STATE COLLEGE — The Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County hosted the Voice of Business: Municipal Managers’ Update on the morning of Thursday, Jan. 23, at the Wyndham Garden State College. The event featured municipal managers from the Centre Region who gave updates on policies and projects impacting the local community.
The Voice of Business: Municipal Managers’ Update featured Adam Brumbaugh, College Township manager; Amy Farkas, Patton Township manager; Centrice Martin, Ferguson Township manager; Mark Boeckel, Harris Township manager; and Tom Fountaine, State College Borough manager. After each manager provided area updates, a question and answer session was moderated by Greg Scott, CBICC president and CEO.
“One of the things that I really like about this [event] is it gives us an opportunity to take our Economic Development Strategic Plan that was announced late last year and see the connection that is happening in our townships and how that’s supporting and advancing our economic development strategy for the county,” Scott said during the event.
“If we’re to be successful in moving forward with our economic development and our quality of life, a lot of that has to do with collaboration and working across many different entities. So working with our townships, our elected officials, our private developers, the community, our nonprofits. … Because continuing to progress on advancing that economic development strategy that was developed as a community, is going to be executed as a community.”
COLLEGE TOWNSHIP
Brumbaugh started his update highlighting a key celebration in College Township this year.
College Township will celebrate its sesquicentennial year this year, and Brumbaugh noted the anniversary will be officially celebrated on Saturday, Nov. 22. However, the manager noted that multiple events are set to take place throughout each season this year to celebrate the 150th anniversary.
Additionally, Brumbaugh discussed College Township’s form based code update, which he detailed as “a fundamental rewrite of our existing zoning code in the Dale Summit area.”
“The Dale Summit area has a preponderance, the vast majority, I should say, of our commercial and industrial real estate zoning,” Brumbaugh said. “What essentially we’re going to do is, through form-based code, we’re going to eliminate that in essence and regulate use, or I should say, we’re going to eliminate use designations and we’re going to regulate development through setbacks, building heights, encroachments and pedestrian and vehicle circulation so that we can begin to promote neighborhood mixed uses in that Dale Summit area.”
The Dale Summit area is comprised of about 1,500 acres in the Nittany Mall, Shiloh Road and the former Corning plant area.
Brumbaugh also highlighted the hiring of Carrie Miller as the economic development coordinator in College Township, and the township’s work in attainable housing development.
“We did recently make some modifications here to our ordinance with respect to the area median incomes that we use,” Brumbaugh said. “Our ordinance was developed as far back as 2007, 2008 and there have been very nominal changes that have been made to the ordinance since that time.
“So what we have done is, we have made modifications to our AMIs and essentially, when we’re talking about workforce or attainable housing, we’ve modified our AMIs from zero to 79% now are eligible for in our rental programs and we have 80 to 120% of AMI representing and available for our owner occupants.
“So all of this was done to continue to address the housing crisis. That missing middle that we have, and we continue to have.”
Brumbaugh also noted other housing developments including a project the township is working on with a developer on a 46 acre 600 plus unit market rate housing project that will be located along Shiloh Road course. Brumbaugh noted that the project is slated to be approved by council in the next 90 days and will include apartments, condos and townhomes for rent as well as about 60 simple townhome units.
The College Township manager also shared an update on the casino proposed to go into the Nittany Mall. Brumbaugh noted that while the township received an initial impact study from the developer, council is interested in completing its own study to “to address and to identify those kind of health and human service issues that are out there that we’ve heard so much about from various constituents.”
PATTON TOWNSHIP
Farkas provided a similar update on Patton Township, emphasizing completed projects and future developments.
“Patton Township is a growing, dynamic community of over 16,000 residents. We have a lot of really exciting things going on, so I’m happy to be here today to talk to you about some of them,” Farkas noted, starting off discussing some completed projects from 2024.
Farkas emphasized the work done on completing the Penn Highlands Hospital on Colonnade Boulevard and Mount Nittany Health in Toftrees West. Farkas also noted the improvements done to Patton Crossing, a major intersection near the Aldi. Farkas additionally noted that in the Patton Crossing area, a new Mediterranean restaurant CAVA is intended to open.
“You’re going to hear me talk a lot about Atherton Street today because Atherton Street has become my pet project,” Farkas shared. “Last year we completed signal timing coordination along the Atherton Street corridor from Valley Vista Drive and Patton Township to Discovery Drive in Harris Township.
