In a 4-2 vote at Monday night's meeting, borough officials ended plans to allow the State College Planning Commission to discuss creating a pedestrian mall.
The commission showed interest during the previous meeting in a plan that would prohibit cars on the 100 block of S. Allen Street.
With the vote, State College Borough Council members decided not to put a pedestrian mall on the commission's 2010 work plan, effectively halting discussion of the idea.
Council President Ron Filippelli, who voted to exclude the issue from the work plan, said that a no-car zone on Allen Street could cause downtown partiers to linger there.
"It could be a dangerous place at night," he said.
But council member Don Hahn, one of the two dissenting voters, said he did not see a reason to stop borough commissions from discussing plans of all types.
He also said the pedestrian mall could be one way to increase foot traffic downtown.
"This might be attractive as a way to bring non-students downtown during the summer," he said.
Council also moved forward with plans to name a public work after Martin Luther King, Jr.
All council members said they supported naming "something" in the borough after King. Member Peter Morris proposed renaming Orchard Park, but other members were uncomfortable specifying any location without public support.
Filippelli said he would rather rename something that was more centrally located, near Penn State and the downtown area.
Council decided to form a committee to gather public opinion and to specify a single public work to be renamed.
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