Which are the best American universities/colleges for observational astronomy?

Out of curiosity: where does this limit of 70 lightyears come from? Exoplanets can be detected to way beyond that. This strikes me as a strangely restrictive limit.

Be that as it may. There are several great astronomy departments in the US, and it really depends on what you want to do exactly. For exoplanets, Harvard would be a great choice. Professor David Charbonneau is a heavy weight in the field.

Similarly, many of the other renowned Universities have good astronomy departments. Yale, for instance, or Berkeley (although since the Geoff Marcy incident I imagine the exoplanet department has taken a hit).

So at this point it is not really a matter of choosing 'the best' University. I suggest you have a look at some papers by the professors at different Universities, to get a sense of what you'd like to work on.

And don't forget: for your research to be fruitful the environment is also very relevant. Just have a look and see what city you'd like to live in.