The North Whitehall Township Planning Commission tabled a preliminary proposal for home development at the municipal building.
On 102 acres near Laurys Station, between Fells Creek and the Lehigh River, the Rising Sun project proposes 110 single-family houses at 1321 Rising Sun Road. At the moment, the plot of land is farmed.
Access Commercial Development has proposed a design that would provide open space between the houses and the adjacent Fells Creek and Lehigh River. To allay locals' fears about stormwater flow into the river and stream, the open area was an alteration from an earlier plan.
A new proposal without roadways accessing Rising Sun Road was presented by the developers at the planning commission assessment on February 25. Now there is an alley and two shared drives per property, and the driveways are in reverse frontage. In order to prevent trees and other heavy objects from harming the proposed subsurface basins, planners suggested putting up signs to alert landowners to their existence.
Issues such as roof water runoff and homeowners' plans for discharging the water were brought up by the panel. Since the developers' design just featured easements around the front and back of most parcels, they requested a drainage and easement waiver in the past. Planners did not approve the waiver and instead asked the applicant to either rethink the proposal or explain why it could not be changed. The applicant requested the table.
The planners' recommendation was for the supervisors to alter the zoning code in a "major" way. With minor revisions in 2019, the zoning law of North Whitehall has had three revisions since its inception in 1968: in 1992, 1995, and 2002.
