By SARIT LASCHINSKY

Special to The Press

More than 50 residents from South Whitehall and Lower Macungie townships listened in to the virtual Nov. 19 meeting of the South Whitehall planning commission to air their concerns with a rezoning proposal for the planned Macungie Manor project.

Township planner Gregg Adams said the request was to rezone a 3.99- acre property at 900 South Hillview Road from R-3 Low Density Residential to R-5 Medium Density Residential zoning.

The area is part of a larger 14.895 acre tract largely situated in Lower Macungie Township, with Abra Development 10 LP as the applicant and equitable owner.

Attorney Blake Marles, on behalf of applicant Abe Atiyeh, said the Lower Macungie planning commission had already given favorable recommendation of conditional use for their portion of the plan.

Atiyeh said the South Whitehall property would only house a one-story assisted living building while two-story personal care and independent living facilities would be located in Lower Macungie.

The facility would include a clubhouse, walking paths, pools and other amenities.

He said the facilities would be part of a “continual care community” which would allow families and residents in the township to live together as they age within their township community.

“We’re a good, positive use to the township,” Atiyeh said. “We serve the geriatric residents in South Whitehall Township and Lower Macungie who basically are leaving to go to Emmaus or going to outside municipalities.”

“If you vote us down tonight, I’ll accept it, but if you are going to vote us down, please give us a good reason why you’re voting us down,” Atiyeh said.

Peter Terry, of Benchmark Civil Engineering, prepared the traffic study upon a request by Lower Macungie, and said data was collected in September with adjustments to reflect pre-COVID-19 traffic volumes.

He said evaluations showed “very low amounts of delay” at studied intersections, adding the site was “a relatively low generator of trips” across morning, afternoon and mid afternoon peak levels of service.

Terry said there had not been specific capacity analyses on any South Whitehall intersections, as trip volumes fell below PennDOT threshold to include the additional intersections in a study.

Lower Macungie resident Matt Kressin said he read through the 400-page study and raised issues with the limited sample size.

“When you look at the data, they tried to apply the data from a traffic study from back in June 2019 and then extrapolate that into the current numbers,” he said, adding current data showed Hillview traffic patterns changed, with some increasing, during the current pandemic.

He also noted the September study found 15 percent of drivers speeding, while the older data found no speeding vehicles over three days.

“There are so many discrepancies between the old study and the new study I don’t see how any engineer can take this data and try to extrapolate the data in the way that they did,” he said, adding the study listed incorrect road names and speed limits.

South Whitehall resident Karl Mabry highlighted similar errors with traffic signs and incorrect cardinal directions in the study, as well as in a letter from Marles requesting the rezoning.

“I seriously consider the validity and the accuracy of the traffic study … they don’t have any speed limits or anything I’ve discussed,” Mabry said. “This is an issue of trying to rush this through and not consider the implications.”

South Whitehall resident JoAnn Markowitz, who also helped organize a petition against Macungie Manor which gathered over 300 signatures, said the traffic study did not account for all generated traffic.

She said it incorrectly assumed all employees and visitors followed the same path to and from the facility, often cutting across multiple streets, Markowitz added directions to the facility location from municipalities in all directions flowed through South Whitehall, further adding to traffic.

South Whitehall resident Mark Walter noted the study estimated nearly 800 trips would be added on nearby roads, with 50 percent coming into South Whitehall.

Fellow township resident Henry Kalb said he was concerned about traffic crossing the Hillview Bridge and on Nonnemaker Lane, as he and residents from both townships frequently walk, bike and recreate on these areas.

“It is a lightly used, relatively light-traffic area, but I think this will increase the traffic in the area and make it much more difficult to navigate that bridge,” he said.

South Whitehall resident Robert Hodges asked why the zoning request was necessary if the area could only support a limited number of units, and questioned why the manor project was being discussed again after it had been recommended to wait for the comprehensive plan.

“It seems every time a developer is given an answer that they’re not happy with, it just comes right back up at the next meeting,” he said.

Assistant Township Solicitor Jennifer Alderfer said commissioners had decided to send the matter back to the commission for review.

“There’s been a huge outcry from the public against this,” Hodges told the planning commission. “If you were listening to the public, you would table it again at least and not give the developer what they want.”

After all public comments were heard, the board voted 5-1 against recommending the requested rezoning.

Chairman William MacNair was the only member to vote “yes” on the recommendation. Fellow board members Brian Hite, Alan Tope, David Dunbar, Diane Kelly and David Wilson voted “no.”

After the vote, numerous residents thanked the board members audibly and through the chat function for listening to the community’s requests and concerns.

As the planning commission is only a recommending body, the proposed ordinance for rezoning will go before the board of commissioners for a final decision.