Parks, business could benefit from land sales

Lehigh County has high hopes for two parcels of land – one it plans to sell for millions, the other it expects to sell for a dollar.

The pricey one is a parcel of 6.78 acres at the southwest intersection of Hillview and Dorney Park roads in South Whitehall Township. The other is 20 acres along the Jordan Creek in Whitehall Township, which is to be part of the Jordan Creek Greenway project that will link eight municipalities by a trail along the creek.

At Wednesday’s meeting, county commissioners voted to proceed with the South Whitehall land sale which the county expects to net at least $2.5 million. The tract, near Interstate 78 and Route 222, has already generated a fair amount of interest, according to County Executive Don Cunningham.

“There have been a lot of people kicking the tires,” he said after the meeting. With the hearty approval of the commissioners, his administration is issuing a request for proposal to sell the land with strings attached. The county wants to choose a buyer who will generate jobs and tax revenue.

But Cunningham said it’s not the only spot that is generating commercial interest in the county. He cited a plan by chemical manufacturer Avantor Performance Materials Inc. to relocate its headquarters from Phillipsburg, N.J. to the Stabler Corporate Center in Upper Saucon Township.

Cunningham said a Fortune 500 company -- that he declined to name -- has expressed interest in opening a plant in an Upper Macungie Township industrial park. The company would bring 250-350 manufacturing jobs, he said. The possible sticking point is whether there will be enough wastewater treatment capacity for the plant.

The commercial buzz is most welcome after a long drought of activity. “We’re seeing discussions we haven’t seen in two and a half years,” he said.

But if the county hopes the South Whitehall land sale will put people to work, it’s looking for the sale of 20 acres to Whitehall Township to give residents a place to play. The parcel, located on the East side of Mickley Road, is one piece in the Jordan Creek Greenway project which proposes to create a 12.8-mile hiking and biking trail along the creek from the Trexler Nature Preserve to South Whitehall’s Covered Bridge Park to Allentown’s Jordan Creek Meadows Park.

The ambitious project, led by the Wildlands Conservancy in Emmaus, would link Allentown with the townships of Whitehall, South Whitehall, North Whitehall, Lowhill, Lynn, Weisenberg and Heidelberg. 

“This is a win, win situation for the county and the township,” said Commissioner Percy Dougherty. In addition to preserving open space for recreation, the sale also will relieve the county of the burden of maintaining it, he said.  Wednesday was the first reading of the bill to sell the tract; no commissioner spoke in opposition.

But not all matters of open space were met with unanimity by commissioners. A resolution to urge Pennsylvania to renew its Growing Greener fund passed by a 6-3 vote, with Commissioners Dean Browning, Andy Roman and Glenn Eckhart voting against it.

Commissioner Daniel McCarthy said the county and its municipalities have received more than $12 million in grant money from the fund for parklands and open space projects, including dam repairs and lake restoration being done at Leaser Lake in Lynn Township.

Browning and Eckhart took issue with the state’s method of paying for Growing Greener II, which was funded by borrowing about $600 million.

With Pennsylvania in tough financial straits, Eckhart said he didn’t want to give the Legislature another excuse to borrow money.

In other business, the commissioners heard the first reading of a bill to change the name of the county Office of Mental Health/Mental Retardation to the Office of Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities. Commissioner Gloria Hamm sponsored the bill, which she defended when Allentown resident Jill Malsberger questioned whether the change would cost the county money. 

Hamm said she felt strongly about it because of the stigma the term “mental retardation” causes when people, especially children, are labeled “retarded.”