Allentown zoning board approves conversion of 1928 Walnut Street to two units amid neighbor concerns

The Allentown City Zoning Hearing Board voted to approve a variance allowing the conversion of 1928 West Walnut Street from a single-family dwelling to two dwelling units.

Nicholas Barasek, the appellant and property owner, told the board that the building historically included a storefront and that records and photographs support a long-running mixed-use pattern. "All I'm asking is for you to allow me to put up a fire rated wall where there exists a fire rated door now," Barasek said during his presentation, describing plans to create a separate, fire‑rated division to form the second unit.

The approval means the property would be formally recognized as two dwelling units under the city's zoning rules; under zoning definitions that regulate unrelated occupants, that change increases the number of unrelated occupants allowed on the parcel from 4 to 8 (four per unit). The zoning supervisor told the board that occupancy limits for health and safety are enforced primarily through the International Property Maintenance Code and the fire code rather than the zoning ordinance.

Barasek presented…