City and Moravian Dispute Land Ownership

Bethlehem City Council and Moravian College officials will hope to settle an on-going dispute over ownership of a parcel of land where the college hopes to build new dorms at tonight's City Council meeting. The agenda is here.

The land is situated north of Lehigh St., west of City Hall, south of Church St. and east of Main St. It is currently home to the Moravian College Band Shell and is the former Kuntsplatz site during Musikfest.

Moravian wants to tear down the band shell and build a dorm there.

Councilman Joseph Leeson has other ideas. He correctly believes that a deed is erroneously recorded in the Northampton County recorder of deeds office and that the City actually owns the land. City Solicitor Chris Spandoni and Moravian Attorney Bill Matz agree.

The Express-Times has the rest of the story here.

Here is my take:

First, I enjoy seeing open green space in downtown Bethlehem. I hope that the City does in fact own the land and decides not to sell it or transfer it to Moravian.

Second, Moravian has had a history of being greedy with respect to the land in question, and even forced Musikfest off the land. So I am glad that they had a wrinkle in their plan.

Third, I do not want a dorm in downtown Bethlehem. I think it would eventually ruin the uniqueness of the downtown area.

Fourth, I believe most of the deeds for downtown Bethlehem go back to two or three deeds, which are handwritten grants of land from the Moravian Church. So I can easily believe that something is recorded erroneously. ( I am sure Bernie O'Hare can comment on the deed issue.)

Finally, I applaud City Councilman Leeson for his efforts to find out the true ownership of the land and not to just hand it over to Moravian College. If they want it, make 'em earn it.

Blogger's Note: Reports of my demise have greatly been exagerreted. Sorry I have not posted in a while. I have been on vacation and had to deal with Musikfest for 10 days.