West Campus expansion plans are pushing the Centre Area Transportation Authority to explore new sites for the North Atherton Street bus terminal.

A committee overseen by CATA is looking to keep the site somewhere in or around the Penn State campus. Other possible sites include the airport and the I-99/322 interchange, which are removed from both the State College Borough and the Penn State campus, CATA spokesman Bill Tobin said.

The master plan for the West Campus expansion does not include the bus terminal, Tobin said, adding that the expansion plans cannot go forward until a new bus station location is found.

"It could be five to ten years until the bus terminal is moved," he said.

CATA and the Council of Governments (COG) have a consultant that will conduct a study to find the best location possible. However, everyone involved is being reminded that land is hard to come by in State College.

"So much land is already spoken for in State College, it is already a congested area," Katie Palmer, ITC committee member, said.

They are conducting stakeholder studies and have found that students will be the most affected because they are the most frequent users of the terminal, Palmer said.

"They are trying to do what's best for the students, but it might not be as close as it is now," she said.

They are looking at land owned by the university as well as borough-owned land, Palmer said.

There will be a public hearing on April 25 regarding the move of the terminal. The meeting will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. in the municipal building. The meeting will help the committee further its feasibility study.

"It's to get public feedback and to prepare for any public conflict," Palmer said.

The committee is also studying the existing conditions of the bus terminal to find out how to better it, she added.

The study started last year and may be wrapped up next month, but the results of the study will not be concluded in time for the public hearing.

Even though many residents who were surveyed about the project said they liked the bus terminal where it currently stands, it is impossible for the bus terminal to stay there, Tobin said.

Palmer agrees, "It is inevitable that the bus terminal is going to move."