ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An Allentown developer is set to go back to the drawing board armed with numerous suggestions for how to improve his plans for a large East Side apartment complex.
Manny Makhoul is working to build 180 housing units across six buildings in the 700 block of East Turner Street, a property where he said he played as a kid.
Each building on the gated 17-acre property would stand 2 1/2 stories tall and feature 30 units, he told the city Planning Commission on Tuesday.
“I’m always against gated communities, especially when you have a denser development like this."Craig Beavers, Allentown City Planning Commission
Planning board members tabled that proposal for at least a month after urging Makhoul to reconsider isolating the property from its neighbors with a gate.
Makhoul said the gate is a selling point for residents as it offers added security and cuts down on unwanted visitors.
He said residents in the area “suffer” because people cut through their properties and litter, use drugs and cause other issues.
“The East Side isn’t what it was when I was a kid,” Makhoul said. He said he works to “limit it in my areas.”
Get rid of the gate: Commission
But commission member Craig Beavers said he thinks a gate is wrong for a complex with 180 units.
“I’m always against gated communities, especially when you have a denser development like this," Beavers said. "I do not think it’s appropriate for the amount of people you have in this.”
He cited potential problems for emergency services, deliveries and visitors.
“I do not recommend this project if it has the gate on it,” Beavers said.
“I just feel like [you’re] kind of creating friction by design.”Allentown Planning Commission Chairman Cristian Brown
Cristian Brown, who chairs the planning commission, said the gate could be a safety hazard and questioned the placement of Dumpsters on the property.
Brown also criticized Makhoul for getting rid of some of the property’s forested land.
“You already pissed everybody off around here by tearing the trees down, and now you're going to have this gated community of people [that doesn’t] fit in,” he said.
“I just feel like [you’re] kind of creating friction by design.”
Turner Street extension?
The board urged Makhoul to reconsider his opposition to extending East Turner Street across his property.
“What a great thing to have Turner Street go all the way through.”Jeff Glazier, Allentown City Planning Commission
Member Jeff Glazier noted City Center’s plans to build a network of roads to integrate its massive Northridge development into neighboring communities.
“You’re taking a total opposite approach,” Glazier said. He challenged Makhoul to make a similar commitment for his future residents and their neighbors.
It would be “a big benefit to the neighborhood to have a more direct route there,” Glazier said. “What a great thing to have Turner Street go all the way through.”
But that would make the project unfeasible and has stopped previous developers from working on the property, Makhoul said.
“The cost to build it to the city’s requirements is just too much for any builder,” he said.
Makhoul is set to present new plans over the next few months to the city Planning Commission, which tabled his proposal as its last action in a meeting that ran more than four hours.
Allentown zoning officials in June unanimously approved a variance for the project after Joe Rentko, president of Coplay-based Black Forest Engineering, showed a previous map inaccurately depicted numerous steep slopes.
He told officials he’s “seen a lot worse sites developed.”
