After unanimously denying the Columbia Gas natural gas pipeline permit last week in a marathon meeting, the State College Borough Council heard from more residents during this week’s work meeting—this time they talked about specifically how the permit was denied.
“Our community has a Bill of Rights that is enforceable law as part of our charter. Elected officials do not have a choice with whether to comply with that law. The Community Bill of Rights should be listed in the permit denial,” said resident Janice Briggs during public hour of the work session.
Though the permit has already been denied, the reason for its denial could be important if litigation is pursued. Resident Steve Lachman explained the rational for including the Bill of Rights in the denial saying, “Further down the road we don’t know what the courts will hang their hats on. We need to include as much as possible in the denial.”
The proposed gas line would have run through State College to Penn State’s power plant. The university wants to convert the coal-fired facility to natural gas. More negotiations are expected between Penn State, Columbia Gas and borough council.
Due to the format of the work meeting, a decision was not made on Monday night.
After hearing from the public about the Columbia Gas pipeline, the Borough Council listened to representatives from Stahl Sheaffer Engineering about the Atherton Street Corridor Project—part of the downtown renovations master plan. “This is about improving safety. The number one priority intersection is the intersection of Beaver and Atherton. The intersection of College and Atherton is number two,” said Daniel Jones.
Brian Hoffheins outlined the specifics of the project saying, “We would like to start [June 3rd] and finish this summer, but it is likely to continue into the fall semester. The goal of the project is to improve pedestrian safety. One of these ways is to install pedestrian fences to discourage jaywalking.”
One resident, Pat Vernon, objected to the idea of fencing along the sidewalk of the Atherton Corridor. “My concern is how far the fence is from the outside of the curb. If someone is on a bicycle, and they are getting pushed over by a vehicle, the cyclist just gets pushed into the fence. If you put barberry bushes there, which is a fairly effective fence, the cyclist won’t be smashed.”
With a lack of consensus on the three different options on the table for the Atherton Street Corridor Project — all of which involved pedestrian fences — the council moved making the decision until a regular meeting.
