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Friends and Neighbors,


During the summer there have been a number of developments in the relationship between Lafayette College and its neighbors. Sadly, in my view, several of them have been disappointing, but I’ll start this review with a few potentially positive items:

Community meeting. The College will hold a community meeting for residents to express their questions and concerns at 6 pm, Wednesday, September 25 in the Wilson Room, Pfennig Alumni Center.

 

I will be forwarding to you Lafayette’s official notification (and a link to an RSVP if one is requested).


“Needs Assessment” from the Community Impact Committee. As part of the 2018 settlement of a legal action brought by College Hill residents against Lafayette, the College agreed to form a committee of residents, Lafayette and Easton City officials to address joint matters of concern. After delaying for six years, the College has now done so. (I was one of the plaintiffs in the legal action and have been named a member of this committee.) At its first meeting, in July, committee members agreed to distribute a ‘Needs Assessment Questionnaire’ to their constituents, asking for suggestions as to issues the Committee might look into.
I expect to distribute this questionnaire to you in the next few weeks, and hope you will take the time to respond fully and candidly. (Among the ‘constituents’ expected to respond to the assessment are members of the Village on College, the NAACP, Wilson Area Family Center, South Side Civic Association, Easton Area Community Center, the 200 or so people receiving this update, and more.)


Lafayette Master Plan. For the last two years, College Hill residents have been asked to attend public meetings, fill out forms, and otherwise provide input to the SmithGroup, the organization charged with drafting Lafayette’s new Master Plan. Recently, the SmithGroup’s chief planner acknowledged that the Master Plan will NOT address any neighborhood concerns (such as maintenance, acquisition and de-acquisition of Lafayette’s 150+ off-campus properties, affordable housing, summer ‘dead zone,’ parking, historic preservation, etc.).
A campus spokesperson said that the Plan will contain maps denoting the College’s off-campus properties (this at the request of a community resident) and will also contain language that the College hopes to move as many students as possible from these properties back onto the campus. The Plan will apparently not lay out standards for reusing these properties (although the intent is to occupy them with faculty and staff), nor will it address issues of students living off-campus in properties not owned by the College. I’ve expressed to President Hurd and others my disappointment that residents were falsely given the impression that the Master Plan might address some of their concerns. The only avenue left to talk to the College about substantive matters seems to be the Community Impact Committee. We’ll see.


Individual resident/Lafayette issues. If you have personal concerns involving the College, the contact person is Chelsea Morrese, Executive Director of Community Engagement, morresc@lafayette.edu  610 330 3303.


Maintenance of Lafayette off-campus properties. Another component of the 2018 legal agreement was that the College would “develop and implement a periodic maintenance program for the exterior of its College Hill properties. . .” It has not done so. I was under the impression that a new study of off-campus properties under the direction of Audra Kahr, Vice President for Finance & Administration, was finally going to address this, but I’ve been told that is apparently not the case. As far as I can tell, the College is not yet prepared to meet its legal and ethical obligation to develop a program and to properly maintain its off-campus properties. Numerous examples of deteriorating properties (on and off-campus) have been brought to Lafayette’s attention in the past year. Most continue to be neglected.


College Avenue. The status of the College Avenue hillside remains a concern since Lafayette’s 2022 “deforesting a slope on College Hill for a $1.2 million walkway project without city approval.” (lehighvalleynews.com, June 8, 2023.)  The planting area at the end of N. Third Street, the dead trees at the curb, the lookout area across the street are all unkempt and unsightly. The College promised in Oct. 2023 and again in the spring of 2024 to replant the hillside and to plant dozens of trees elsewhere in Easton. No word on whether any of this has happened or what the schedule is for completing these projects.
In a related story, the parking spaces on the south side of College Avenue are being removed and will be replaced by a bike lane. Although the work is apparently not being done by the College, this would seem to be confirmation that Lafayette’s two million dollar hillside ramp is a functional failure as well as an esthetic and environmental disaster. The ramp is too steep for safe bicycle traffic, is not handicapped-accessible, and even has signs warning pedestrians not to use it in inclement weather. The ramp was built by the College using more than a million dollars in taxpayers’ funds.



A new fire engine. In 2018, a rationale for Easton making more than fifty changes to its Zoning Ordinance to allow Lafayette to build its McCartney Street dorms was that the College had recently given the city a new fire engine. (A City official said in 2018 that most fires on College Hill are on-campus.) This summer, a different Easton official said publicly that the City needs to treat the College very deferentially because they are again discussing giving us a new fire engine. (At a cost of about a million dollars, as it happens. Just what Pennsylvania taxpayers gave the College for its ramp.)


Commercial spaces in the McCartney Street dorms. Both dorms are open, but the only occupied first floor space in either is the Lafayette book store. Several restaurants have failed in the first building, and no tenants have been found for any of the new dorm’s commercial space. During the City’s dorm project approval process, many residents complained about the lack of any proposed off-street parking for potential customers of these spaces or for parents visiting their students who lived in the dorms. The College promised to dedicate its two Clinton Terrace parking lots for visitor parking. These lots were used as staging areas for the dorms, but are now available for parking. The College does not allow visitors to park in them.


Using the campus. A number of residents have asked what campus facilities they are and are not invited to use. The gym? Pool? Tennis Courts? Library? Audit classes (by invitation of instructor)? Walk on campus (with or without dogs)? Parking? Director of Community Engagement Morrese has said she will work on improving the Lafayette website to clarify any confusion.


Some final thoughts. Since the previous Lafayette administration left office, I have been quite optimistic about the future of the relationship between the College and the community. Obviously, as you can see from many of my comments above, I am disappointed and disturbed by the lack of any progress on issues that I believe are important to all of us. I remain guardedly optimistic that the new administration is working with us in good faith, but I hope you’ll join me in paying attention to what is being said and what is being done, and that you’ll give voice to your suggestions and concerns.
And of course if you’d like to assist me in preparing these updates, please let me know. The pay is zero and there are no benefits, so why wouldn’t you want to get involved?
 
Paul Felder

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