Sept. 10, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem’s congregation will be relocating in January, again raising the question of what will take its place on Center Street.
The imposing church is on a gateway to the City of Bethlehem, with lots of green space in front of the building.
An earlier bid to put up “affordable housing” at 2344 Center St. ran into community opposition, with neighbors objecting to using the land for dense housing in an area of mostly single-family homes. There is a Kirkland Village senior housing complex to the rear of the church.
The church will relocate to Christ Church U.C.C. at 75 E. Market St. in Bethlehem for what it describes as “nesting” for a few years, sharing the downtown building with U.C.C.
Based on the Presbyterian church’s newsletters, the last service will be held on Center Street in December although the lease to use the U.C.C. building is not final.
The church’s departure will leave a big property available on a main street near Route 22. Northampton County records say the church complex was built in 1955 and has a total of about 63,700 square feet on 32 acres. The available property may not be that large but it’s a rare opportunity to build in Bethlehem.
Martin Tower was such an opportunity, but that project has been sitting for years.
Some city officials have talked as if providing “affordable housing” is a core responsibility of local government, but it never has been. While some people ask for cheaper housing, in fact they demand it, many residents do not want to see more high-density development. Some object to the changing character of the town, others fear higher city and school taxes, and always the issue of more traffic looms.
As of today, county records still list First Presbyterian Church as owner of 2344 Center St.
“High density housing” and “affordable housing” are scary words to people who are afraid of others not quite as affluent as they are. (and maybe a different race or ethnicity!) In actuality, with wages lagging behind the rise in housing costs, affordable housing is likely to be occupied by nurses, teachers, law enforcement, office workers, service industry workers like cooks and servers and restaurant workers, small business owners, hairdressers and care providers. Where do you want them to live? Why assume they will be a problem?
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I won’t disagree entirely but there are a lot of people who just don’t want more development.
What happens will be determined by zoning, but the support for “affordable housing” is limited among residents. I don’t know if elected city officials get that. People who own homes don’t want to pay for others’ homes on top of taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance.
“Affordable housing” means somebody else (taxpayers) subsidizing rent, it means lots of bureaucracy to determine eligibility and that’s expensive.
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Affordable housing is dictated by zoning. Local governments control zoning. If a substantial portion of a city’s population cannot afford basic housing, I would argue that yes, it is the municipal government’s responsibility to look at how zoning is affecting the pace/type of residential development that is occurring. If you look at the historical genesis of zoning laws, it was to keep poor people out of rich neighborhoods. Zoning has historically been used to exclude. Just because some of the housed and wealthy residents of a city don’t care about the struggling citizens of a community, it does not mean the obligation of a city’s leaders to care for all the citizens in a community is exempt. Also, YOU are not paying for any subsidies-these developments do not use local revenue. Almost all subsidies for affordable housing come from state and federal coffers, not local. This fear of YOU paying to support affordable housing is a bogus argument when the real problem most people have with affordable housing is that the residents who live there are seen as less desirable neighbors. But everyone who cries out against affordable development tries hide under the cover of traffic, or parking, or schools rather than just admit that they don’t want poorer people around.
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State and federal money also comes from taxpayers, so I am supporting affordable housing as are all taxpayers. Money isn’t free just because it comes from Harrisburg or D.C.
Yes, zoning is local. It’s also hard to change zoning across a municipality. There may be variances and exceptions for a certain address but changing the zoning map across the city would be difficult.
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How about we keep some greenery? Where does one go on a beautiful day to eat their lunch and have some respite from life’s daily challenges? There are not many places like that in Bethlehem anymore.
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The two churches on the left as drivers go southbound provide a welcome stretch of green. Ideally the church will want to preserve some of that space with a large setback when the next use is decided.
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