance, Zoning Map, and strategic &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=132524\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">City of Allentown Seeks Community Input on Proposed Zoning Updates<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5716,69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allentown","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/zone-Allentown-24.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/132525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}