Bellefonte Borough Council on Dec. 17 approved the rezoning of the Centre Crest facility and eight surrounding properties from R-4 to R-2.
The rezoning would not allow apartments at the Centre Crest building on 502 E. Howard St., which will be available for new use when the nursing home moves to its new location on the Benner Pike in College Township in the summer of 2020. The county owns the property and has not decided what it will do with it, whether that be repurpose or sell to developers, as of yet.
The property was previously zoned as R-2 from 1994 to 2007, when it changed to R-4, said borough manager Ralph Stewart. The change back to R-2 is a medium-use designation that coincides with the surrounding areas that are zoned R-2 and R-1, respectively, said Stewart. Stewart said that the R-2 zoning would allow a nursing home to remain in the building or allow offices, but does prohibit apartments and subsidized housing on the properties.
Stewart said the borough would listen to any prospective ideas for the property, but the borough wants something that will be healthy and beneficial to the community.
“If something comes along that would have a positive impact, it could go through the planning department and the council,” said Stewart. He added that they are hoping for something that could be a “win-win” for the community.
He said there are many other areas where apartments could be built in the borough with the current zoning, including in the Waterfront District, the Academy lot and a 28-acre plot of land next to the Willowbank building.
Stewart said a little more than half of Bellefonte’s residents live in rental housing units and that as early as the 1992 comprehensive plan, the borough saw that as something to work on because that amount of rental units can be “destabilizing and unhealthy for a community.”
The rezoning comes after a large public meeting last week about the zoning change, where community members were able to voice their opinion on the matter. Stewart cited an idea brought to him by a community member as an example of a potential positive solution for the building: a local veterans home so they would not have to go all the way to Hollidaysburg.
“There are a lot of good ideas out there and we are interested in hearing them,” said Stewart. “We are looking for something positive — a healthy option.”
