New Berlin hearing to consider High Street vehicle sales lot, home office
New Berlin’s zoning board will weigh a 10-vehicle sales lot and home office on High Street, a proposal that could shape future commercial use in the borough’s older core.
A proposed vehicle sales lot for no more than 10 vehicles, paired with a home-based office at 222 High Street, will go before the New Berlin Zoning Hearing Board on Monday, June 29, at 6:30 p.m. at the New Berlin Community Center, 318 Vine Street. The request, filed by XAE M. Cheverez-Pagan, seeks a special exception and/or variance under Section 402 of the New Berlin Borough Zoning Ordinance in the borough’s V-2 zoning district.
For neighbors on High Street, the hearing will matter because it is the point where a small business proposal becomes a land-use decision with immediate effects on the block. The board will need to consider how a vehicle sales lot and associated home office fit the surrounding properties, including questions of parking, traffic, customer visits and the intensity of business activity in a district that still includes homes and older borough streets.
New Berlin says zoning is governed by both the ordinance and the zoning map, and the zoning hearing board handles applications for variances and special exceptions. In Pennsylvania, zoning hearing boards are quasi-judicial bodies, which means the June 29 proceeding will turn on whether the applicant can satisfy the ordinance’s standards, not simply on whether nearby residents like or dislike the idea.
The borough’s calendar lists the hearing for the same date and time, underscoring that the proposal is now in the formal public process. Anyone with an interest in the High Street corridor, or in how New Berlin interprets its V-2 district, will have a chance to watch the board consider whether the request advances, comes back with conditions, or is narrowed to fit the local code.
The proposal lands in a borough that is small even by Union County standards. New Berlin says its population was 801 in the 2020 census, and the borough was once the original Union County seat of government before that role moved to Lewisburg. The old courthouse still stands on the Town Square and now houses the New Berlin Post Office and the Courthouse Museum, giving added weight to any discussion about new commercial activity in the borough’s historic core.
A recent zoning notice for another New Berlin property also involved a cat rescue proposal and related parking and utility variances, suggesting the board has recently been asked to evaluate modest, property-specific uses one case at a time. The June 29 hearing will show how far New Berlin is willing to extend that approach on High Street.
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