Neighbors Appeal Elias Expansion to Court

Neighbors of the Elias Farmers Market in Northeast Bethlehem are appealing the November city Zoning Hearing Board decision to grant a special exception that would allow the store to build a 5,000-square-foot addition to allow for more produce storage.

The notice of appeal was filed Thursday in Northampton County Court in Easton, just hours before the land development plan was reviewed by the city’s Planning Commission.

But after two hours of arguments for the store, for the neighbors and deliberation among commission members, the plan was tabled for a second time. Commission member James Fiorentino said he did not want to vote for a plan that was likely to change again after working its way through the courts.

However, the delay could not be made without consent from Elias, which at first rejected overtures from commission Chairman Lawrence Krauter to accept a decision to table.

They relented after Krauter stopped the proceedings in the middle of a vote on a motion to reject the plan, with the commission deadlocked at 2-2, and the chairman holding the deciding ballot.

On the one hand, Krauter sympathized with neighbors who argued that the store is detrimental to the quality of life in the neighborhood. On the other, the chairman said he feared that the board had no legal justification to reject the plan and that such a decision would ultimately be overturned in court.

“I have been continually disappointed that we have not been able to see both sides resolve this issue amicably,” Krauter said. “I feel responsible for trying to help both sides to do that. It’s very disappointing that we can’t get together as a community.”

Krauter sought the advice of city Planning Director Darlene Heller and Planning Solicitor Christopher Cooper to justify a rejection. They briefly spent some time looking through the city’s Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance to find a legal reason that might stick.

Heller said a “quality of life” argument lies in the judgment of the Zoning Hearing Board. “I think we would be a little hard-pressed,” Cooper observed.

Krauter turned again to Steve Pany, the engineer for Elias, to see if his clients would reconsider tabling the issue. After about a minute in the hallway outside the Town Hall rotunda, Pany said they would agree to another 90-day extension.

Krauter then voted against the motion to reject the plan, keeping it an open issue for a subsequent meeting. Stephen Thode and Katie Lynch had previously voted against rejecting the plan, while Fiorentino and Andrew Twiggar had voted for plan rejection.

With the expansion, the store’s size would increase to 19,279 square feet, nearly four times the size it was originally when it operated as a roadside stand to sell fruits and vegetables from an adjoining 18-acre orchard.

But located on Linden Street at Johnston Drive, in a rural residential zone, the store became a nonconforming use in 1984 when it began to sell products not grown at an attached farm. The city's zoning law prohibits buildings with grandfathered nonconforming uses from expanding by more than 50 percent over the life of their use and only with a special exception.

Neighbor opponents have argued that in the intervening years, the store has somehow managed to more than double in size, though the city shows no record of any zoning or building permits to do so.

Neighbors argued their case in front of the commission. Guishu Fang, the closest neighbor, complained about the noise coming from ventilation units running at all hours and noise and fumes coming from trucks that idle on site frequently.

The expansion, which would include three loading docks, would bring all that activity to within 25 feet of her house, she said.

"I'm here to protect the quality of my life," she said.