Politics & Government

Silk Mill Construction Approved, Say Zoners

Easton Zoning Hearing Board approves parking, flood plane construction at silk mill.

Easton's Zoning Hearing Board has given its OK to construction work on the first phase of the city's Silk Mill project.

The board Monday night approved construction of 83 parking spaces on the 15-acre site, which will include a mix of commercial and residential properties.

The city's Redevelopment Authority will handle infrastructure through state, federal and county grants. Once that infrastucture work is done -- it's scheduled to begin in March or April 2013 -- the property will be sold to the Flemington, NJ-based VM Development, which will handle the actual rehabilitation of the buildings.

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The infrastructure work includes the construction of the 370-foot access road and demolition on the site. The authority hopes to have PennDOT approval for that road by early next year.

In addition to approving the parking spaces, the authority also needed the board's approval because the property lies inside the 100-year and 500-year flood planes. 

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Authority director Gretchen Longenbach testified that of the two buildings in question, only the parking area of one of them is within the 500-year flood plane. Neither building is within the 100-year flood plane.

Also Monday, the board approved restaurateur Joshua Palmer's request to put up two 22.2-square-foot signs at his Maxim's 22 bistro.

The request was after the fact, since Palmer's place has been open -- and its signs have been up -- for several weeks. It's a big place that needs a big sign, he testified. 

“It is a grand place, and it does need to have a larger scale signage," board member Pam Panto said, noting that the size of the sign -- 22.2 square feet -- was in keeping with the restaurant's theme.

The restaurant is based on the first floor of the Pomeroy building, whose owner, Mark Mulligan, is the CEO of VM Development.


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