Looking to encourage growth, College Township recently contracted 4ward Planning and Simone Collins Landscape Architects to complete a study of general industrial and commercial zoning districts and provide recommendations for modification. The planning commission recently started to review the document. which includes a potential new zoning overlay for the area surrounding the Nittany Mall.
“I believe that the product we received was a great piece work,’ township manager Adam Brumbaugh said at the Aug. 6 planning commission meeting. ‘I think they did a great job with the market analysis. I think their partnership with the firm Simone Collins proved to be very beneficial because I think they gave us some good recommendations in terms of the information that they see based upon the information at hand, on how we might move forward as a township.”
The planning commission will review the nearly 200-page document before it presents any recommendations to the township council.
“Where I think that ultimately the planning commission needs to get to is using the report, using the proposal from Simone Collins and basically making a recommendation at the end of the day back to College Township council about something, whether that is to move forward with the proposal as written, or perhaps to request council to have the proposal revamped or some other type of recommendation,” Brumbaugh said.
Included in the zoning recommendations is a Nittany Town Center Overlay District around the Nittany Mall. The report said, “College Township needs to prepare for the likely decline in retail sales at the Nittany Mall and provide viable, marketable options for property owners to redevelop lands in the area in a response to College Township’s needs and market force. An overlay district will be developed that leaves existing, underlying zoning in place and gives additional options for the development or redevelopment of these areas.”
“A Nittany Town Center Overlay District would help redevelop the mall and surrounding area into more market viable uses.”
Others recommendations include revisiting the workforce housing special provision ordinance; revisions to the College Avenue and Benner Pike Corridor Overlay District; and adding new or revised zoning definitions among other zoning changes.
“We want development; we want development that improves quality of life. We don’t want something that is just a bunch of buildings and traffic congestion,” said planning commission member William Shaffer.
A copy of the report is available on the township website.
