Remarks by Emily Lockhart
163 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 7
- Play at 3:18:15
“I think it would be good, the changes being made here where we're removing some of the condition and adding exceptions and shrinking things down, maybe letting this code play out for a few months or a year and then coming and saying, does the council need to pull this in, would give the Planning Commission opportunity to maybe work in a new process and see how it goes. They do a lot of great things, and I think they're plenty capable, especially with the changes that have been proposed.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:20:48
“And ultimately, the mayor is elected by the residents. And the mayor selects the planning commissioners. The council then appoints, confirms the appointment. We are deferring. I can see both sides of the coin, too.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:21:52
“And I agree with you. I think my point is, we did approve it by deferring our powers and authority to the Planning Commission, that they're acting with the powers we've been given by the state. Ryan, I think I'm right.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:22:17
“And appeals come, depending on the item type, it can come before the city council or before another body.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:24:33
“Well, depending on the motion, we might get the mayor to vote on something. Now I want to pass one just to put you in the spot.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:33:56
“Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve ordinance Number 36-2025, approving an amendment to the Lehigh City Design Standards and Public Improvement Specifications Manual, adding section 3.08, temporary construction site safety measures for commercial and residential construction projects.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:48:09
“On that, so 11.030C, yeah, the one that we're talking about, I guess I'll just say my biggest frustration is that concept plans, they give the applicant somewhat of this, like, green light, where I'd like to see it be more of a yellow light, where... You know, they've come before us with this concept. There are pieces of it that have been discussed, but it's frustrating because I can see from the applicant's perspective, if we aren't going to give a full green light on the concept, why would they invest and spend all this money on it? But then from this side of the table, if they come back…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:49:40
“But sometimes in practice, the planning commission will feel like it is. Obligated. Yeah. Well, this was approved at the concept plan. They went and got their construction loans. They went and did all these things thinking that we had approved it at that stage. Then if we go back on it, At least that's what I've been told as I've sat through those decisions. I like that concept plans provide more public input and transparency. I like that they get everyone involved sooner. I just worry that once a green light is given, it's really hard to go back, even though it's designed to be conceptual.…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:51:32
“and and i think we saw that play out okay here but i haven't been on planning commission so yeah i think it just it's really hard because we we there have been many times in the chair where i've felt like if i green light this then it's over because they come and say well you've given me the green light so i've developed this preliminary plot and i spent all this money doing it because you gave me the green light but then know more information comes out or there's more public engagement and you're like oh shoot i wish that was really more of a yellow light but anyway so i don't know how to…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:53:00
“But sometimes they want something outside of it, or they want the head nod of, well, what if we, you know, or maybe we're getting public input for a landscape buffer or, you know, something like that.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:53:16
“That's hard, too. Yeah, it can just get hard. But again, I really like that we have them, but it's hard.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:55:08
“That's always been the hard part is once you approve a concept plan, you've kind of given this.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 3:55:18
“Yeah, exactly. Maybe it is a training issue with the planning commissioners that they highlight the things that are green and yellow lights. And that's my analogy. It's just the way my brain operates. But maybe we could implement that. If the legal gives the approval on that, then we could have planning commissioners start doing that. Because it kind of feels like an all or nothing when they come before us.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 4:02:03
“Sounds good. Sorry, can I ask a clarification on that? So are you saying that it would be required to do a development agreement?”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 4:02:16
“Okay, so they don't have to do a development agreement because it's an option.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 4:02:28
“Then you're required to do a development agreement.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 4:05:22
“So we're not creating a deed restriction?”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 4:06:01
“So I think there's two sides to the coin. One of them is if you do it through development agreement, the flexibility to make it tailored to the applicant and the development that they're talking about. The other side of the coin is, why do we have a code if we're just going to write development agreements? So that's where I'm struggling, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and kind of how you guys are thinking through it. I tend to lean towards, we have a code, let's follow the code. I can see the other side of the argument, too.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 22:35
“Go ahead. Oh, thanks, Mayor. I'm not sure how to word my question. I'm going to try. It looks like the burden of the impact fee is falling onto the residential community, not the commercial community.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 22:57
“Yeah, but it's still significantly less than the residential community.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 23:29
“$292 for commercial there's a fewer of those so let's just look at the square footage of the building and do it based on that okay, but are the underlying assumptions like Property tax residents get a discount right, but are there any underlying assumptions? Between commercial and residential in the model that place the burden More or less Yeah, I'll have them address that okay.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 39:05
“residents and be able to find a good solution because I haven't been able to get a hold of the commercial development so I've also watched the neighborhood with neighbors and have been out there and I noticed the same problem One of the questions I have is, they said that they made an agreement to do shared parking, but then they just aren't honoring that. And what are the actions that are available to them to make them honor the shared parking agreement? Is that civilly handled?”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 39:56
“Yeah, I guess I'm just curious how, if they've made an agreement for development, why do the new owners get to ignore the agreement that that development is based on? And maybe that's a Ryan question. I'm not sure.”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 41:44
“And one more question, if I may, to Kim. So the miscategorization of the... Fabian House being a daycare, what should it be labeled as? Instead of a daycare, what would be the proper label?”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026
- Play at 1:05:54
“yeah all of the piece of the Fabian house all the new retail in that basin so they own all of it even though the basin is right classified residential yeah okay yeah okay just point that out mr. mayor I know during work sessions we don't take public comment but I've seen a resident raise her hand several times and just wanted to bring that to your attention”
City Council · Jul 14, 2026