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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Bethlehem City Council to Review New Zoning Ordinance Tonight

At 7 PM tonight, Bethlehem City Council will meet in Town Hall to discuss Bethlehem's new zoning ordinance and map, its first major revision in over forty years. The proposed local land law will be discussed again on September 27. Members of the public will be allowed to address Council for up to five minutes per person.

Darlene Heller's Planning Department conducted public meetings in the Fall of 2009, Summer of 2010, as well as one final meeting in May. A copy of the proposed Zoning Ordinance was posted on the City website for comment, and Heller met with different interest groups along the way.

This Ordinance was recommended by the Planning Commission in May.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bernie
Perhaps no entity takes freedom from tolks like the zoning department. Upper Saucon adopted a 425 page ordinance a few years back. Who possibly can know what's inside those pages except Nancy.

Zorn said...

let the rubber stamping begin

Al Bernotas said...

Heller refuses to comply with a City Council request for a point-by-point comparison.

The following are quotes from the Heller letter to the President of City Council:

1. "This is not an update to the current ordinance. Because the ordinance is formatted differently there is no way to make a point by point [sic] comparison."

2. "Not every change is listed here because it would be impractical."

One can draw their own conclusions from these statements.

I think the administration, through Heller, is being disrespectful to City Council.

Anonymous said...

The Administration is full of thugs who are disrespetful to anyone who isn't on their side or useful to them. The City Council will rubberstamp this, as they do everything else. Mr. Reynolds, Ms. Dolan and Mr. Donchez all are now officially running for Mayor, they have to think about how to get the Democrat Party machine on their side. One way this will be accomplished is when Reynolds and Dolan put forward a proposal to give back control of the desiganted money for the EMS, firepupmper, etc....of course this won't happen until the meeting immediately after the election. How else will the administation be able to pay the December bills?

Bernie O'Hare said...

Al,

You're being ridiculous. You claim Heller REFUSES to make a point-by-point comparison, yet the snippet you quote demonstrates that Heller claims it is impossible. That's a lot different than refusing.

Bernie O'Hare said...

rubber stamp ... thugs ... Democratic party.

Do you have a damn thing to say about the actual ordinance?

Al Bernotas said...

Bernie - it is impossible, in the administration's mind, ergo, it is impossible.

I have viewed draft zoning ordinance changes, via the internet, from various parts of the country. Bethlehem's point-to-point comparison is a joke, compared to what other municipal entities are doing. Guess it depends upon your standards, and they are, in my estimation, very low within Bethlehem's planning department. Guess I won't be making any friends with these opinions.

Bernie O'Hare said...

No, it is impossible in Darlene Heller's mind, and that is what she said in her letter to City Council. You might have a different opinion, but it is dishonest to claim she refuses to do something she considers impossible.

I doubt you're making many fiends with your comments, and I also doubt you're making many convincing arguments. Being bombastic for the sake of being bombastic is counterproductive. If you want to do it, you should at least make sense.

Al Bernotas said...

Forget it Bernie. It is not worth continuing this conversation. My statement was not dishonest, nor was it bombastic. Although, I like that word, bombastic. It simply is my opinion, and we all have them. And I had no intention of being persuasive, since that does not work with the City Administration.

To say something is impossible, when it clearly is not, is just a polite way to refuse to comply.

And to tell the City Council President that doing a particular chore is impractical, is another way of telling him to go pound sand.

And, are you sexist, would you defend the planning director if the name were Dan Heller?

Bernie O'Hare said...

I have no idea what this has to do with sexism. Darlene Heller could just as easily be a Dan Heller and I'd have the same view. If someone thinks something is impossible, that is what he or she thinks. You might disagree, but that's no basis for asserting that someone, male or female, is REFUSING to do something that he or she thinks is impossible. You are suggesting an intransigence that just is not there. Your suggestion of sexism is just another bombastic claim by a person who just lobs verbal grenades at every opportunity.

Since you've injected sex into this debate, I now have to question whether you have some problem with Heller's "refusal" bc she is female.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"Forget it Bernie. It is not worth continuing this conversation."

That's one point on which I'll agree. Yet at tonight's meeting, you'll attack people instead of making substantive claims about the zoning ordinance. And that's why you are going to lose your City Council race.

Anonymous said...

It is "impossible" for you to condemn Charlie Dent. So that makes it impossible or only that you can't do it. Oh, was that a "dishonest" statement?

Stop the psychobabble semantics O'Hare. Darlene Heller is another public trough cruiser who decides what is impossible as per the instructions of the mayor and company.

Trudie said...

if cunningham or stoffa was presenting this it would be glorious as far as bo was concerned. but callahan is not one of his man crushes therefore it is wrong. therefore the hypocrisy. bo and and his useless existence shows his true colors once again.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Last time I checked, I was not condemning the proposed zoning ordinance. In fact, I was defending a member of the Callahan administration from an unfair attack.

special offer said...

your head is so far up your butt that you don't know what you are doing?

Bunga bunga said...

last time you checked you weren't even relevant to anything . thus your loser life