After two weeks of public pushback, State College Borough Council on Monday reversed a decision to acquire by eminent domain a downtown building housing multiple longtime businesses to construct a parking garage.
Council voted unanimously to rescind an Aug. 7 resolution that authorized the borough solicitor to file a declaration of taking — a step initiating the eminent domain process — and enter negotiations for the building that houses The Brewery, Canyon Pizza, Music Mart and Canyon Wings at the corner of East Beaver Avenue and McAllister Alley. It was not immediately clear if the borough would still move forward with eminent domain for a rental house at 142 McAllister Street, which was approved in a separate resolution but not rescinded.
Eminent domain law allows government entities “to take private property for public use in return for just compensation.” The borough planned to use the property in conjunction with the McAllister Deck to construct a replacement for the 51-year-old Pugh Street Parking Garage which has outlasted its life expectancy but is now at “the end of its serviceable lifespan,” according to borough engineering studies.
Borough officials pledged to help businesses continue operating after acquiring the building, with one suggesting they could move into retail space on the ground floor of the new garage, but their futures remained in doubt.
The issue wasn’t on the agenda Monday night, but a standing-room-only crowd was in attendance in council chambers and a hundred more were attending online from all over the country — most to voice their displeasure with the decision during the public hour.
But about 40 minutes into the meeting, just before public comment was to begin, Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said the borough “has received adverse comments about this acquisition,” in the intervening two weeks. Borough staff recommended adding the matter to the agenda and a motion to rescind the eminent domain resolution.
That was met with a roar of applause and standing ovation from those in the audience.
“It has been quite eye opening to see the level of engagement,” Gopal Balachandran, who with Divine Lipscomb was one of two council members to oppose the original Aug. 7 resolution, said. “I personally am thrilled with a motion to repeal this resolution… This is how democracy is supposed to work. This is where even with people whose minds are capable of being changed simply with community input and community engagement shows the power of the voice that all of you have. I also want to applaud the members of council and borough staff and the fact that they were receptive to those changes.”
Council President Jesse Barlow reflected on the bar where he had his first drink and the importance of a “home away from home” for an evening, and said he had qualms about using eminent domain.
Council member Deanna Behring thanked community members for engaging during what was a “really rough couple of weeks.” State College is a “tiny community,” she said, where the borough and residents are trying to find walkable and bikeable spaces, protect businesses and preserve old buildings while moving forward economically and environmentally.
“Just realize the pressures and the sincerity with which we approached this is real in terms of balancing all of the considerations,” Behring said.
After “a pretty stressful” two weeks, Brewery and building co-owner Jay Horgas was stunned by the reversal.
“Wow. I didn’t come here today expecting this,” he said after the meeting. “It was almost hard to believe. This has been all-consuming for [two] weeks. When I’ve talked to people about this, you hear parallel stories in the United States like [fires in] Hawaii, so you keep perspective that my problems don’t measure to those kind of problems. But at the same time it’s been all-consuming.”
Owners of the properties had been unaware of the borough’s plans until they were contacted by a StateCollege.com reporter hours before the Aug. 7 meeting. Horgas said at the time that it was “shocking.”
Both the decision and the lack of prior communication with the building owners drew swift and vast backlash. Nearly 5,000 people signed an online petition calling on council to drop the plans.
The Brewery has been located in the basement along the alley at 233 E. Beaver Ave. since the late 1960s. Music Mart has been at 227 E. Beaver Ave. since 1989. Canyon Pizza started down the street in the 2000s and moved to the building in 2016.
All are small, locally owned businesses, and Brewery co-owner Ray Rockey said he and his partners bought the building in 2005 specifically so that it couldn’t be bought out from under them.
Despite council signaling it would reverse the eminent domain decision, more than 30 community members still spoke about a variety of issues surrounding downtown businesses and parking over the course of about 90 minutes of public comment on Monday night.
People of varying ages and backgrounds from throughout the community, across the state and around the country shared memories and stressed the importance of businesses like Music Mart and The Brewery, with former residents noting that they are places that keep them coming back to State College. William Carpenter, currently of Laurel, Maryland, said he returned to propose to his girlfriend in “the dive bar behind some dumpsters,” and that anyone who knew them “knew there would be no better place.”
“A bar like this that is a staple of the community and has been for decades, you can’t replace that vibe,” said Kirk French, a Penn State professor who teaches the popular Anthropology of Alcohol course. “You can’t replace that energy. It comes from its location. The history is stored in those walls and can’t be moved. For a community, bars provide a space that has no equal. Pubs by definition, it’s a public meeting house… It’s a public space where people come to talk…. The Brewery is one of the last independently owned people’s bars in all of State College and this whole area. We need it. The community needs it.”
Horgas and Rockey were moved by the many comments about their bar and the building’s other tenants.
“The outreach from people, it’s hard to put words to,” Horgas said. “Rockey and I were kind of looking for Kleenex as people talked about their stories. We have loyalty to that business and through thick and thin it’s endured.”
Others suggested the borough rethink how it plans for parking, urging officials to continue making downtown more bike- and pedestrian-friendly, to better utilize existing parking and to consider locations on the edges of downtown and use shuttle services.
Now the businesses are saved, and the borough will have to find another solution for replacing the Pugh Street garage and its nearly 500 parking spaces, at least one that doesn’t involve The Brewery building. The issue has been on the radar for about a decade as State College spent millions to keep the Pugh garage functional, and the McAllister Deck site — though not the buildings on the 200 block of East Beaver Avenue — had been identified publicly as a likely replacement site for at least the past year.
“We still have to figure out what to do about the parking situation,” council member Janet Engeman said. “Bear in mind that this is not over. It’s over in terms of what we’re doing about that particular property, but we’re going to have to find some place to work out the parking problem.”
Council member Nalini Krishnankutty urged community members to stay involved in developing solutions.
“We don’t have much space… To keep our business vibrant, those 500 parking spaces out of 1,700 [total in the downtown], that’s very big,” she said. “This council wants an economically vibrant and sustainable walkable downtown. I want this engagement to continue as we find solutions.”
Horgas, meanwhile, was looking forward to his walk home on Monday night to take in the change of fortunes for him and his fellow business owners.
“I just want to kind of absorb it quite frankly,” he said. “It’s been a rush through this and trying to comprehend it. I’d like to say I’d take a vacation but that doesn’t happen. Just really take time to savor it. It’s shocking. I never expected this today.”
