Residents clash over zoning issue

Discussion about rezoning in the Highlands neighborhood remained diverse during the State College Borough Council meeting last night.

The conversation, which was open to public comment, mainly featured council members. Opposed to previous discussions, only two community members spoke about the issue. The residents expressed distinct opposition to each other.

Borough resident Art Beward asked the council to explain how it knew the rezoning would work for the community. Answering his own question, he said it would not.

The beginning could be even more rezoning in the borough.

Beward also requested that the council consider undertaking an impact statement on the neighborhood. The measure would investigate possible outcomes of the rezoning.

However, to correct the overall problem, Beward suggested the council restore the zoning that was present when the homeowner bought his or her home. He said he is concerned about the loss of money he could incur if his property were downzoned.

Bob Seibel, co-president of the Highlands Neighborhood Association, and a neighbor of Beward, quickly rebutted Beward's comment.

"Our kids played together," Seibel said. "You raised a family in a residential neighborhood. Isn't that unfair to your neighbors to take that away from them?"

The issue of rezoning the Highlands neighborhood was first publicly discussed by the council in January. The changes were suggested by the borough planning commission to control density and open space in the neighborhood.

The plan calls for downzoning many properties, which are currently eligible for large development or commercial use, to residential properties.

In a memorandum to the council about the Highlands on March 12, borough manager Peter Marshall offered a new compromised proposal for council's consideration.

In it, Marshall expressed he understood both sides of the rezoning issue. His new proposal addresses some of these concerns, he said.

Council member Janet Knauer said the memorandum was only discussed by the council briefly because of the lengthy process needed to initiate a new proposal.

Knauer said if the current proposal does not pass April 6, the proposal by Marshall could be considered.