State College Borough Council last night approved an $81,000 request to fund the second phase of the borough's Downtown Economic and Urban Design Plan, a process planners hope will strengthen and beautify the downtown shopping district.

The council also gave the borough's planning staff $16,000 and two weeks to choose a company to compile a useful assessment of the borough's overcrowded parking problem.

Planning Commission Chairman Peter Everett said he was encouraged by the borough's support for the second phase of the plan, which is designed to recommend ways to restructure downtown.

The first phase of the study identified areas of the downtown's physical and economic structure that could be improved. That work, which has already been completed, cost $36,000.

"We don't know how to manage our downtown," Everett said. "We need the best plan we can get and the council gave us the resources to do that."

The borough had initially granted the planning staff $79,000 to pay the contractor -- Land Design Research of Columbia, Md. -- for the second phase. The council approved an additional $2,000 to cover the cost of designing a Downtown Retail Management Association and a retail mix study, Everett said.

The mix study would generate a list of which businesses would benefit the downtown and where they would be most desirable, Everett said. The association would oversee downtown businesses.

Councilwoman Ruth Lavin said she was disappointed that the contractor asked for additional payment for the two studies.

The contractor has also suggested a fresh assessment of the borough's over-parked streets and garages, Everett said.

The company offered to conduct the survey after it found the borough's information outdated and obsolete. Forty people would sweep neighborhood and downtown areas to observe parking habits and interview motorists about their parking habits, Everett said.

"We don't know who is parking where. We don't know for how long people are parking and we don't know for what reasons," he said.

The council debated whether the planning department should seek a local contractor to conduct the study at a lower price, but granted $16,000 to the department in case none could be found.