FERGUSON TOWNSHIP — The dispute over a planned commercial and residential development on the site of Pine Hall Forest in Ferguson Township isn’t finished.
Attorneys for the Nittany Valley Environmental Coalition filed a land use appeal on Sept. 19 in Centre County Court, arguing that the plan for the 150-acre Pine Hall Traditional Town Development (TTD) along Blue Course Drive and Old Gatesburg Road incorrectly applied and misinterpreted Ferguson Township ordinances.
The coalition said the plan approval also violated citizens’ due process and environmental rights.
“A developer benefits financially from a TTD approach because greater dwelling density and commercial development are rewards for compliance with stricter environmental zoning ordinances,” NVEC said in a news release. “However, in this case, key environmental features of the site are not planned to be preserved. NVEC’s lawsuit seeks to remedy the failure of both the developer’s master plan and Ferguson’s oversight by forcing compliance with TTD environmental zoning ordinances and the pre-approval plan specificity required by the TTD.”
Ferguson Township supervisors unanimously approved the Pine Hall TTD master plan on Aug. 19. As part of the plan, developer Residential Housing Development LLC intends to cut down more than 55 acres of the privately-owned, 65-acre Pine Hall Forest, replacing 40 percent of the removed trees with new plantings.
The township’s traditional town development ordinance requires the 40 percent of trees be retained or replaced. In approving the plan, supervisors said it met township ordinances and Residential Housing representatives noted that they did not ask for any variances.
Prior to the approval, numerous residents voiced concerns about the environmental impact of the tree removal, saying new plantings can’t replace the many ecological and health benefits of mature trees.
The appeal filed by attorneys Jordan Yeager and Lauren Williams states that the TTD ordinance has woodland preservation standards that require existing forested areas to be maintained unless the developer can demonstrate that is not possible. They added that in 2017, the developers said they planned to preserve 20 acres.
Yeager and Williams wrote that the township asked for no substantiation for why the trees had to be replaced instead of maintained.
“The developer presented no evidence as to why it was unable to preserve more woodlands than it has proposed, particularly when it represented in 2017 that it planned to preserve 20 acres,” the notice of appeal says.
A consultant said at meetings this summer that based on a tree count, about 8,100 would be removed, 1,400 retained and 2,450 replaced for the development. But coalition members who conducted their own tree counts said they believe there are thousands more that needed to be accounted for than the developer’s estimate.
Yeager and Williams wrote that the township did not receive documentation of the developer’s tree count and did not require independent verification. Without knowing the correct count, the notice states, the township can’t ensure the developer will properly meet with the woodland preservation requirements and as such the approval did not comply with the TTD ordinance.
They also contend that the developer did not submit a required “conceptual landscaping plan,” that identifies the location amount of existing vegetation that will be retained and had not settled on a storm water management design and layout, both of which the notice says violate zoning ordinances.
“The approval of the general master plan despite the lack of required information prohibited proper review and scrutiny by relevant agencies and the public,” the attorneys wrote.
Approval of the plan also violates the Environmental Rights Amendment of the Pennsylvania Constitution and the Ferguson Township Home Rule Charter Community Bill of Right, according to NVEC.
“The Environmental Rights Amendment requires that local governing bodies have enough information on the environmental impacts of a proposed action or project to determine whether approval of that action will or is likely to violate residents’ constitutional environmental rights,” Yeager and Williams wrote. “The township clearly did not have sufficient information here.”
The multi-phase plan — which will require specific implementation plans before development — is expected to include 1,023 residential units, as well as 30 acres of commercial development with commercial and mixeduse buildings, including a cinema, hotel, grocery store, food service, office and retail buildings.
NVEC said that though TTDs are meant to be self-contained, neighborhood-scale developments, the Pine Hall plan is marketed as a regional destination, which will increase the likelihood of traffic, congestion and air pollution. That, they said, will be further exacerbated by nearby developments of a large parking garage off North Atherton Street on Penn State’s west campus and The Cottages residential development near the intersection of Blue Course Drive and Whitehall Road in Ferguson Township.
The Cottages development spurred the creation of the NVEC when in 2015 residents filed suit to overturn approval of Toll Brothers’ plan for the luxury student housing complex. After two years of court decisions and appeals, the suit ultimately was unsuccessful and construction is ongoing.
The Pine Hall TTD plan, meanwhile, has been in the works for more than a decade and an initial plan was recorded in 2010. But three years ago the developers revisited the plan and said they worked with community members to develop a revised plan that was appropriate for the site.
NVEC members, who before the plan’s approval asked supervisors to work with the developer to maintain more of the existing trees, said cutting down most of the existing forest will remove a vital recreational and environmental resource.
“The eco-services provided by a 65-acre forest are extensive: absorbing stormwater, air-cooling, sequestration of air pollution, beauty, wildlife and walking paths,” the news release said. “Removing this mature forest is potentially dangerous, considering its storm water absorptive functions, the forest’s existing sinkholes and the estimated 85 percent impervious surface of the Pine Hall TTD upon completion. Drainage basins are planned on the northwest periphery, but malfunction or inadequacy will impact Pine Hall, Greenleaf and Turnberry residents.”
