Hundreds attend State College Area Connector meeting after reveal of recommended route

Nearly 400 people attended a public scoping meeting Thursday to ask questions and learn more about the State College Area Connector project, sharing a mixed bag of reactions to the project and its recently-announced recommended route.

The meeting, which was held in an open house format at the Wyndham Garden State College, took place after the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced its route recommendation Monday for the long-planned, multi-million dollar project.

Out of three possible routes, the central alternative route was recommended — the option that, while causing the smallest impact to property owners, would still displace 16 residences, and affect 19 farms, two businesses and one park.

For the most part, the recommended route would run just south of the existing U.S. Route 322 in Potter and Harris townships, with the exception of a stretch roughly between Bamboo Lane and Tait Road. That section would see construction north of the existing highway.

The project is estimated to cost anywhere between $600 million and $900 million, a PennDOT representative told the CDT in a recent email.

Residents share concerns, fears

Despite PennDOT saying that the recommended route would also have smallest total effect on agricultural land and four historic properties — while also avoiding the Tusseyville historic district — many of the 390 people who attended the meeting still have concerns about the route and the project as a whole.

“To be honest, I’m one of the people that doesn’t believe there should be any new construction here,” said Penns Valley area resident Nancy Parks, who said there should be greater efforts taken to slow traffic down on the existing roadway. “All this highway is going to bring is more mortality and more accidents. ... I want to see more traffic lights installed.”

Parks also expressed concerns about the project causing more air pollution and harming farmlands that she believes are must-keep necessities for Centre County’s ever-growing population.

Harris Township resident Jeff Davidson agreed.

“There seems to be this sense that just because we have a big road in one place, and a big road in another, we have to connect them — but I really don’t think we have to,” Davidson said, referring to the spots where Route 322 turns into a two-lane highway, near Boalsburg and Potters Mills. “State College is not Detroit, and we certainly don’t need a road here that’s as big as they ones they’re looking to take out of Detroit.”

Residents also raised concerns about increased noise in the area, both from the construction and future highway traffic.

Harris Township resident Janet Swim is fearful that the road’s closer proximity to her house will cause greater disturbances, as is Debra Shearer, who lives in the housing development on Bear Meadows Lane — one of the developments that would be impacted by the project’s construction.

Shearer is also worried that the highway’s construction would cut into the property of one of her close friends — an impact that, she fears, would “probably force her, and several other friends, to move out of the neighborhood.”

Centre County Commissioner Steve Dershem said that even now, after the route recommendation, changes to the route could potentially still be made that could change the way properties are affected.

“Obviously, and unfortunately, there are some folks here that are quite saddened by the fact that they may lose their properties, that they may have their have their lives turned inside out — but I’m not sure how you can do a project of this magnitude, and not impact someone,” Dershem said. “I think at the very least, PennDOT has been pretty open to discussing the alternative, and I’m sure there’s going to be some tweaks to this route before everything is said and done too. It certainly isn’t the end of this, but it is a decent start.”

Dershem does have concerns about the small size of the project’s planned roundabouts, and the dozen-plus bridges that are part of the project.

“You and I both know what happens to bridges in the wintertime — they freeze over. I’m hoping that [PennDOT] acts accordingly and services the bridges so that they’re all as safe as possible for winter,” Dershem said.

A long-awaited project moves forward

While many residents at Thursday’s meeting were there in opposition to the project, some said they were excited to see the project moving forward.

Edward Stoddard, the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau’s communication director, believes that the connector project will benefit the county’s tourism industry.

“I think that what they’ve got here is pretty good so far,” Stoddard said. “The route takes into consideration two of our county’s crucial tourism locations, Tussey Mountain and Tait Farms, so [HVAB] was pretty pleased to see that.”

With the recommended route, a local access road will be built alongside Route 322 that’ll link Bear Meadow Lane, the road that Tussey Mountain is located on, with another to-be-built local access road. A bridge on Route 322 will be constructed over the road.

Tait Farm will remain located along Boal Avenue, relatively untouched by the project, aside from its increased proximity to the route.

Michael Emel, the owner of the Nittany Meadow Farm — which won Centre County’s “Tourist Attraction of the Year” award in 2024 — is also pleased to see the project moving forward, even though the recommended route cuts off a piece of his farmland.

“I feel very strongly that it needs to be done, and I’m really glad that they’re doing it, although it will take a large portion near the frontage of our property that we use to pasture our animals,” Emel said. “Right now, (Route 322) is a really dangerous stretch of highway, and in January we actually had a tractor trailer crash into our pasture and cause an diesel spill, so I hope the project will mitigate some of that. ... You can replace land, but you can’t replace lives.”

According to PennDOT, the project’s planned eight-mile, four lane highway would improve safety and reduce congestion by diverting about half of total traffic and nearly three-fourths of truck traffic from local roads.

Moving forward from Thursday’s meeting, PennDOT will continue to collect public feedback until May 18, when the department will then begin to prepare a draft environmental impact study that will lead to a hearing for the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Once the study is finalized, the FHWA will have an opportunity to sign off on the project and close out the environmental investigations.

From there, the project could get the green light to move into the final engineering design phase, which is slated to begin in mid-2026 and continue until the end of 2029.

That would be followed by right-of-way acquisition, a process that has the potential to become messy and end up in the court system for several years.

Construction would then follow in 2030, which PennDOT expects would take around six years to complete — given that all other steps are completed as planned.