The State College Transportation Commission will give plans for a proposed parking garage on West College Avenue and Corl Street to the Planning Commission and Borough Council.

In addition, the commission also discussed plans for extending White Course Drive, which would connect North Atherton Street with Corl Street at the site of the possible parking garage.

"It would reduce the amount of traffic at College and Atherton, and Beaver and Atherton," Public Works Director Mark Whitfield said. "A big concern is what to do with the pedestrians and traffic at White Course and Atherton."

Whitfield said if White Course Drive is extended, only buses would be allowed on the new section of the road, which would connect with the parking garage.

"The way you would access [the garage] would be at Corl," he said, referring to non-bus traffic.

However, Whitfield said none of the plans were set in stone.

"This is all concept and plan at this stage in the game," he said.

Planning Director Carl Hess said one of the first steps in the process would be to hire a consultant to evaluate the housing and properties in question.

"The process is just getting started," Hess said.

"The consultant will be looking at those properties for the highest, best use for market feasibility. There has been discussion in the past about the possibility of upgrading the intersection," he added.

Eric Hirsch, a transportation commission member, said Penn State taking the houses on corner of Corl Street and College Avenue concerned him.

"I was curious who lived in those houses," Hirsch said.

Hirsch said low-income housing is already limited in the area, and thought the project may take away low-income housing.

Transportation Commission member Elizabeth Goreham said the borough had a "cooperative planning" relationship with Ferguson Township, where the houses technically reside.

Goreham, also a Borough Council member, said Ferguson Township and the State College borough have been working together toward a solution.

"The housing is part of the area that is being jointly discussed," she said. "Ferguson and the borough are cooperatively hiring a consultant."

Goreham added that the Urban Village is a re-development plan also slated for the western portion of campus, along College Avenue and out to Corl Street, but the fusion of the borough's plans with those of the university was welcomed.

"It's good that we have the university's plan," she said. "It will be folded in."

Transportation Commission member Rick Gilmore said the parking garage might serve more than those who live on the west side of town.

For this reason, he said, extending White Course Drive would be a good idea.

"I can envision that connecting White Course would be a benefit," he said. "I'd like to see some data."

Goreham said although Ferguson Township and the borough were working together with a consultant, the university must adhere to its own zoning laws.

"It shouldn't be a problem, but who knows?" she said. "There has been no discussion."