Repeal Allentown NIZ, Sez NoCo Council

Northampton County Council has added its voice to the chorus of municipal governments opposed to Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ). Despite pleas from Allentown DCED Director Sara Hailstone and NIZ developer J.B. Reilly, a sharply-divided Council decided, in a 5-4 vote, that the economic development tool gives Allentown an "unfair economic advantage" at the expense of other Lehigh Valley municipalities. It calls on the state legislature to repeal the 2009 law under which it was created.

Allentown's NIZ is a 130-acre tract (40 acres downtown and 90 acres along the riverfront) set aside for redevelopment in legislation that applies only to the Queen City. Virtually all state taxes, as well as the EIT of workers within the NIZ, will be used to help finance a hockey arena, luxury hotel, offices, parking garages and other improvements.

A legal challenge to the constitutionality of the NIZ, spearheaded by Hanover and Bethlehem Townships, has attracted a baker's dozen of local municipal government. Developer Abe Atiyeh has filed a suit as well.

Council also heard from LU Professor Steve Thode, who was there on behalf of around 50 local developers. Thde suggested the NIZ should be smaller.

Ron Angle, from the peanut gallery, thundered that Council should have joined the litigation. He called the resolution "great grandstanding, but not where you get results."

Ken Kraft, a trades union business agent representing many of the union workers who will be doing the construction, refused to disqualify himself. Council Solicitor Phil Lauer ruled there was no conflict despite my objections.

Like Kraft, Lamont McClure voted against the resolution as well. McClure said he'd prefer to sit back and "watch how this plays out."

(Translation: I don't want to piss off the unions.)

Scott Parsons appears to have voted against the resolution because it does not go far enough. "We need a seat at the table," he stated. "We should take a leadership role." Parsons likened the NIZ to "spot zoning."

As Kraft and McClure were swayed by the unions, Peg Ferraro voted NO because of her love for bluebloods. After all, she just had lunch with J.B. Reilly. "I think Allentown needs help," she stated.

Barb Thierry, who sponsored the resolution, spoke about an uneven playing field. Bruce Gilbert complained there should be a NIZ in every city. Bob Werner condemned the entire process. "Th mechanism this was built on is wrong, dead wrong," he stated.

But Council president John Cusick, who has spoken forcefully against the NIZ before, told his colleagues they wre missing an even bigger point. At the same time that the state is proposing drastic cuts for human services, it is diverting millions is state revenue "that will exclusively benefit one city and a few developers."