Students will still have Canyon Pizza's $1 slices and SoZo's variety concerts in the same building -- at least for now.
The State College Borough Planning Commission voted 4-2 on Wednesday not to rezone the building that encloses 256 E. Beaver Ave., the former home of Kappa Sigma fraternity and current home of both Canyon Pizza, 260 E. Beaver Ave., and downtown venue SoZo, said Alex Sahakian, HFL Corporation principal.
State College realty developer HFL Corp. purchased the building in past weeks with the hopes of rezoning the building into a commercial-incentive area, he said.
But the planning commission's decision prevents HFL Corp. from tearing the building down to erect a 250-resident student apartment building as it had originally planned.
Sahakian said the company is still working with the Downtown Improvement District (DID) and the Highlands Neighborhood Association to figure out another option for the property. The possibilities for the building are "extremely limited" at the moment, Sahakian said. If the building is torn down, the only thing the current residential zoning designation allows HFL Corp. to build in its place is either a single residence home or a duplex -- options Sahakian called "pretty silly."
DID Director Teresa Sparacino said she wasn't happy with the commission's vote to not rezone.
"I think that more dialogue needs to take place," she said. "I think there is a solution for this property."
Sparacino suggested the property could be used for "mixed-use development" rather than just student housing, as was originally proposed. She said more discussion would "most definitely" have to take place during a future Borough Council meeting, but nothing would happen overnight.
Sahakian said HFL Corp. has not made any decisions regarding the building's current tenants. He did say it would make no sense, in the current zoning structure, for the company to tear down the building and erect something else in its place.
That situation, a result of the commission's decision not to rezone, is just fine with SoZo director William Snyder.
"It's good, I think. We see it kind of as a win," he said. "We're still standing, as a building ... we obviously don't want to go anywhere."
Neither Canyon Pizza nor planning commission members were available for comment by press time.
Snyder said the commission was trying to avoid "spot zoning" the building; therefore, in order to change the building's zoning designation, the commission would have to alter the entire block's designation.
"You can't just rezone one building," council member Craig Humphrey said.
Humphrey said he was opposed to HFL's original plan "from the get-go," adding that he was not against student housing, but merely aimed for a diversity of housing options.
"The developer makes [student housing] look like the only alternative you have," he said. "There is an alternative interest in that building ... Antioch Church."
Perry Babb, a pastor for Antioch International Church, which currently meets inside SoZo, said the church would buy the building if HFL Corp. were interested in selling it.
If they had the opportunity to buy it, the church would turn it into an arts center, expanding the SoZo venue to include another performance venue, capable of seating 300, as well as a sizable art gallery and a writer's guild, Babb said.
Additionally, he said Antioch Church would use the building to house staff for its humanitarian aid efforts in Rwanda and Belize, serve as a general congregation area for church events and house students or a resident art program. Babb said the church has already received positive feedback from local officials, but it would be difficult for them to execute the plan as tenants, even if they were able to rent the whole building.
"Right now, we're just going to keep doing what we're doing," Babb said. "We don't yet know what the future's going to hold."