“What that means is we’re now able to change the timing of the signals. If we have big events, playoff football, for example, whiteouts, for example, those seem to be our big events. So that we can helpfully better move traffic through the corridor.”
Farkas also noted that work on the timing issues of the traffic signal at Toftrees Avenue and Waddle Road were being looked into.
She also mentioned that Patton Township had partnered with the Nittany Mountain Biking Association to raise funds to pave the Bernel Road pump bike track.
Farkas also noted that Patton Township is working on drafting short-term rental regulations.
“The regulations that we’re looking at are really aimed at protecting our residential neighborhoods,” Farkas shared. “We have seen an influx of the short-term rentals in Park Forest, for example. And while short-term rentals are great, they’re not great if they’re not owner occupied in my mind, because they’re just purely hotels then. And our residential zoning districts were never intended to house commercial uses.”
Farkas noted that they are working to find a balance with the new regulations.
“The regulations we’re talking about with our planning commission are allowing short-term rentals that are owner occupied in the residential districts,” she said. “So owner occupied being you’d have to live there eight months out of the year or have a long-term tenant eight months out of the year. And looking at allowing the more purely commercial ones that are not owner occupied in our mixed-use zoning districts, which would be along Waddle Road and Atherton Street. And that’s more in keeping with the character of those locations.”
And though new regulations are being considered, Farkas noted that Patton Township is a place where she wants everybody to be able to enjoy.
“Patton Township, we pride ourselves that we are a place for all. And that is the core of who we are in Patton Township,” she said. “So we’re going to start drafting attainable housing regulations because for us, attainable housing means that everyone in our community has a place. So we’re going to start looking at that with our planning commission and our board this year.”
Farkas emphasized that she feels strongly about this because, “if you work in Centre County, you should have a place to live in Centre County.”
Farkas also mentioned the Park Forest Middle School project, a Valley Vista drive traffic impact study — which she noted results have yet to be completed — and zoning regulations close to the airport.
“We have one property that’s still left to develop. So we’re going to look at those zoning regulations. But we’re also hoping that at some point there will be a more direct connector from the I-99 322 corridor over to the airport,” Farkas said. “Because right now, to get to the airport, you go through all of our residential neighborhoods, and that becomes disruptive when we have major events or political candidates that come to town, and then folks can’t access their homes. So that’s just something that we’re hoping that might move forward in the future.”
FERGUSON TOWNSHIP
For Ferguson Township, Martin highlighted key initiatives that the area has underway this year.
“I’m very pleased to share an overview of the local government initiatives currently underway at Ferguson Township,” Martin said. “Most of you already know Ferguson Township is a very vibrant and growing community. It’s located there in the southwestern side of the Centre Region. We have about 19,000 residents.”
Martin noted that Ferguson Township recently received a grant through the Appalachian Regional Commission, and though she highlighted the impact of CBICC’s Economic Development Strategic Plan, she also highlighted that Ferguson Township was working on developing their own to better meet the needs of the community. The plan development will be funded in part by the Appalachian Regional Commission and aims to be finalized by the end of 2025.
“The township’s process for the development of this plan will have a robust community and citizen participation element with an ad hoc advisory committee comprised of not just Ferguson Township staff, Council of Governments staff, as well as our business owners and members of our community,” Martin emphasized. “We look to have some diverse representation on this ad hoc advisory committee to ensure that all important voices are heard.”
Martin also noted that Ferguson Township is currently a Certified Gold Community through the Sustainable Pennsylvania Program, which Martin noted, “recognizes Ferguson Township’s commitment to sustainable practices of governance, community engagement and environmental stewardship.” However, they recently submitted for a platinum status.
Martin also highlighted the Park Hills Drainageway Improvement Project.
“For those of you that are familiar from Devonshire Drive to Princeton Drive, all the way up to Park Hills Playground, we improved the corridor there for public safety reasons, but also for stormwater management. It’s now available and recently constructed as the first in the region,” Martin said.
Other projects that Martin discussed included the Beaver Branch Stream Restoration Project which, Martin noted, “will increase conveyance, reduce erosion and satisfy the township’s MS.4 permit requirements for sediment load reduction,” as well as, the new traffic signal being placed on Science Park Drive, a sidewalk set to be installed on the west side of Water Street from the intersection of Route 26 and Route 45 south to Chestnut Street, amongst others.
