Picture a State College in which all the off-campus students live in high-rise apartment buildings, having to take an elevator up to their homes and being packed into a hallway with about 100 people living among the individual apartments.

This is a place where most pets are not welcomed and a place where your neighbors are only a concrete, cylinder wall away — you know that because you can hear every little detail of their life.

Now picture a college town in which students have the opportunity to choose from a variety of living options.

They can live in individual homes where the closest neighbor is at least an alley or a yard away.

If the State College Borough's Design Review Board allows the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to build a new multi-use chapel in the downtown area, it will take place of four historic houses on the 500 block of East Beaver Avenue — where students currently reside.

Students should be able to have an alternative to living in an apartment building setting and should have the opportunity to live in a house environment during their years in State College.

Taking away more student housing is a problem — not a solution — to the number of students every year that choose to live off-campus.

Constructing a new church in a residential area is obviously fine, but not if it will take away from current student residences.

There are other downtown locations from which the church can be accessed by the more than 60 Penn State students that currently participate in Latter-Day Saints' services and activities in Eisenhower Chapel.

Some residents of the neighborhood expressed concern with the loss of the homes that are have historic value, but some church leaders said the houses are not worth restoring.

Residents and board members alike are concerned about the design and style of the new church in the historical area.

But why haven't there been steps taken to begin restoring these homes, as discussed and suggested by some people at a design board meeting?

No matter the location or design both church leaders and board members decide upon, they should take into consideration that they are taking away homes from students and narrowing the variety of housing options available.