Plans for new hotel planned on former Autoport property in State College raise traffic concerns
Members of the State College Planning Commission and the community have traffic and development concerns with a planned extended-stay hotel on part of the property that houses the former Autoport motel.
A 122-room Home 2 Suites by Hilton, with eight residential apartments, is proposed for a 2.6-acre parcel at 1450 S. Atherton St. that sits adjacent to the buildings that housed the former motel and restaurant.
Planning Commission members raised concerns on Wednesday that the location of the planned hotel’s entrance could cause traffic congestion on South Atherton Street — particularly on Penn State football home game days.
The project proposes demolition of the two vacant office buildings, but the former Autoport restaurant and adjacent motel building will not be part of the project.
“There are actually five different parcels that will be involved with this project,” said John Sepp, project engineer with PennTerra. “Three of the parcels have buildings on them, two of them are vacant office buildings. One behind Talbots and one to the east of Talbots. And a single-family home that’s actually in the R-2 zone that would be located in the northeast end of the project.”
The parking lot, located toward the back of the parcel, will contain 134 spaces. Included in the count are nine spaces for the residential apartments’ tenants. The eight residential units — with one inclusionary housing unit — will be clustered at the back of the building, next to the parking lot. They will have a separate entrance.
Nate Loeffelholz, architect and executive director of Base 4 Architects and Engineers headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, said Home 2 Suites are “one of the fastest-growing Hilton products right now.”
The 79,656-square-foot building will have a fitness center, conference and meeting rooms, a large lobby and provide free breakfast to guests, he said. The rooms, most of which are suites, are designed to hold large groups of people typical of visiting sports teams, tourists and alumni who come back to State College.
The hotel entrance, he said, will be accessed off South Atherton Street, directly across from Norma Street. Since the parking lot is located at the back of the hotel, guests and tenants will have to use one of the loops built around the hotel to get to the parking lot.
Planning Commission member Scott Dutt said that the access loops from the hotel’s entrance to the parking lot are too narrow, and on Penn State football game days, vehicle backups in the loops could cause queuing on South Atherton Street.
Other planning commission members echoed those concerns, and suggested changing the loops and creating dedicated loading zones for guests checking in at the front desk to minimize congestion. In addition, two community members criticized the lack of setbacks and buffers on the property that might keep the development from encroaching on area neighborhoods.
Loeffelholz said the size and shape of the parcel would prove challenging to move the hotel’s entrance to the back near the parking lot. He acknowledged the loops are designed narrow to fit in the space, and that there wasn’t much to be done about it.
“Given the community concern, we could hope to go slow on this,” Planning Commission chair Zoe Boniface said. She said concerned residents could meet with borough Planning Department staff prior to the next meeting to have any further questions or concerns addressed.
Upon learning that the hotel would not be built to LEED standards, Planning Commission member Jon Eich requested a copy of Home 2 Suites’ sustainability statement.
The next Planning Commission meeting is set for 7 p.m. March 19.
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 3:53 PM.
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