“I also want to note that while I’ve highlighted just a few of Ferguson Township’s key initiatives that are underway are soon to be completed, the township is continuously processing land development plans, and those land development plans may be found available on our township website,” Martin added.
“One of my favorite pillars of local government is the community engagement participation,” Martin said. “So at Ferguson Township we encourage and want to see more residents get involved. The township submits annually a call to action for folks to serve on our authority’s boards and commission and serving on the ABC for residents to share their talent, expertise and experience in living in the township.
“I’m most excited to share with all of you that we recently launched a tool called the Citizens Request Center which was designed and developed through by staff to save costs. … This tool will allow for residents to virtually submit, view and track non-emergency issues that they might see in the township.”
HARRIS TOWNSHIP
Boeckel discussed the primary projects underway in Harris Township in 2025, noting as well that the State College Area Connector Project being coordinated by PennDOT is a significant project on the townships radar. Boeckel noted he hoped to receive more information from PennDOT about the status of the project soon.
Boeckel also highlighted “missing links” within Boalsburg’s sidewalk network, noting that many older sidewalks were in need of repair. He also shared that in 2025, the township would be developing a pedestrian masterplan to “identify missing links both in [Boalsburg] Village as well as to some of the surrounding neighborhoods, and then ultimately apply for grant funding to try to improve our sidewalk network and provide those missing links.”
He also highlighted plans for a pedestrian crosswalk between the Pennsylvania Military Museum to Boal City Brewing on Boal Avenue.
“We received a grant last year for $298,000 to install that. That came from PennDOT. So we will be working on identifying what that’s going to look like,” he said. “Certainly it’ll be a traditional crosswalk, but we’re not certain yet if we’re going to have a system that’s going to register pedestrians in the crosswalk or if they’re going to have to press a button. But there will be some type of safety improvements there to alert motorists that people cross in that location.
“People are already crossing there without a crosswalk. So this is an important location to provide an improvement.”
Boeckel also discussed a “traffic calming policy” that was drafted and would install speed bumps and other devices to slow down traffic in the neighborhoods. He noted this would be discussed more in February.
“The idea behind the policy is we’ll have a process now to move forward, to engage residents, to find out what types of issues they’re seeing. Also engineering requirements for us to go about evaluating whether or not devices are needed,” he shared.
Boeckel finished by discussing new zoning initiatives underway, noting that it has been decades since a zoning analysis and planning had been comprehensively looked into. He noted that he hopes to have the zoning regulations drafted by the end of the year.
Similarly to other municipal managers, Boeckel mentioned possible discussions on short term rental ordinances.
STATE COLLEGE BOROUGH
Fountaine began his summary of the borough’s key projects highlighting the redrafting of zoning code, which has been an ongoing project within the borough since 2017. He noted that working through zoning has been to try to “increase the missing middle housing” opportunities within the borough.
“There’s also consensus on reducing lot sizes in much of State College in terms of the zoning amendments. And we’re looking at reducing parking minimums in the downtown area as well as reducing some of the commercial space requirements,” Fountaine said.
“Currently we require the first and second floors of commercial buildings to be, or of residential buildings, to be commercial space. And as you know, within the community — and I think it’s particularly pronounced post-COVID — those properties become very difficult to manage and we have vacancies. So we’re also looking at reducing that. Right now that project is the single highest priority that the council has. It’s on a schedule to move through this year.”
Fountaine noted that council expects the consulting group working on the zoning code to provide a draft of the updated code by the end of the first quarter of 2025, noting that the planning commission would then spend the second quarter of the year going through the draft so that council could have it by the end of summer. He noted he hoped to have it adopted by the end of the year.
Fountaine also highlighted the Pugh Street parking garage project, the Calder Way construction project and traffic improvement projects to provide safety upgrades for bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers in the Borough.
He also highlighted the development project of the former Alpha Chi Sigma house at 406 S. Pugh St., that is in the process of being rehabilitated for Centre Helps to be located in along with four affordable housing apartments on the upper level.
“Affordable housing projects in State College continue to be important parts of our plan in our community, and we have worked closely with the State College Land Trust and Housing Transitions and other nonprofit agencies with projects in Old Boalsburg Road and other locations. In those projects, we also do expect to move forward as well,” he concluded.
