A standing room only crowd crammed the State College Borough Council chambers last night to argue a zone change proposal essential to the construction of a six-story, office-apartment building downtown.

About a 120 fraternity members and alumni and other neighborhood residents, at a public hearing of the State College Planning Commission, heavily outnumbered a handful of developers and property owners who support the rezoning of the one-acre Hillel property at 224 Locust Lane.

"We cannot police 400 residents of an apartment building, nor can our parking lots house them and their friends when they come for Penn State football games," said Acacia fraternity member George Parizek who is against the change and proposed apartment building.

Several area residents who addressed the commission said that noise, traffic and vandalism problems that could result from placing a new apartment building on the property, would make the neighborhood unsafe.

But representatives from the Hillel Foundation, a Jewish student organization which owns the property, and Penn Hill, the project developer, said the proposed structure is the best alternative to renovating the dilapidated Hillel building.

The planning commission is considering a request to rezone the property from R-2, a low density residential district to R-O, a residential office zone. Planning commission Chairman Peter Everett said before the hearing, that members would have to examine public input before making a recommendation to council which holds the final decision.

Carl Hess, borough planning director, said while the proposed building meets all size specifications of the R-O zone, it could put a strain on the neighborhood streets. He said, however, that utilities an emergency services could handle the growth in the neighborhood.

The new structure would provide Hillel with 3,000 square feet of office space and contain 85 apartments and an underground parking garage with 126 spaces.