College Township Council unanimously approved on Thursday night a final land development plan for a new affordable housing apartment complex for senior citizens.
Evergreen Heights is a planned three-story, 40-unit building for qualified individuals age 62 and older to be constructed on a parcel at the intersection of Trout Road and Pleasant Pointe Drive.
The township’s planning commission previously recommended approval of the plan.
“It’s a need in our community so I’m happy to see it coming along,” Councilwoman Carla Stilson said.
Trout Road Partners II — a limited partnership affiliated with local developer HFL Corporation — submitted plans for the project. Evergreen Heights would be located adjacent to Pleasant Pointe, an affordable townhouse community also developed HFL.
The company was awarded $1.2 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for the project in October, which will require that the units remain affordable for at least 30 years.
PHFA sets specific rent limits for affordable housing based on household income, which must be 60 percent or below the area median, number of people in the household and number of bedrooms in the rental unit.
Plans call for passive recreation space with a community garden, gazebo and benches around the exterior of the building. A parking lot will include 77 spaces.
The apartment building takes up only a portion of the 6.2-acre parcel, with a large area designated for future buildout.
“The future phase would be something very similar to this but it’s all based upon PHFA funding, et cetera,” Chad Stafford, of project engineer PennTerra, told council.
Pleasant Pointe and accompanying infrastructure was built with the intention of acquiring and developing the adjacent parcel, Stafford said. Pleasant Pointe Drive will service both developments and stormwater flowing through a series of basins at Evergreen Heights to the main basin at Pleasant Pointe.
“We’ve been planning this from day one with Pleasant Pointe,” Stafford said. “The Pleasant Pointe basin was designed to ultimately be able to take in series to take that stormwater.”
A bikeway along Pleasant Pointe Drive adjacent to the Evergreen Heights property was part of Pleasant Pointe’s construction, and Stafford said a sidewalk will be added at the front of the property to continue pedestrian connections along Trout Road.
A CATA bus stop is located at Pleasant Pointe Drive.
Construction of Evergreen Heights is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year with completion in the fourth quarter of 2023, HFL Vice President Troy Knecht wrote in an email.
In addition to Pleasant Pointe, HFL has developed multiple affordable housing projects in Centre County, including Limerock Terrace in College Township, Atherton Place in State College, Bellefonte Mews and a new 18-unit building on Cherry Lane in Ferguson Township.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story quoted Chad Stafford as saying the CATA bus stop at Pleasant Pointe was “essentially shut down.” A CATA spokesperson said the stop is actively served by the HM route Monday through Saturday.
