State College, Ferguson Township Come Together to Improve West College Avenue Corridor

A heavily trafficked stretch of West College Avenue just past downtown State College is not in the best shape.

Sidewalks are quite narrow, where they exist at all.

Property setbacks from the curb vary from lot to lot, and the way traffic flow interacts with right of ways isn’t well defined.

Zoning allows for higher-density buildings with commercial uses, but no developers have taken advantage of that fact.

The good news is that Ferguson Township and the State College Borough want to work together to create a comprehensive vision for the west end of town. The bad news is that neither municipality is really sure what that would look like – at least, not yet.

The Ferguson Township Supervisors and State College Borough Council got together for a joint meeting on Monday night, where they talked about their hopes for the West College corridor. Although both municipalities have tried to rezone and improve that area in the past, both have experienced little success.

“We all seem to want something to happen there, but we need to make sure it will work with the market,” State College Planning Director Ed LeClear said. “We don’t want to put something in place from a regulatory standpoint that won’t actually get built.”

The supervisors and council members identified a number interlocking challenges they have to consider when looking at West College Avenue: higher density may be desirable for new development, but many residents are deeply opposed to urban sprawl into Fergsuon Township; however, much of the township is agricultural land that can’t be developed, forcing the township to create a higher-density area; State College will be looking at this rezoning from the perspective of expanding its tax base, while Ferguson Township probably has different goals.

“My idea, my dream for this area, is one ordinance for both the township and the borough, so that you could drive along and not be able to tell where the division is,” said Ferguson Township Supervisors Elliot Killian, though he admitted that might not be feasible in the near future.

However, both municipalities were able to agree on some common ground. Both want to work together to rejuvenate the west end of town; both place a high emphasis on pedestrian friendly development and walkability; both want to involve Penn State as a major landowner along that stretch of road (and acknowledge the difficulty of doing so); and both highly value sustaining existing neighborhoods and involving the community in the decision making process.

“It doesn’t matter how many people we invite to come to these meetings, or how many people we hear from, because in the end once we have a final plan, someone is going to walk in and say ‘no one told us about this,’” said Borough Council Member Theresa Lafer. “We need to do everything we possibly can to blanket the community.”

Both sides also agreed they want to work on an accelerated planning process, ideally coming to a consensus about a proposal within less than six months. The first step in doing so, both sides seemed to agree, is to exchange reports and studies already conducted by both municipalities about the west end of town before sitting down together to start the nitty-gritty work.

Ferguson Township and State College borough residents also spoke, stressing the importance of maintaining the quality of life for current residents and property owners and creating a vision for the community to drive future development.

“Can we look at this as a whole and see the forest through the trees?” asked Ferguson Township Supervisor Drew Clemson. “Or are we going to pick out the trees and ignore the forest?”