Place in Planning: Great Places 2021 Award Winner – Lehigh Parkway, Allentown PA

June’s feature of a Place in Planning is the 2021 Great Places in PA Award Winner Lehigh Parkway, located in Allentown PA. Great Places are unique, memorable places that display a wealth of best practices in community planning, serve as a community focal point, and strengthen the local economy. They also demonstrate the rewarding results that occur through planning, partnerships, and community engagement.

Lehigh Parkway in Allentown and neighboring Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, is a 542-acre linear greenway along the Little Lehigh Creek connecting the urbanized areas of the two communities. Popular attractions are fishing and disc golf plus, with over six miles of trails, walkers, bikers, runners, and horseback riders are frequent users. Multiple trail heads are available to access the trails and adjacent activity centers. The Parkway showcases the area’s history through stone bank barns, an 1841 covered bridge, and the Museum of Indian Culture, as well as interpretive signage and historic markers. It also has “green” features to protect the environment. Numerous events, attracting thousands of visitors, are annually hosted in the Parkway. This regional hub for outdoor recreation is an economic driver and there is a strong commitment to sustain it through partnerships and philanthropic efforts.