Renew Lehigh Valley seeks public input on the region's future

The four-year-old Bethlehem-based organization has been tasked with gathering public input for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission's 2030 comprehensive plan.

What size homes should be built in the Lehigh Valley? Would you buy fresh food if it were more readily available? Is your commute too long?

Renew Lehigh Valley wants your answers to these questions.

The four-year-old Bethlehem-based organization has been tasked with gathering public input for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission’s 2030 comprehensive plan.

And the job is far from just one public meeting. Renew Lehigh Valley’s public outreach plan will stretch over three years, with multiple public meetings, an interactive website and input gathering via Facebook and Twitter.

Renew Lehigh Valley Executive Director Pam Colton said most of the input will be collected at places where Lehigh Valley residents already frequent, such as summer festivals, weekly farmers markets and public parks.

“We want to hear from people in their communities,” she said.

Renew Lehigh Valley’s public outreach plan starts very traditionally, with two public meetings Wednesday. The open house-type meetings run from 4 to 6 and 6:30 to 8 p.m. at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.

Lehigh Valley Planning Commission always seeks public input on its comprehensive plans but applied for a federal grant especially to obtain extensive input for an update to its 2030 comprehensive plan, commission Executive Director Michael Kaiser said.

The public outreach project is funded by part of a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That grant also is being used for redevelopment planning projects in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission last updated its comprehensive plan 2005 and it’s due for its next major update in 2015, Kaiser said. Much has changed in the Lehigh Valley since 2005, and the public’s take on planning for the future will be very worthwhile, he said.

“A lot of people think when the housing market comes back, it won’t be the same housing market in the past,” Kaiser said. “It may push in the direction of smaller housing units … the demand for the big house in the suburbs may be something that’s behind us.”

Renew Lehigh Valley is especially seeking input on housing, transportation, fresh foods, climate and energy and economic development sustainability, Colton said. The interactive features on the group’s project website, envisionlehighvalley.com, will be up by the end of the summer, she said.