Why the Chrin Interchange is "Mistaken Development"

David Jaindl apparently isn't the only one who hasn't learned from . Charles Chrin wants to build a sprawling  development on 670 acres of farmland in Palmer Township.

Jenna Portnoy of The Morning Call explains the plan this way:

Palmer Supervisor Chairman David Colver said the interchange will allow for development of land currently zoned for agricultural uses. Landowner Charles Chrin, who has plans to develop the land, intended to privately finance the interchange, but as costs began to escalate, Colver said it became clear the job was too expensive for one person...

The township anticipates a flood of development: commercial, hotels, service stations, industrial, office space and manufacturing. If the TIF failed for some reason, Colver said, the area would remain farmland.

"Part of the catch has always been absolutely positively no residential development whatsoever," he said. "It's good because something's coming to us and we actually have control over the zoning."

The problem with this proposal is that the greater Easton region, as well as the broader Lehigh Valley, already has too much vacant office space and commercial real estate.

What's more, suburban office parks are falling out of favor as more companies are choosing downtown locations with greater connectivity, access to public services and other amenities. As I have argued here previously, this rising demand for downtown office and residential space  that should be accommodated through . 

If lawmakers keep subsidizing development projects like the Chrin plan, the job sprawl problem is going to keep getting worse. There are  that job sprawl reduces economic mobility and productivity -- a waste of potential that the region can ill afford in a bad economy.

This particular project would be especially counterproductive, drawing business investment away from a revitalizing downtown Easton just as it's picking up, while saddling taxpayers with the long term maintenance costs for new roads, sewer and other infrastructure.

Lehigh Valley residents -- 81 percent -- are either concerned or very concerned about the loss of open space and farmland. Presumably, this means that people don't want any more farmland to be rezoned for new Big Box highway exit development. How this would work in practice is that every time somebody wants to build something on farmland, lawmakers have to say no. 

Unfortunately, politicians don't seem to be getting the message on open space. This week Palmer Township supervisors endorsed a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan to finance the Chrin interchange project.  

Before it can be enacted, it will have to pass through Easton Area School Board and Northampton County Council, so residents will have some time to persuade their representatives to these bodies. If the vote fails in either of these places, it's defeated.

Now, even though the community may have a collective interest in preventing the interchange development, Mr. Chrin's property rights need to be respected.

Fortunately, there may be a win-win option available for Mr. Chrin to retain equity in his land by selling the development rights to a developer who wants to build on vacant land closer to downtown Easton. 

A Transfer of Development Rights program would be a good way for Easton and the other Lehigh Valley cities to relieve the coming rise in rents and add job density while simultaneously conserving farmland and open space. 

In practice, a development rights bank could function as a kind of zoning budget that would enable the Valley to manage its growth and land use at the regional level, and push back against the  that drove the intense outward ex-urban growth in the 2000s.