State College Borough Council on Monday discussed a change to a deed restriction that would allow a developer to construct its preferred design for a student housing complex on a portion of Westerly Parkway Plaza while adding conditions sought by the borough, neighboring residents and CATA.
The deed modification would also avoid what the project’s engineer called a “sea of parking” along Waupelani Drive.
Developer Landmark Properties submitted a preliminary land development plan in 2024 to construct The Retreat at Westerly Parkway, a 142-unit development on the east side of the plaza, where two now-vacant commercial buildings currently stand, and on an empty grass lot along Waupelani Drive behind the plaza. It does not include the west side of the plaza where Weis Markets and other businesses are located.
The original plan includes placing residential buildings and clubhouses on both the plaza and Waupelani Drive lots, with parking interspersed behind buildings throughout. But in conducting due diligence, the developer and borough discovered that when the property was rezoned for the Westerly Parkway Plaza shopping center in 1971, the property owners and borough agreed to place a covenant in the deed that allowed no buildings on the Waupelani Drive lot, only parking, landscaping and driveways.
Landmark developed an alternative plan that would comply with the deed restriction while maintaining the same total of total of 546 beds in garden- and townhome-style buildings and 418 parking spaces, but project and borough representatives said it would create several unwanted results.
Primarily, it would concentrate the residents and parking in higher densities, placing more than half of the parking along Waupelani Drive.
John Sepp, president of PennTerra Engineering, and borough solicitor Terry Williams said the restriction was clearly put in place for the possibility of developing the entire area as a strip mall.
If Landmark were to meet the restriction, the Waupelani lot would have 250 parking spaces.
“From an aesthetic standpoint, we don’t like it. I don’t think anyone would like to see a sea of parking along Waupelani,” Sepp said. “And also… It functions, but you can see the parking’s not around the units as you’d prefer.”
The number of residential units would also be reduced to 133 and would be almost entirely four- and five-bedroom units, eliminating most of the two- and three-bedroom units in the original plan to keep the same number of beds.
Landmark is paying a fee in lieu of constructing on-site affordable units. Under the original plan, that fee would be $2.426 million, but in the alternative plan would be reduced to $2.311 million.
After meeting with CATA, neighboring property owners on Oneida Street adjacent to the east side of the planned complex and Landmark, borough staff negotiated four changes for the original land development as a condition of modifying the deed restriction.
Landmark would add a 6-foot privacy fence along with a full landscaping buffer of deciduous, evergreen and understory trees and shrubs along the eastern property line to shield the homes along Oneida Street. The developer previously intended to rely solely on landscaping and building elevations.
“The ordinance does not require any landscape buffering between the development and the Oneida properties,” Ed LeClear, borough planning director, said. “This was a high priority both from a staff standpoint and neighbors on Oneida to create both a landscape buffer and Landmark also indicated that they’re also willing to put up a 6-foot privacy fence as well.”
Two conditions relate to CATA service to the development. While the initial plan envisioned only a bus stop on Waupelani Drive, the proposed change would alter the geometry of internal streets and parking to allow for a CATA bus route through the development.
It also would add a bus pad and shelter within the development “if zoning is changed in the future to reduce the development’s minimum parking requirements,” Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said.
The fourth condition would establish a no-build zone in an area to accommodate a potential future extension of Plaza Drive straight through from Westerly to Waupelani. (The development will have access from Waupelani to its internal street system, but will not create a direct thru-traffic public road to Westerly.)
“[The Plaza Drive extension is] not something that staff is [currently] recommending. It’s something that’s been in conversation in the past,” LeClear said. “We requested a no-build zone so if that was to be a future possibility there’s no building in the way.”
Council did not vote on the proposed deed modification and plan conditions during Monday’s work session but members indicated they were in favor. A vote is expected at council’s next meeting at 7 p.m. on April 21.
Landmark Properties has developed or manages multiple other student housing projects in the State College area, and is planning another 12-story building downtown. The company also constructed the original Retreat development across Waupelani Drive from the proposed Retreat at Westerly, but no longer owns it.
