CVS Looks To Build New Store On Ponderosa Site

CVS Caremark Corporation is looking to replace the Ponderosa Steakhouse in State College with a 13,225-square-foot drug store.

The proposed project would demolish the longstanding restaurant at 1630 S. Atherton St. and start from scratch, according to a preliminary plan filed this month with State College officials. The new drug-store construction would include a drive-through service window and some parking.

Calls left this week with the CVS and Ponderosa companies were not immediately answered. The Ponderosa property is owned by Nicholas, Heim and Kissinger Associates, which could not be reached immediately, either.

CVS has yet to submit a detailed land-development plan for borough review, said Herman Slaybaugh, the State College zoning officer. The preliminary plan will require a borough zoning waiver if it’s to proceed, he said, because it would put new construction within a buffer zone along Slab Cabin Run.

The 85-foot buffer zone, established by the borough in the mid-1990s, is meant to be planted with shrubs and trees that filter urban runoff and prevent waterway pollution.

Because the existing restaurant pre-dates the buffer-zone rule, it has been exempt from the provision. But any new development on the site would need to comply — unless the borough grants a waiver, Slaybaugh said.

The tentative CVS plans would put some new development within 37 feet of the waterway. Parking at Ponderosa now comes within 36 feet.

But the total paved area at the site, according to the CVS plans, would be 3,721 square feet — down from the current 4,274 square feet. The restaurant building itself, more than two decades old, covers another 5,600 square feet.

The borough Zoning Hearing Board is scheduled to review the matter at a noon meeting on May 25. The public meeting will be held in the borough municipal building, 243 S. Allen St.