Two proposed school projects in Palmerton and Lehighton need more time, officials said.

For a second month in a row, the Carbon County Planning Commission approved an extension of the plans for a proposed new elementary center in Lehighton.On Tuesday, at the request of the engineers for the project, which calls for building a 100,000-square-foot center that houses kindergarten through fifth grades on 83.83 acres of land near the current Lehighton Area High School, the commission approve a 90-day review time extension from yesterday.Ivan O. Meixell Jr., county planner, said a couple of areas need to be addressed. The Lehighton Water Authority and Lehighton Sewer Authority have been reviewed and approved but documentation supporting the approval have not been sent yet.The commission is also still waiting on the Carbon County Conservation District review and approval before it can recommend conditional approval to the borough.Meixell said a revised set of plans will be submitted.Last month, the planning commission voted to approve a 60-day extension request, but that request would expire three days before the group's next meeting, Rob Walsh, engineer for EI Associates, said Tuesday.He added that the Lehighton Planning Commission approved the request last week.In other school improvement matters, the county planning commission, on the request of the Palmerton Area School District's engineer Barry Isett and Associates Inc., tabled any recommendation of the proposed $21 million junior/senior high school campus improvement project.Meixell read a letter from the engineer that stated that they will be attending the upcoming Lower Towamensing Township Zoning Hearing Board meeting, which has not yet been scheduled, to request zoning variances for the project."After such meeting is held, we anticipate resubmitting the plans to the county and townships and borough and we request to come before the Carbon County Planning Commission after resubmission has been made," the letter stated.Meixell said the reason for the request is because there are approximately 22 zoning issues with the plan.According to articles previously published in the Times News, the project calls for an addition to the existing junior/senior high school, changing over the track and football field area to a synthetic turf, installing a visitor bleacher section, building a new softball field, rehabilitating the parking areas and various other improvements in the schools to improve safety and security of the students.