A possible new student living complex was proposed by Toll Brothers homebuilders at a Ferguson Township meeting Tuesday night to be located along Whitehall Road and Blue Course Drive.
Elliott Killian, township supervisor of Ferguson Township, said the area would be essentially a student dwelling.
He said the area is zoned as R-4, which he said is dense housing, and is zoned for buildings such as apartments.
“One of the things we were looking at is allowing four students living in one apartment, which is currently illegal in Centre Region,” Killian (junior-horticulture) said.
Though he said it occurs downtown often, he said in the Centre Region only three unrelated people can live together in a housing unit.
Killian said for this zoning, it was a possibility that developers would be able to request that four students be allowed to live in one apartment together.
He said R-4 zoning also limits the design aspect of the buildings so they looked like ugly three story buildings.
“But in the future, hopefully it would be completely designable into these large sort of house structures that have a first floor as a living area and then has four apartments upstairs, each with its own bathroom,” Killian said.
He said the developers did not have a detailed plan and said the timeliness of the finalization of it depended on the developers and how quickly they wanted to get it through.
Marc McMaster, a member of the Ferguson Township planning commission, said the plans were very preliminary as of right now.
“This is literally years down the road,” McMaster said. “They haven’t even submitted a formal plan yet.”
He said Tuesday night was the first night the township looked at it together, and said there were a few residents who were concerned about students living so close by.
McMaster said the developers would be marketing the apartments toward students, but said it was not limited only to them.
However, he said the location of the complexes may be too far away from campus for some students.
The Toll Brothers homebuilders declined comment about the plans for the new housing.
