Palmerton Borough will not grant a couple’s request to vacate a portion of First Street from Harvard Avenue to Alley L. following a 4-2 vote from borough council Thursday night.

The denial comes one month after council tabled the request from Ryan and Valerie Heimbach who own two lots, one on either side of First Street, that have been vacant for decades.

“You never really know what the future can hold,” Councilman Andrew Hollywood said before voting no along with Holly Sell, Terry Costenbader and Michael Ballard. “We might regret losing that property for future connections.”

While not at the meeting Thursday, the Heimbachs told council last month there would be no impact to property owners, and that the couple may possibly look to build another home down the road for their children.

Over the course of the past month, Palmerton heard from its engineer, Eric Snyder, who said he didn’t view that portion of First Street as “super critical, but you never know what might come up down the road.”

Councilmen Kris Hoffner and Richard Nothstein voted in favor of vacating the section.

“Center Street is completely open and could be used to handle any utilities or infrastructure in the future,” Hoffner said. “My other concern is that there are some areas of First Street there that are narrow to begin with.”

Nothstein said vacating the street would get that parcel back on the tax roll and eliminate it from being a borough liability.

“There are some pluses to doing this,” he said.

The engineer’s letter, Sell said, was inconclusive as far as a recommendation leading her to yield to those who planned the borough many years ago.

“When the borough was initially created and mapped out, it was well-planned,” she said. “We are still seeing that in all the infrastructure underground. Every time it’s opened up, our employees are in awe of how well things were done. If they put that part of First Street on paper, they envisioned a possible need for it.”