Penn State officials have given the Nittany Valley Water Coalition a final notification to comply with a ‘no trespassing’ sign posted at the site of a planned Toll Brothers student housing development along Whitehall Road in Ferguson Township, where residents have been encamped since the beginning of June in protest of the project.
On July 20, Penn State posted on the site a ‘no trespassing’ sign, which said the land is not open to the public and should be vacated. The protestors were notified again on Aug. 21 to remove all items from the site.
David Hughes, a coalition member and Penn State professor of entomology, received on Wednesday night an email, which is posted on the NVWC website, from Charima Young, the university’s director of local government and community relations, with Penn State’s ‘FINAL no trespassing notification.’
Penn State owns the 44 acres of land and has an agreement to sell it to Toll Brothers for $13.5 million, contingent on land use approval,but that sale has been held up after neighboring land owners formed the coalition and sued to have the township’s approval of the development plan overturned. The residents say the developer’s plans to build a 264-unit luxury student housing development on the site could have a negative effect on Slab Cabin Run and the Harter-Thomas well fields, the source of water for the majority of homes in the State College area.
The university is not involved with the development beyond the sale of the land, but says the development has met all state and local water resource regulations.
The coalition and its supporters plan to meet Friday night to discuss the final no trespassing notification. A post on the NVWC website says that if Penn State is a public institution, the land is public and citizens have a right to protest on it.
‘Penn State considers the property along Whitehall Road to be private, particularly since it is under contract to be sold,’ Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said. ‘Regardless of whether the land is considered private or public, all land owners are permitted to impose reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on the use of property it owns.’
In emails with Young and Zack Moore, vice president for government and community relations, Hughes said the coalition is unlikely to change its mind about staying on the land.
‘I can assure you there are people in the coalition who are willing to be arrested,’ Hughes wrote.
The coalition has not been given a deadline to comply, and the university hasn’t said what specific action it will take if the site is not vacated.
‘We are hopeful they will comply, but our response will be dictated by the group’s actions,’ Powers said.
Penn State is considering a seasonal lease of the property to a local farmer to make use of the land until the legal issues are resolved and the group has been given ample time to comply with the university’s notices to vacate, Powers said.
‘Penn State has provided this camping group with ample notification on multiple occasions of our intent to enforce the no trespassing notice that has been posted since July 20,’ Powers said. ‘We were giving the group sufficient time to comply, since camping under both township ordinance and university policy are not permitted on this property. They are choosing to violate the law.’
While the encampment has been ongoing and NVWC waits to hear if the state Supreme Court will hear their appeal in the case, coalition members have been meeting with university officials and Toll Brothers representatives about potential alternative, Penn State-owned sites that could be developed instead.
The coalition proposed seven sites, and said after a meeting in August that Charles Elliott, Toll Brothers’ managing director for apartment living, expressed the most interest in a property located along West College Avenue in front of the Penn State Blue Course. In an email to Moore, Hughes said that the developer’s 60-day period for research on the site was nearing an end and asked why Penn State wanted to evict the encampment now.
‘We’ve been asking you to do this for more than a month,’ Moore replied. ‘Charima sent her email on August 21st. This is not a recent request… From the university’s perspective, there is very clear law and policy on this. If we do not enforce it, it makes it more difficult to enforce policies in the future.’
Young said in an email to Hughes that the university has tried to work with the coalition ‘in a gracious and respectful manner,’ and asked that the members do the same regarding the no trespassing sign.
‘Since the protest began in early June, University officials have engaged with the Nittany Valley Water Coalition dozens of times, proactively setting up meetings and calls, and talking about the many issues surrounding the property,’ Powers said. ‘We are committed to continuing this dialogue.’
