Four developers of major parcels along Shiloh Road are working with local officials and PennDOT on a coordinated plan for accommodating a significant increase in traffic that is expected to accompany growth in the corridor in the coming years.
The Shiloh Road Corridor Development Partnership is a collaborative effort among the developers for planning and financing what is anticipated to be about $6 million in transportation improvements needed on the road between the I-99 interchange and Trout Road in College and Benner townships, College Township Assistant Manager Mike Bloom said at the township council meeting on Thursday.
As of now, the financing plan does not include any money from College or Benner townships. It would use developer contributions, grant money and PennDOT funding.
“This is something you don’t see very often in the world of land development and particularly in transportation infrastructure development,” Bloom said.
“This is pretty innovative and creative to see four developers and PennDOT at the table at the same time working together to develop a corridor-wide plan to accommodate this type of growth and development in two municipalities… Oftentimes, you see it’s kind of an incremental build towards transportation improvements. This is contemplating the whole package at one time,” he later added.
Renewed development interest in the corridor is centered on four large tracts totaling about 220.5 acres. Plans for those parcels at full buildout— two of which have been extensively discussed in public and two of which are less clear — could more than triple daily average trips on Shiloh Road from the current 13,250 to an estimated 44,074.
Those developments will be built out over years — potentially a decade or more — and Township Manager Adam Brumbaugh said the traffic increase won’t happen overnight.
“This is going to take a significant period of time,” Brumbaugh said. “No one’s going from 13,000 trips a day to 44,000 trips a day quickly. And so I think that’s an important perspective to keep. These improvements are going to be put in place to be able to accommodate, eventually, the 44,000. But when those improvements are put in place, road volumes will not be 44,000 cars a day, and won’t be for some time until all of that development occurs.”
Council President Eric Bernier called 44,000 “a scary number” and said that he appreciates the coordinated planning.
“I sure as heck wouldn’t want to be sitting in this seat and trying to accommodate 44,000 cars a day through individual land development plan processes,” Bernier said. “First of all, it would be a mess as you’re going through it. Maybe you get lucky, and maybe in the end you get it built out to accommodate that. Maybe, if you’re real lucky.”
WHAT DEVELOPMENTS ARE PLANNED
College Township has already approved plans for the first phases of developments on two of the tracts.
Construction began earlier this year for a four-story, 115-room Home2 Suites by Hilton on the Maxwell property at the intersection of Shiloh and East Trout roads. Future phases are expected to create four more commercial lots further back on the property, though no plans have been formally submitted for those and at a groundbreaking in November 2024 property owner Ed Maxwell said no specific projects had been identified.
Across the street on the west side of Shiloh Road, council on Thursday approved the final planned residential development plan for phase one of Burkentine Builders’ major residential development on the 48-acre Rogers property.
The first phase, for which construction is expected to begin in 2026, will include 197 units in 64 fee-simple townhomes, 55 rental townhomes and two three-story apartment buildings, one with 42 units and one with 36 units. The second phase of the project will construct three apartment building with a total of 432 units and includes a 6.4-acre commercial lot. Burkentine currently anticipates submitting plans for phase two in 2028, and it will be built out in multiple sub-phases over a period of years.
Further north on the west side of Shiloh Road, Ferris Land Development acquired a 44-acre tract in Benner Township earlier this year for $7.88 million.
Ron Ferris, who is facilitating the corridor development partnership and is CEO of Bobby Rahal Automotive Group, approached the State College Area School Board in 2023 to gauge interest in a potential tax abatement program for a development of the property that would include two car dealerships and other unspecified commercial business — though he suggested at the time it might include a big box store.
While there has been little public discussion of the project since then, Bloom said Benner Township “is aware of a development proposal” for the Ferris property, and the presentation noted that it would generate the largest number of new vehicle trips of the planned developments on Shiloh Road.
Less is publicly known about plans for the 120-acre Clair tract at the northeast end of Shiloh Road in Benner and College townships.
“There’s been a lot of speculation as to what could potentially happen out there and we’re starting to get some idea based on what what’s here, or at least what they’re contemplating based on what’s been put together here,” Bloom said.
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENTS
Based on traffic engineering studies, the planning projects a need for three new traffic signals and multiple right- and left-turn lane improvements.
The potential Ferris property development is estimated to result in 11,984 average daily trips, about 27% of the total for the corridor, while across the road the Clair property could generate 6,436, or 15%.
Improvements in that area between I-99 and Spring Valley Road would include a new traffic signal, new right and left turn lanes on Shiloh and Spring Valley and a new westbound approach from the Clair property.
In the area of the Burkentine development, which will generate 6,942 average daily trips, or 16%, improvements would include another traffic signal, right and left turn lanes on Shiloh and a new eastbound approach from the development.
At Trout Road in the area of the Maxwell property, which is expected to generate 5,462 daily trips, or 12%, improvements would include a traffic signal and right and left turn lanes from the north and south on Shiloh.
Each developer would contribute based on their percentage of average daily trips. In total, the developers would pay $2,057,430, or 35% of the estimated $5,852,430 total cost. A Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development would cover $2.7 million, or 46%. The remainder would be funded by PennDOT.
While PennDOT has not committed to anything, Brumbaugh said the department “seems to be very much on board with this overall concept. That is highly unusual.”
“One thing I think is fair to contemplate if I’m PennDOT is I’m looking at $5.9 million worth of improvements on my system at the cost of $1.1 million for PennDOT,” Bloom added.
The developers have a similar advantage in taking a collective approach.
“You’re crowdsourcing, essentially, a total pool of $5.9 million and you’re buying a share of it, which would be less than if you went by yourself to do it,” Bloom said.
“This is an opportunity cost for them. They’re purchasing the infrastructure investment ahead of time at a lower cost in partnership with PennDOT and through grants to basically ready-made a corridor so when their land developments come along in the future, we’re not really talking about [traffic impact studies] anymore.”
WHAT’S NEXT
While the plan does not currently call for the townships to contribute funding, Bloom said College Township does have about $125,000 in capital reserve funds earmarked for a new
signal immediately south of the development area at the intersection of Shiloh Road and Dreibelbis Street/Premiere Drive. The township also received two $100,000 Department of Community and Economic Development grants for transportation improvements in the Shiloh Road corridor, and a use for those grant funds has not yet been identified.
Whether or not College Township contributes money directly to the financing plan, it will be heavily involved in the process, Brumbaugh said.
“We are going to be very much involved because we’re going to be the holder of all of these funds. We’re going to have the responsibility for design and we’re going to have a responsibility for bidding and we’re going to have the responsibility to ensure the construction is done and the inspection is done,” Brumbaugh said. “So there are obligations on the part of the township here that don’t necessarily directly translate into some of the costs that you’re seeing here in that total. A lot of them would be part and parcel of that, but the township does play a very significant role in this overall process.”
College and Benner townships will also need to reach an intergovernmental cooperation agreement or memorandum of understanding to coordinate a variety of issues, Brumbaugh said.
College Township Council is expected hear more about the corridor planning in the coming months.
The developers also will be requesting a joint meeting with College and Benner townships and their solicitors to review a draft Shiloh Corridor Transportation Agreement, Bloom said. The agreement would include each developer, both municipalities and PennDOT and would identify the roles, responsibilities and contributions of each.
“You don’t see this very often. This is proactive transportation planning on steroids,” Bernier said. “You know, municipalities might take little bites. We’ve taken little bites at that…. This is big time, though. This is big time transportation planning.”
