Allentown zoning board denies proposed 60-child day care at Hamilton Street site

The Allentown City Zoning Hearing Board on an appeal concerning MS9 Holdings LLC denied a request to operate Children of Angels Learning Center at the ground floor of a Hamilton Street building, concluding the application lacked required site details and raised unresolved parking concerns.

Board members said the applicant had not submitted the site-specific information the board’s zoning ordinance requires — a site plan showing the childcare structure’s dimensions, the outdoor play area, pickup/drop-off/loading locations, parking and waste-storage locations — and that unresolved parking allocations from a prior zoning decision left the board unable to approve the use.

Applicant Alicia Sweeney told the board, “The name of my daycare would be Children of Angels Learning Center… I would like to have at least 2 or 3 [staff] when I start off,” and testified she planned 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday with a licensed capacity eventually up to 60 children. Sweeney said she intends to accept state child-care funding for families in need and that the space she seeks to use is currently vacant. Mark Smith, who described the building layout and the lease space, said the proposed tenant would use the lower level and described the lease area as roughly 3,529 square feet.

Neighbors and nearby tenants raised safety and operational concerns. Peter Dent, who lives “across the street,” praised the applicant’s goals but questioned whether the block is appropriate given constrained parking, nearby Allen High School and middle-school pedestrian traffic, and existing trash-management issues at shared dumpsters. Carl Schmoyer III and other neighbors told the board the neighborhood’s parking has tightened since a nearby 49-unit building was built and said they worried about drop-off congestion and children’s safety.

Representatives of the adjacent Community Music School warned that the proposed childcare could harm their operations by overutilizing the existing lot; Michael Yeager, identifying himself as representing the Community Music School, summarized three concerns in written comments: inadequate on-site pickup/drop-off, uncertain outdoor play area, and insufficient off-street parking.

Board members also reviewed a prior zoning decision that required 98 parking spaces for the adjacent new building and a separate condition — “condition b” — that 5,200 square feet of storage in the existing structure be available to occupants of the 49-unit building. The board said it lacked documentation that the storage condition would not be claimed and that parking allocations remained unclear. The zoning office advised that the property file did not include a usable site plan for the childcare’s loading/unloading, play area, or waste-storage locations, which the ordinance requires before the board may grant the use.

After discussion, a motion to deny the appeal was made on grounds the required site plan and clarifying documentation had not been submitted and unresolved parking and storage allocations remained outstanding. The board voted in favor of denial. The board did not adopt any conditions for a future approval at this hearing and directed the applicant to supply the missing documentation before the board would reconsider the matter.

The board recorded the denial as the formal outcome for Case No. 1. The applicant and interested parties were told how to re-file and that state licensing and local permits are separate processes the applicant would still need to satisfy if and when the board hears the matter again.