After months of discussions, reviews and adjustments, College Township Council on Thursday unanimously approved, with conditions, plans for a two-building student housing complex on the site of the former Hilltop Mobile Home Park.
Pending completion of the conditions, Texas-based student housing developer Aspen Heights Partners plans to begin construction this summer on the property along the west side of Squirrel Drive and south of East College Avenue.
“I hope everybody who’s been following along really appreciated the diligence that I felt we and staff and the developer and everybody involved brought to this,” Councilman Paul Takac said. “As a resident immediately adjacent to this, am I delighted that there’s a student housing development? Not especially, but I will say that if it has to be that I feel like we kind of lucked out with Aspen Heights in a sense that they and their team really stepped up.”
Aspen Heights is the equitable owner of the site of the development on the uphill part of the property. Mountoursville-based 1275 East Pennsylvania Ave. 1 LP is the overall owner of the property, which after a consolidation in 2019 includes the parcels on both sides of Squirrel Drive, as well as the parcels with the former Honda Track and Trail, Battery Outlet and Budget Truck Rental buildings on College Avenue.
The complex will consist of 262 total residential units with a mix ranging from one to five beds. The northern building will be mixed-use, with commercial space on the ground floor and the upper four floors housing a total of 114 apartments. To the south, the other building will have four floors with 148 units.
An agreement will stipulate that 28 one-bedroom units will be designated as workforce housing for at least 30 years.
A total of 748 parking spaces will be constructed on two parking lots with separate access points from Squirrel Drive. The developer will construct a sidewalk on Squirrel Drive to the bus stop on East College Avenue. CATA bus passes will be made available to residents, who also will have access to a weekend shuttle.
Stormwater will be managed with an underground detention system.
Plans for the project were submitted to the township in November. In the ensuing months, neighboring residents, township staff and council members raised a variety of issues related to traffic, water pressure, lighting, sight-lines into Centre Hills Village residences, noise and impacts on the adjacent Thompson Woods Preserve.
Since March, council, staff and the developers, with public input, worked through a series of conditions to address the issues.
Among the most recent of those is a pending memorandum of agreement with the College Township Water Authority for Aspen Heights to fund $435,000 of $570,000 in water system improvements not only for the development but also for the surrounding area. They will accommodate the development’s peak demand, improve water pressure for Centre Hills Village and Dalevue residences and improve fire hydrant flow pressure in the area.
“There’s a significant or substantial improvement when this is done to the existing service,” Council Chair Eric Bernier said. “This is not a contribution that’s just going to maintain current service levels. This is a contribution to improvement that’s going to have fairly broad impact on the quality of service in that area.”
Township Manager Adam Brumbaugh said the creation of an intermediate pressure zone will increase water pressure in the neighborhoods by 20 to 30 pounds.
“In some cases that may be a two-fold increase in pressure that people may realize as a result of these improvements,” Brumbaugh said.
PennDOT and a traffic engineering consultant for the township also recently gave approval to a traffic impact study after further analysis of whether a traffic signal should be installed at Puddintown Road and East College Avenue.
While projected traffic volume on Puddintown Road may have warranted a signal there, the study found that peak morning traffic could back up to the Squirrel Road intersection. Neither PennDOT nor the township consultant recommended the signal.
“You might be making it a little better for people trying to leave Puddintown Road, particularly turning left, but on the other hand you might be making it worse for a lot of people on College Ave.,” township engineer Don Franson said.
Franson said future development in the Squirrel Drive area could necessitate a signal at Puddintown Road. Brumbaugh added that at some point as traffic volumes increase a signal will likely be added.
“I don’t think PennDOT is suggesting at the moment there will never be a signal,” Brumbaugh said.
Aspen Heights previously agreed to contribute $50,000 toward traffic calming on Oak Ridge Avenue if such measures are approved by the Local Traffic Advisory Committee. If not, those funds will be used as directed by council for other traffic and pedestrian controls.
The developer also will contribute $100,000 toward the future addition of a right turn lane from Squirrel Drive onto East College Avenue and will be responsible for repairing any damage to Squirrel Drive resulting from construction.
As a result of a waiver for a new sidewalk on the south side of East College Avenue adjacent to the Aspen Heights property, Aspen Heights will construct missing sidewalk connections on the north side of College Avenue, from WR Hickey to the Hilton Garden Inn and from the Hilton to Puddintown Road.
Aspen Heights will contribute $75,000 toward the future construction of a multi-use path from the north side of College Avenue to the Penn State campus. The location of that path is still to be determined.
A total of 6.67 acres will be dedicated as parkland/open space: 4.73 acres onsite and a 1.94 acre parcel along East Branch Road that is also owned by 1275 East Pennsylvania Ave. 1 LP.
Addressing concerns about the impact on the neighboring Thompson Woods Preserve, Aspen Heights will install a new, 1,200-foot long fence as well as new landscaping to discourage climbing over it. The developer will be responsible for maintaining it. Because that is a requirement of the plan, zoning officer Mark Grabovsek said the township can enforce it with daily fines if the fence falls into disrepair, a concern raised by residents because of the poor condition of the existing fence.
In addition to a 300-foot buffer yard between the rear of the property and Oak Ridge Avenue residences, Aspen Heights will add 29 evergreen trees to provide a further shield.
The development plans have enclosed amenities and courtyards oriented toward College Avenue. Plans show a pool, sand volleyball and patio areas.
Lighting will meet township code.
Aspen Heights will agree to enforce the regulations in its residence handbook, which will be recorded as part of the plan. Grabovsek said that “gives a little more bite” to enforcing compliance.
“Should this complex become a problem, that would go a long way toward us reeling it in,” he said.
The portion of the property with the vacant business buildings directly along College Avenue is not part of the plan. Though the owner may develop that in the future — and in 2019 did submit then withdraw plans for a bank building there — Grabovsek noted that the Aspen Heights project has 100% of the allowable residential use for the property, meaning future development would be entirely commercial.
The property is zoned Gateway Commercial.
With the Aspen Heights plan now moving forward, council members said they appreciated the efforts of both the developer and the public over the past six months.
“This is certainly something we’ve heard a lot of feedback on,” Takac said. “It’s actually opened up a lot of other things that we will continue to work on, from traffic issues to the preserve and maintaining that and our pedestrian facilities and beyond. It really checked all the boxes there.
“I’m not thrilled it is what it is, but given what it is, I think this is the best possible use. I really appreciate everybody’s time and effort to get where we are right now.”
