“What Do We Want It To Be Like Here? A Community Dialogue on Land Use,” a panel discussion with audience involvement, was held on Monday, March 21 2005, 7pm, at the Bethlehem Town Hall. It was presented by the Alliance for Sustainable Communities – Lehigh Valley, Circle of Stones Ritual Theatre Ensemble, Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, Lehigh Valley Greens, Pennsylvania Downtown Center, Kittatinny Group of the Sierra Club, Lehigh Valley Group of the Sierra Club, and the Warren County Environmental Commission. This community dialogue is especially timely given that we are now in the Public Comment Phase of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission’s Final Draft of its Comprehensive Plan for the Lehigh Valley . . . 2030.
The panelists were:
- Jerry Brunetti, advocate for sustainable agriculture and healthy soil as the basis for good health; managing director of Agri-Dynamics; member of the Lower Mt. Bethel Environmental Advisory Council;
- Diane Elliott, Director for Public Service, Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government, Lafayette College; consultant in the area of brownfields redevelopment;
- Bob Freeman, Representative, 136th Legislative District, Northampton County; fathered the Elm Street program; Committees: Environmental Resources and Energy, Labor Relations, Local Government;
- Joyce Marin, co-chair of RenewLV, Lehigh Valley committee responding to the Brookings Report on PA; Emmaus councilwoman; helped form the Emmaus Farmers’ Market in downtown Emmaus; and
- Bill Rosebrock, an appraiser of land and property; member of the Harmony Township Farmland Preservation Committee; Chair of the Warren County Environmental Commission.
They and the audience will address these questions:
- What quality of life do you want for you and yours in the Lehigh Valley?
- What forms of production and land use would provide it?
- What resource base is needed to sustain it?
Members of the audience shared their visions of how it should be, the problems and barriers they see, and some possible solutions.