Council effectively pauses more student high-rises in downtown State College. What to know
After several meetings filled with debate, State College Borough Council voted Monday to effectively pause the planning of more high-rise student apartment complexes downtown.
The ordinance that passed by a 5-2 vote is more nuanced than simply allowing or disallowing 12-story high-rises. But it would essentially roll back zoning that allowed for more student apartments and less commercial space, disallowing higher-density housing like The Maxxen while still permitting high-rises like Fraser Centre with 40% commercial space — which developers will most likely not pursue.
In other words, Monday’s vote will almost certainly pause the planning for additional high-rises downtown. Council expressed a desire that the pause not be permanent, but simply act as a place-holder while the borough and council best decide on the “recipe” for what the high-rises should look like in the future. Less commercial space? More inclusionary housing? Something else?
“I personally feel we want as much housing as we can get, like everyone said, but zoning is not a static thing,” Mayor Ezra Nanes, who is not a voting member of council, said prior to Monday night’s vote. “And this council will be held accountable for its actions or lack of action on this important matter. And there is a lot of development — we’ve seen a wave of development — and it’s been great. But if the council takes no action, there will be more. And there may be some outcomes that the community is upset about.”
Borough council appeared to reach a consensus on the issue during a work session last week, after listening to a presentation from planning director Ed LeClear. In it, LeClear showed that more than 200,000 square feet of commercial space — equivalent to little more than a Walmart Supercenter — sits vacant in the high-rises.
Further magnifying that problem is the fact the vacant space remains in “grey shell” condition, meaning the spaces have unfinished floors, bare stud walls and no plumbing or electrical. Even the borough isn’t entirely sure why the high-rises have operated that way — maybe tax breaks? — but LeClear estimated it would conservatively cost $30 million to fix up those spaces. (And that doesn’t include the expense of leasing.)
The borough has partnered with a number of organizations to come up with options to counter that problem. And it’s aiming to present some publicly by next year.
“We need to figure this out before, I think, we can build any more of these things,” Council President Jesse Barlow said.
Although Monday’s vote should effectively deter the future building of downtown high-rises, most council members said they didn’t expect the change to be permanent. Most simply expressed a desire to pause future high-rise development to prevent another 12-story building from going up with empty storefronts — at least until council passes a broader zoning revision and/or identifies solutions involving the vacant commercial spaces.
Monday’s vote cannot stop the construction of oLiv State College at East College Avenue and Hetzel Street and, because plans were submitted to the borough prior to the vote, it will not prevent the future construction of The Mark at East College Avenue and Sowers Street. However, there are two or three remaining areas downtown that could’ve seen additional high-rises — potentially displacing businesses like McClanahan’s and Americana House apartments — and the vote should prevent high-rise development there. At least for now.
Council members Gopal Balachandran and Janet Engeman were the two dissenting votes.
“We’re not stopping student housing. We’re not stopping that,” Councilman Peter Marshall added about the pause. “We’re discouraging 12-story student housing.”
