The Express-Times (Pennsylvania) - by Lynn Olanoff

A recently completed 71-page plan calls for a major overhaul of the South Side neighborhood adjacent to Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

Ambitious plans such as these are sometimes filed away in city hall for years after they’re complete. But a recently awarded federal grant will allow the city to immediately implement some of the plan’s suggestions.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Bethlehem a $450,000 grant for the city's Eastern Gateway project. The city needed to match the grant with $175,000 of its own money, providing $625,000 total to continue the plan’s work, said Tracy Samuelson, Bethlehem’s assistant director of planning and zoning.

The plan calls for major redevelopment of the intersection at East Fourth and Williams streets, including studies into what residential and commercial growth the area could support and the creation of a public plaza on one corner.

“It’s wonderful timing,” Samuelson said. “We have money to implement that plan now that we have this.”

Bethlehem officials have identified the neighborhood as a key area for redevelopment as an influx of development continues in the area, including the casino, Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII, South Bethlehem Greenway and the Bethlehem Skateplaza.

The city will spend the grant money on acquisition, designing public amenities and studying the residential, office and retail needs, Samuelson said. The study notes that the neighborhood is 74 percent Hispanic and should take that under consideration in planning for new development.

The residential, office and retail needs study can likely be completed in a matter of months, said Ellen Larmer, project director of the Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem, one of the lead organizations in the project.

“That just makes us one step closer with getting developers on board,” she said.

The Eastern Gateway plan, paid for with $50,000 from the Southside Vision 2014 neighborhood improvement group, also identifies some projects that can be done even faster, such as installing flower-filled planters on East Fourth Street and adding a bus shelter at East Fourth and Williams streets.

Southside Vision this year has allocated $2,500 for the bus shelter and some benches in the neighborhood, Larmer said.

Officials are hopeful they can install a creative bus shelter, such as the one by the Banana Factory on West Third Street, Samuelson said. The benches will likely be installed by the Bethlehem Skateplaza, Larmer said.

“One of the goals is to make it very easy for people to congregate and one of the important concepts is having gatherings of people in public spaces,” Larmer said.“Because the skate plaza already exists, how nice would it be to have family members and friends watching? There’s already a lot of activity there.”