New projects, policies and more: Centre Region managers update business community

Managers of five Centre Region municipalities joined the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County Thursday to provide updates on developments, policies and issues facing their communities.

The Centre Region Municipal Managers Update forum, held at Toftrees Golf Resort, was the first CBICC Voice of Business event of 2026, and featured Patton Township Manager Amy Farkas, College Township Manager Adam Brumbaugh, Ferguson Township interim manager Tom King, Harris Township Manager Mark Boeckel, State College Borough Manager Tom Fountaine and Centre Region Council of Governments Financial Director Kimberly McMullen.

It was the second year CBICC hosted the municipal managers at a Voice of Business event, CBICC President and CEO Greg Scott said.

“We heard from you that it provided valuable, timely insight into the places where you live and work, so we brought it back again this year,” Scott said. “I want to say thank you to our municipal managers. We really appreciate the work do every day.”

Managers covered a number of topics from their respective municipalities, including future zoning code updates, developments, progress in 2025 and more. Below is a look at highlights from each manager’s presentation.

Amy Farkas, Patton Township

Last year was a busy one for Patton Township, and Farkas anticipates 2026 being similar.

One of the major 2025 projects that Farkas highlighted in her presentation was the completion of the township’s short-term rental ordinance.

Approved in May 2025 and enacted a month later, the township’s STR ordinance mandates all STR owners in the township apply for a Centre Region Code Administration rental housing permit, and creates a nuisance point system.

Farkas said that the ordinance will be reviewed again this June to potentially add more regulations like homeowner occupancy requirements, parking mandates and more.

Farkas also spoke about the section of Atherton Street that runs through her township, and how fixing traffic flow and safety issues on the roadway has been, and will continue to be, a “pet project” of hers.

Throughout 2025, the manager lobbied lawmakers in Harrisburg to include Patton Township in a statewide study for communities that could utilize automated street enforcement cameras — and she succeeded.

While traffic-calming efforts for the roadway were completed in 2025, Farkas said that automated speed enforcement would enhance safety on Atherton Street.

“In 2025 we had a fatal accident at the Midas, which is right around the corner from my office, and then one of [the township’s] police officers was actually hit and injured by a drunk driver,” she said. “We need to do something, and getting in the study is a great first start.”

Farkas also mentioned several ongoing developments in her township that will start construction this year, including the Fillmore Market and Café at 2781 Buffalo Run Road, a Cava at the Patton Crossing, the Park Forest Middle School and the Dick’s Sporting Goods location change.

Adam Brumbaugh, College Township

Major developments are expected to take shape in College Township in 2026, starting with the opening of the Happy Valley Casino in April.

In 2025, College Township contracted New Orleans-based Convergence Strategies Group to complete an independent economic and social impact analysis for the casino, which estimated that it would bring 350 jobs to the region, along with an induced earnings impact of nearly $20 million for Centre County and draw about 600,000 annual visitors.

Brumbaugh also said that the casino is expected to annually bring in a combined $150,000 in taxes to the township, $540,000 in taxes to State College Area School District and $60,000 in taxes to the county, along with two roughly $1.2 million payments to the township and county respectively, through a host municipality fee and county fees.

The county’s $1.2 million will be set aside in a pool of money to help other entities across the county fund project that Brumbaugh said is “in the public’s interest” and will “improve the quality of life of citizens of Centre County.”

“The eligible applicants for those funds are municipalities, the county, redevelopment authorities, economic development agencies and councils of government,” he said. “There are a number of different statewide pools that have the same type of dedicated funding source from their licensed casinos and the local municipalities and other agencies make very good use of.”

Aside from the casino, Brumbaugh highlighted three construction projects that will start, or continue, work this year — the PAM Health rehabilitation hospital, Penn State’s Applied Research Lab and the Clearwater Conservancy’s Hamer Community Conservation Center.

Brumbaugh also mentioned an ongoing zoning rewrite, which by the end of 2026 will change all the township’s zoning codes from traditional to form-based — a format that allows for, and encourages, mixed-used areas in parcels and subdivisions.

This zoning change has already led to an uptick of developments in the Shiloh Road corridor and Dale Summit area, with several projects like the Crew 814 planned residential development, a Home2Suites by Hilton and more starting or continuing construction there this year.

Tom King, Ferguson Township

King, who began his term as the Ferguson Township interim manager on Jan. 7, said that 2026 will be a “transitional year” for the municipality, starting with the search for a permanent manager.

