‘A long time coming.’ State College sets schedule to review new zoning ordinance
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- State College council begins phased review of zoning ordinance through Oct. 20
- Ordinance addresses residential density, downtown zones, and lot size rules
- Council and staff urge public feedback ahead of expected revisions and ordinance adoption
The State College borough council has a busy few weeks ahead of it with several meetings planned to review the new zoning ordinance draft.
The council met on Monday evening and heard an overview of the draft ordinance, years in the making, for the first time since the Planning Commission submitted their recommendations.
State College Planning and Community Development Director Ed LeClear gave a schedule of meetings from now until the end of October and when specific parts of the ordinance will be discussed.
- 7 p.m. Sept. 15: During the regularly scheduled council meeting, the members will receive a presentation on and discuss priority items in the Residential Districts.
- 7 p.m. Sept. 24: In this special work session meeting, the council will hear a summary of the Residential Districts, and move on to priority items in the Downtown and Transitional Districts.
- 7 p.m. Oct. 6: Council will continue reviewing the Downtown and Transitional Districts during this regularly scheduled meeting.
- 7 p.m. Oct. 7: A special work session is scheduled to summarize the feedback received on the Downtown and Transitional Districts.
- 7 p.m. Oct. 8: An optional work session yet if needed to act as a “catch all” discussion.
- 7 p.m. Oct. 20: The council will conclude discussion on any outstanding topics during the regular meeting, and vote on revisions to the ordinance and draft map.
Public comment is taken during the meetings, or feedback on the updated ordinance can be sent to zonestatecollege@statecollegepa.us.
LeClear said it’s a rapid timeline but it will meet the deadline the council put into place when the updating process began. Once the council has its final changes, those will go to the consulting team to revise it. Then the county will review it and the council will likely see it again in February or March.
Staff was also strategic with how they will review the ordinance with the council, starting with residential changes. The downtown districts, especially the transitional zones, were the most challenging for the Planning Commission as they conducted their review over the summer, LeClear said.
“When we talk about the transitional zones, they tend to be the West End, the Mixed Use Districts, some of the Residential 3H, R4, some of the higher density residential districts that are adjacent to downtown,” he said. “It’s really as you move from downtown into our lower density residential neighborhoods, which are pretty much R2.”
When they review residential changes, they will mostly be talking about R1 and R2, and a little bit about R3 and R4, LeClear said. During the Downtown and Transitional meetings, they’ll discuss all of the Downtown Districts and the West End District.
“Right now, if you’re interested in the residential changes, like reducing or eliminating a lot size, duplexes, triplexes, quads, Accessory Dwelling Units, we’ll be laying all that out (Sept. 15). If you’re interested in those downtown districts or the West End and the transitionals, we’ll be initiating that conversation on (Sept. 24),” he said, adding that he expects the Sept. 24 meeting to be long.
The draft includes recommendations from the Planning Commission and Zoning Revision Advisory Committee but the council will have the final say in what is and is not included in the new ordinance.
The council and borough leadership applauded the planning commission and staff’s hard work and effort put into creating and revising the draft. Council member Gopal Balachandran said it is an “incredible day” to be able to discuss the zoning rewrite process and prepare for future discussions.
“I remember when I first got elected onto council, I was told that we would never, ever be able to fix the zoning in the borough. So it’s really exciting,” Balachandran said.
Council member John Hayes addressed the timeline and said some people in the community have questioned why they’re “rushing” through the process, but he pushed back against that narrative. He said the borough first retained Clarion Associates in 2016 to do a review of the zoning and there have been other major steps taken along the way.
“...That Clarion review was done in 2017 and then Council and PC both gave feedback to Clarion in 2018. There were a series of joint meetings in 2020 and 2021, then in 2022 this body put a moratorium on new high density development in reaction to community input over what had happened over the previous decade. And so this is a long time coming,” Hayes said. “This document is not the work product of three or four months. This document is the work product of eight years. And so I really want to highlight that for members of the community.”
Council member Nalini Krishnankutty said there’s a lot of opportunity for public feedback and she, along with staff and other council members, encouraged the public to participate in the process.
“I know we’ve already got the recommendation from Planning Commission and ZRAC, and I’m also looking forward to our residents actually engaging in this process. I believe we have expertise in this town, we have lived experience, and so add the third ‘E’ of engagement, and we can all together get this right. So I hope that engagement will be there,” she said.
The ordinance draft can be viewed online at statecollegepa.us/225/New-Zoning-Ordinance.
