Penn State and State College Borough officials have agreed on the spirit, if not the specific words, of a deal that will lead to a new student apartment project.

At a Borough Council meeting last night, university planners and council members hammered out a traffic agreement that makes Penn State responsible for extra cars on borough streets as a result of the housing.

Final approval of the traffic agreement — and thus the plan for the West Campus graduate student housing — could come at the next Borough Council meeting on Feb. 5.

"I think between now and then, we can come to an agreement," said Bill Anderson, Penn State's Assistant Vice President for Physical Plant.

Anderson said he is also planning to present the final West Campus housing plan for approval to the Penn State Board of Trustees on Friday. It will be one of several major projects to come before the Trustees.

Construction on the new apartment — which will house 300 individual graduate students and 125 families — is set to begin this spring. Students could be living there as early as fall 2002.

The development is the next project lined up for Penn State's West Campus, which sits near the State College bus terminal, south of the White Golf Course and west of North Atherton Street.

The new apartments will connect to the northern ends of Sparks Street and Patterson Street, near the golf course.

The housing plans led some borough residents to worry about an increase in student drivers on their neighborhood streets.

"I'm very concerned about the West Campus development," said Rebecca Hirsch, who lives on nearby Gill Street. "What I would like to see is a rejection of this plan by the Borough Council."

Some residents are also suspicious that Penn State might decide, at some point in the future, to convert the graduate apartments to undergraduate apartments.

Wary of late-night noise and vandalism, the Borough Council views undergraduate housing as a different animal.

"It's one thing if you're talking about housing the people you're talking about. It's another thing if you're talking about undergraduate housing," said council member Janet Knauer.

Penn State planners and the council had discussed the West Campus deal at a work session last week.

Borough staff had drafted an open-ended plan that took some decision-making power from the university, but Anderson suggested several changes, and the Council informally agreed.

Under the agreement reached, but not approved, last night:

• Penn State cannot build roads that connect the new apartments to the West Campus academic buildings unless the Council approves.

• If traffic on Sparks Street increases to the point where the Borough Council thinks a traffic signal is required, Penn State will pay for a signal at the intersection of Sparks Street and West College Avenue.

• If a study of the traffic on Sparks Street shows a gain of more than 600 vehicles per day, Penn State and the Borough will work on an agreement about how to handle the traffic. If they can't reach an agreement, it will be Penn State's responsibility to find a way to decrease the traffic.

• If Penn State wants to turn the graduate student apartments into anything else -- such as undergraduate student apartments -- Penn State and the Borough must again try to reach an agreement on how to handle any extra traffic. Penn State will be responsible for decreasing traffic if no agreement can be reached.