Citizens to discuss zoning

Nina White, a Highlands neighborhood resident since 1976, said the pending zoning changes in her neighborhood are not a retaliation of homeowners against students.

"It saddens me that students who know we're for the changes also think we're anti-student," White said. "We're a community."

- Nina White, a Highlands neighborhood resident since 1976

A proposed amendment would change some areas of the Highlands neighborhood from higher- to lower-density populations.

White said the growing density will limit diversity in her neighborhood.

"We've liked the mix of people who live here," White said. "This is a fragile area, and it's an issue of preserving what we have. This fragile neighborhood contains things that the students enjoy, like the trees. That could be lost one day and replaced with apartment complexes."

State College Borough Planning Commission Chairman Drew Hyman said the zoning changes are proposed to discourage large apartment structures from being built in the future and therefore lower the density of the neighborhood.

Tonight's meeting is the second public hearing the council has scheduled about the Highlands rezoning proposal.

However, Council President Jean McManis said she does not want this to be the final public hearing on the issue.

McManis said the council could vote tonight to adopt the ordinance at the March 2 borough council meeting, but she would like to have the vote delayed tonight.

"This is a very complicated issue and we're getting some increasingly strong opinions from both sides," McManis said. "This shouldn't be passed hastily."

Jamie Klingler, director of the Undergraduate Student Governments Department of town affairs, said members of USG's town affairs department will attend the council meeting to support the student community and show their disagreement with the proposed changes.

However, Klingler said she is not optimistic that council will heed the student voice.

"I really expect they'll vote these ordinances into law," Klingler said.