Still time for Toll Bros. to get it right

I came across an interesting article about another Toll Brothers development here in Pennsylvania. It stated: “After more than a year of debate, Westtown Township Supervisors voted Thursday night to deny Toll Brothers its application to build a 317-unit housing development on Crebilly Farm, a 322-acre Chester County parcel that many have argued has ties to the Revolutionary War.” Such a decision gives me hope that the proposed development along Whitehall Road here in State College might also not come to pass. Unfortunately, Toll Brothers is much further along in the development process here and the only chance for the development not to proceed is for Toll Brothers itself to do the right thing, listen to the collective voice of a large majority of the community and choose not to build on this environmentally sensitive piece of land.

At one point there was hope that our community had a partner in Penn State, the owner of the property, in trying to find a more suitable location for this student housing development. That hope has now vanished as PSU has made it clear it never intended to listen to the voice of the protest groups nor to anyone else that might impede there multimillion dollar land sale.

As a for-profit company, we can only hope Toll Brothers takes into account its long-term viability as responsible developer in our town and, unlike Penn State, works with and not against our town.

This story was originally published January 15, 2018 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Still time for Toll Bros. to get it right."