The Centre Region Planning Commission last night directed its staff to create a proposal that would allow for regional review of development usually regulated by individual municipalities.

The commission also approved two sections of the Centre Region Comprehensive Plan which outline future regional development and present geographical and administrative relationships. The sections will be submitted to the Centre Region Council of Governments for final review and approval in the near future.

As a step toward gaining the ability to address the potential impacts that development in one municipality may have on another, commission members asked planners to draft a request to allow the CRPC to investigate inter-municipality expansion.

Currently, development that has regional implications, zoning changes or constructs or destructs a roadway is automatically referred to the CRPC, said Chairman Paul Weener. Development that does not include these criteria is generally handled by the local planning commission only, he said.

Weener said regional articles of agreement may need to be changed to allow the CRPC to investigate development outside of the usual criteria.

But State College Borough Planning Director Carl Hess said changing individual articles of agreement would be impractical and time consuming. He argued instead that regional review of development could be achieved simply through a broader interpretation of the articles of agreement.

"The question is can we review these subdivisions without changing the articles of COG," Hess said.

Weener said the issue precipitated over discussion of potential development on the 100 acre McCormick tract in Ferguson Township. Although there are no concrete proposals, expansion on the property could impact State College, which borders the property.

In other business, Regional Planning Director Robert Bini and Planner Bob Crumm presented a summary of the comprehensive plan's future development section.

Based on input from a 1986 survey of region residents and extensive meetings with township supervisors last fall, region planners put together a map outlining where and what type of development should occur in the area, Crumm said.

Major suggestions from residents and elected officials taken into consideration by planners include allowing for reduced pollution, access to open space near residential areas and protecting residential neighborhoods from encroachment by commercial and other non-residential uses, Crumm said.