For more than a month, residents of College Township's quiet Houserville neighborhood have grouped to challenge the potential impacts of a proposed development community that could be approved for construction within the next few months.

Developer Bill Laubscher, of Laubscher Industries in Ohio, plans to build 188 single-family homes and four office buildings on 90 acres of rolling meadows in Houserville across from Spring Creek Park and adjacent to Spring Lea Acres.

Among several issues, residents have debated the possible impacts of Laubscher's Springfield Trails development on their neighborhood's roadways, safety and privacy.

Last Thursday, township supervisors, faced with the dilemma of the project's impact on area infrastructure, extended the public hearing period to March 22 to consider their options.

After the hearing, township supervisors will have 60 days to approve or reject the development proposal, said Tom Lechner, township manager.

Supervisors received a petition signed by more than 250 residents that opposes a plan to connect the proposed development to a small residential street, Spring Lea Drive.

Bob Sherwood, who owns one of 15 homes on the street, said residents are concerned the neighborhood could become a thoroughfare between the development and State College.

If residents choose to drive through to Houserville and then Puddintown Road instead of College Avenue, the streets could become crowded, threaten the safety of children and reduce property values, he said.

Sherwood and friend Jim Bauer compiled an informal study of traffic patterns at intersections around their neighborhood. The study, which Bauer said uses conservative estimates, projects a 300 to 600 percent traffic increase through the neighborhood from the development.

"You're adding traffic going through an existing neighborhood and that's an extremely controversial issue," said Centre Region planner Tom Zilla about the option. "This is an extremely complicated development plan when it comes to issues of access."

Zilla and fellow planner Bob Jacobs have expressed concern about the original plan to have only one road, the proposed Falmouth Road, connect the development to the outside world.

Planners have maintained that a second access road for emergency vehicles needs to be constructed, and say the most viable alternative is to connect the development to Spring Lea Drive.

Zilla said planners are awaiting an updated traffic study from the developer that can help determine with some accuracy the potential impact of the new office-residential complex on surrounding roads.

He would not speculate on how much traffic would increase or whether improvements would need to be made to the state-owned Houserville or Puddintown roads.

Options that could solve the problem include connecting the Springfield Trails to other roads including Trout or Dreibelbis roads, or allowing only emergency traffic travel between Spring Lea Drive and the development, Jacobs said.

Laubscher said he is not in favor of allowing through traffic between Springfield Trails and neighborhoods but would support an emergency route.

Regardless of where a second access is placed, modifications will likely be needed at the intersection Houserville and the proposed Falmouth Street, the main entrance to the development, Zilla said.

Laubscher owns a portion of the land slated for development and has the option to buy the remainder from area land holders Dan Stearns and Ronald Boal. Houses would be constructed on the property at a rate of about three a month.