Ferguson Township supervisors OK plan for new 6-story student housing project
A new student housing complex is coming to Ferguson Township, following the unanimous approval Monday night of a final land development plan at the intersection of West College Avenue and Buckhout Street.
The final land development plan for the Aspen Heights student housing complex was submitted earlier this month and proposed a six-story, multi-family 96 unit residential apartment building, with retail and commercial space on the first floor. The building will also include two subsurface floors of parking. Most of the 165 parking spaces on site will be located within the parking structure, though six will be exterior.
A variance was granted by the Ferguson Township Zoning Hearing Board in February 2020 to allow parking on the first floor of the building in lieu of some commercial space, according to the agenda.
Calder Way will be open for the majority of the project, but will be temporarily closed for portions during construction. The contractor will notify property owners who might be inconvenienced and other accommodations may be made.
One change made with the approval of the plan was to modify the hours when deliveries would be allowed. The plan stated it would restrict truck delivery times to occur during off-peak hours, listed at 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., only. Supervisor Laura Dininni questioned this, calling it a “conflict invoker,” as it could interrupt people’s sleep.
“I would like to remove that restriction and do the opposite, I’d actually like to have them not allowed to deliver in the middle of the night. If you go across the street and you look at that house lot, it used to be a fine, functioning grocery, variety store and now is a construction site, basically. The problems that we have coming from that, are trucks going in there when they’re not supposed to in the middle of the night and making noise,” Dininni said.
After much discussion, the board voted unanimously to make that change, so deliveries would be allowed during business hours, except during peak traffic hours, 7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m.
Predominant public access to the complex will be College Avenue with a left turn onto Buckhout Street, a right turn into Calder Way and another right turn into the driveway. People could also continue straight and make a left turn onto Butz Street and a left turn onto Calder.
Part of the project is located in the State College Borough’s Planned Commercial District, and the State College Borough Planning Commission reviewed and recommended approval of the plan in January.
Only one resident, Rhonda Stern, voiced opposition to the project during Monday’s meeting, citing concerns about the foot and car traffic.
