Centre County residents feel misled about State College Area Connector Project. Here’s why
During a nearly two hour meeting Tuesday night, Harris and Potter township supervisors heard from many residents who had concerns about the State College Area Connector project.
Bruce Lord, chair of the Harris Township Supervisors, said he had two goals in mind when he suggested setting up a joint meeting with the Potter Township Supervisors. He wanted to hear the concerns so they could send a letter to the state Department of Transportation, but he also encouraged people to work together.
“The other thing is to encourage you as a group to find a way to communicate with each other over the course of this project,” Lord said. “I think we want to speak as one voice, not, ‘I win, you lose,’ … but rather support our neighbors, and try to keep together on this.”
He and other residents said they felt misled by PennDOT when it comes to the long-planned project.
“I don’t think that PennDOT’s been very straightforward with us. They’ve been disingenuous about what they intended to do. Hell, they called it the State College Area Connector, where did you think it was gonna go?” Lord said.
The top concerns brought up by the nearly 20 people who spoke revolved around safety and properties being taken or decreasing home values. And many spoke against a proposed connector between state Route 45 and U.S. Route 322.
Pat MacFarlane lives in the Hidden Lake community along state Route 45 in Potter Township, near the proposed connector. He and other residents of that community said the connector was a surprise, as they said it didn’t seem to be part of any of the original potential routes. Jake Tanis, whose property runs along the area, said he had no previous knowledge of it either.
Another Hidden Lake resident, Greg Blaszczak, said they were told by PennDOT that the connector was always a possibility and was marked by a dot on the maps.
If road improvements aren’t planned for state Route 45, MacFarlane said having a connector road there is dangerous. The proposed connector would be in an area with less than ideal sight distance. Ben LaParne, of Potter Township, said the vertical curve that’s there now is “substandard” for the 55 mph speed limit and doesn’t meet PennDOT’s vertical curve sight distance requirements.
“We don’t need traffic detouring off of 322, off the four lane, going on to 45, adding additional traffic, adding additional accidents, fatalities,” LaParne said.
Multiple school buses travel that area and turn around near the proposed connector road, and several residents brought up concerns about their children’s safety.
Jeanine Page said the connector road could decrease property values, too.
“Homes are an investment, the biggest investment I’ve ever made. I’m a single mom, like, that’s what I got. So that’s a real concern,” Page said. “My water is a concern, how is the connector road going to affect the private well, what is that going to do to my water?”
A website and petition has been created to learn more about why neighbors are opposing the connector road, www.no45connector.com.
For some living along Route 322, their houses and farms could be wiped out by the project. All of the potential routes go through Lynn Darlington’s Potter Township farm, she said.
Harris Township resident Keith McElhinney lives at the base of Tussey Mountain and said Route 322 is basically his backyard. He built his house specifically to address personal and business needs; he’s been living in it for five years.
His house will probably be “taken” by the project, McElhinney said. Even if the state gave him fair market value for his house, he said buying another house would cost a lot more due to higher mortgage rates.
“My loan will cost $500,000 more over the course of 30 years. What are they (PennDOT) going to do about that? I have a 2.3% interest rate. It’s now 7%. Every single person who’s going to have their house taken, it’s going to bankrupt you,” McElhinney said.
“I will never recover,” he said.
Some residents suggested they band together and hire a lawyer, and start looking into different things that could at least pause the project, like wildlife conservation or other environmental impacts.
Some Penn State students are using the State College Area Connector project as a case study with Dan Marriott, associate professor of landscape architecture. Marriott said the students are looking at the whole project. He said they’ll look at if the roadway includes bike and pedestrian access, if it’s created with materials that reflect the local landscape, and how big and fast it has to be.
More information can be found on the Centre County Historical Society’s website, centrehistory.org/research-explore/connector.
“It’s not just about what’s going to happen in the next 10 years, it’s about what’s going to happen to the really unique, rural landscape that we have,” Mary Sorensen, executive director of the Centre County Historical Society, said.
PennDOT plans more public meetings on the State College Area Connector Study on Oct. 19 and 20 at the Mount Nittany Middle School in Boalsburg.
Project background
The goal of the SCAC project is to improve a 13-mile stretch of U.S. Route 322 from the Seven Mountains to State College. The highway handles about 15,000 vehicles daily and is expected to see a 27% increase in annual average daily traffic by 2050, while daily truck volume is expected to increase by 31%.
Previously, there were nine possible routes that the state Department of Transportation were exploring through its planning and environmental linkage study. A report released by PennDOT in September ruled out two-thirds of the potential options and identified three routes that should move forward for further study.
All three routes would bring the State College Area Connector project through the U.S. Route 322 corridor. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s report in its current state did not recommend moving forward with any of the three routes that would have run through the state Route 144 corridor.
The project has been on the drawing board for nearly two decades, but was abandoned in 2004 when funding was pulled by the federal government. Gov. Tom Wolf announced during a 2019 press conference that funding would come from the state.
This story was originally published October 5, 2022 at 2:04 PM.