The manager’s position has been vacant since Jan. 6, when former manager Centrice Martin’s contract with the township ran out. Earlier this month, the township launched a community impact survey to gather resident feedback on what characteristics, skills and leadership qualities they’d like to see in the next manager. The survey closes on Feb. 3.

The township aims to appoint a permanent manager by July 1, King said, which will be followed by a six-to 12-month training and acclamation period.

The township is also looking to transition to an improved financial situation, as 2026 marks the sixth straight year that it’s had a structurally imbalanced budget.

In December, the township’s supervisors and staff committed to working toward decreasing costs and increasing revenues in 2026, although King did not mention any specifics Thursday, and added that process of attaining financial stability in the township could take “four to five years.”

King said another township goal is greater organizational stability, as the township lost several employees last year. He’d like to bolster the township’s staff, which he said is young in terms of both tenure and age, with new hires in necessary positions, although he noted that not every position needed to be filled with salaried employees.

King specifically noted the township’s current engineering situation — at one point the township employed four engineers, but now only employs one. This change has led to the township contracting out some of its engineering work, which he said has yielded unexpectedly positive results.

“We have found contracting out with [engineering] firms to be not only fiscally better, but also to be providing a level of service that is needed, and we’ve really not seen a drop at all in our output and quality of the work being done,” King said.

Aside from gaining financial and organization stability though, King also noted that his township was looking to do a complete zoning code rewrite to upgrade out-of-date codes, and that two planned residential housing developments — Foxpointe and Landings — could move forward with their development plans and break ground this year too.

Mark Boeckel, Harris Township

While 2025 wasn’t a busy developmental year for Harris Township, Boeckel said that it was a busy year for zoning and ordinance improvements, which was highlighted by the completion of the township’s short-term rental ordinance.

The ordinance was approved in December, and includes a 120-night cap on overnight stays, a mandate that STR owners obtain a CRCA permit, parking restrictions, a homeowner occupancy mandate and more.

Boeckel hopes to focus on overhauling and rewriting the township’s transient retail merchant license ordinance, which requires people conducting door-to-door sales, food trucks and other temporary vendors who set up at events in the township to obtain a permit.

“Our ordinance that we have is quite old,” Boeckel said. “It had been updated a little bit a couple years ago, but the board is interested in doing a comprehensive rewrite of that.”

In addition to the zoning rewrite, the manager also anticipates the township creating two new zoning districts for Boalsburg village in 2026.

One of the districts would encompass the Boalsburg town square and extend down the village’s Main Street to encapsulate all of its non-residential properties, and the second district would take up the remainder of Main Street and other adjacent residential streets.

Some smaller development projects are also planned this year, including an overhaul of Boalsburg’s sidewalk network, the installation of a pedestrian crossing on Boal Avenue at the intersection of Old Boalsburg Road and the Pennsylvania Military Museum and the construction of two ADA accessible fishing piers and pathway at Tussey Pond Park.

Tom Fountaine, State College Borough

Much like Ferguson Township, Fountaine said that State College Borough is focusing on greater financial stability this year.

The 2026 budget marks the sixth consecutive structurally imbalanced budget, and while it includes an increase of two mills, that increase pales in comparison to the originally-proposed eight-mill increase.

“We’re going to be spending, in 2026, a lot of time looking at how we can change things,” Fountaine said. “Whether they’re changes in service levels that we provide, whether there are other revenue opportunities that are available, whether it’s fee structure changes.”

To bring in more revenue, Fountaine would like to explore ordinances that allow for the borough to receive revenue from the purchase of alcohol sales as well as and sales tax from hotels. Currently, only the county receives money from hotel sales taxes, not the borough.

The borough will also continue a comprehensive zoning rewrite in 2026. The borough’s most recent zoning update came around 60 years ago, Fountaine said.

The zoning rewrite will focus on recalibrating uses in the downtown zoning districts, which could include removing second floor commercial zoning and reducing residential parking minimums to allow for increased housing opportunities in the borough. Fountaine expects the rewrite to be complete around May.

Additionally, Fountaine added that the parking garages on McAllister and Pugh streets will undergo revisions that will see their lifespans increase by “eight to 10 years,” and that work will continue on revisions of the borough’s traffic-calming, Complete Streets and Vision Zero policies, which are all aimed at increasing pedestrian safety.

In terms of developments, there were several that Fountaine noted would continue or start in 2026, including the The Retreat along Westerly Parkway, The Mark along College Avenue, Greystar’s on-campus housing project, the Nittany Residence Club along Beaver Avenue and The Encore along Beaver Avenue, which would be built at the Addison Court site.

Fountaine also noted that the State College Action Sports Park, also known as High Point Skatepark, is set to open on April 3.