New Pennsylvania State Senator Wants Accountability for Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone

Pennsylvania state Senator Jarrett Coleman (R-Allentown) last week sent a memo to colleagues asking them to support an upcoming resolution to audit Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ). 

Under the program state lawmakers established in 2009, developers can use state and local tax money to offset the debts they incur on construction and rehabilitation projects in designated parts of Pennsylvania’s third-largest city. Areas within the NIZ include the Lehigh River’s westside waterfront north of Union Street and south of American Parkway as well as the PPL Center hockey arena and many of its surrounding blocks. Allentown is the only city with a neighborhood subject to this program, but the state has created similar zones in Bethlehem and Lancaster.

Read More