Lehigh Carbon Community College plans to relocate both its downtown Allentown and Carbon County satellite campuses.
College officials are seeking the blessings of the 13 sponsoring public school districts in Lehigh and Carbon counties to expedite its plan to acquire new properties.
The college is not asking those school districts to increase their financial contributions to buy replacement properties, only to give it pre-authorization to proceed.
LCCC got unanimous pre-approval Monday night from East Penn School Board in Lehigh County.
Other school districts also considered the issue during Monday meetings, but information about their votes could not be obtained late Monday night.
LCCC needs approval from two-thirds of the sponsoring districts to proceed with buying real estate.
According to Ann Thompson, who serves on LCCC’s board of trustees, Palmerton School Board gave the relocation plan pre-approval on Dec. 9, Allentown gave it on Dec. 18 and Lehighton did so on Dec 22.
A new Allentown location will replace LCCC’s Donley Center at 718 Hamilton St., which is almost directly across the street from the new PPL Center multi-purpose arena.
LCCC plans to move its Carbon County campus out of a wing of Jim Thorpe High School, where it moved from Nesquehoning last year.
The moves will expand LCCC’s operations in both locations.
LCCC hopes to remain in center-city Allentown, but wants a place that offers students parking.
They have to pay to park near the Donley Center and both the hours of paid parking and amount of payment have increased since the opening of PPL Center.
Thompson said the Donley Center is in a prime location, but has no parking. She also said that building is nearly 100 percent utilized.
As for the Jim Thorpe High School location, she said LCCC has done studies showing enrollment will increase if the college has its own free-standing building in Carbon County.
Thompson, who represents East Penn School District on LCCC’s board of trustees, made the pre-approval request to East Penn’s school board Monday. She is former president of East Penn’s board.
“We need this because of the timing issue,” explained Thompson.
She said one problem being faced by the college is that real estate in center-city Allentown “isn’t sitting on the market very long.”
Thompson gave an example: “We were interested in a property that would have suited the community college very well, in terms of the building itself and the parking.
“We made an offer on the building. The people selling the building said: ‘We don’t want to wait until you go through all the hoops that you have to go through with 13 school district to approve buying this building’.”
The college is seeking pre-authorizations to acquire properties so it can act quickly when alternative sites become available.
After new campus homes are found, LCCC will sell the Donley Center and leave the wing of Jim Thorpe High.
It intends to notify those 13 school districts within 10 days of entering into agreements to acquire new sites.
The pre-approvals from the school districts will expire at the end of this year.
Thompson indicated LCCC already has budgeted money in anticipation of relocating the Allentown and Carbon County campuses. She said the sale of the Donley Center, which LCCC owns, also will help pay those costs.
LCCC’s main campus is in Schnecksville in northern Lehigh County.
LCCC president Ann Bieber and Audrey Larvey, chairwoman of the college’s board of trustees, could not be reached for comment Monday night.
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