Planning for People

By Michael Hermann; Lizard Tracks, Centre Daily Times, January 2000

In our society most people have a choice as to where they want to live. Some prefer a rural location and others choose more urban surroundings. Career opportunities, educational pursuits and personal relationships alter our priorities and needs. We search for a community that offers the right balance with the best mix of our favorite lifestyle components. For many people State College is a perfect fit. But once we become part of a community that was chosen for a specific set of lifestyle attributes, we watch those attributes change. Farms become neighborhoods, shopping centers expand and interstates run through our back yards. It appears that our perfect match community has become exactly what we were escaping from. Suddenly we do live within a beltway, the traffic is worse and the greenspace has disappeared.

Is it really as bad as it may appear? I don’t think so. Centre Region government performs many positive acts to balance the growth. For example, the bike path network is growing and has potential to be one of the nation’s best. The public parks are numerous and continue to be planned and developed. The mix of residential and commercial development is well balanced. Most local conflicts arise on the political borders for such areas. Very few of these changes come as a surprise, although residents are often unaware of the planning process.

In some communities local government can be accused of pulling a fast one, but not here. I have seen posted flyers announcing “Zoning Change Requested” in almost every corner of the Centre Region in the last twenty years. I am among the few who stop to read them. When I attend a township meeting to satisfy my curiosity it is usually poorly attended. The townships post flyers and run ads in the local newspapers presenting their agendas. It is the local residents opportunity, and perhaps responsibility, to attend these open meetings. The residents often show apathy and lack of involvement which undermine any ability to suggest change. Perhaps the best example of a community that did get involved occurred in 1999 when Ferguson Township residents rallied to change zoning on a parcel of state game land. Organized by very intelligent and diligent individuals, an uphill battle was fought and the general public convinced local government to make zoning changes to a peice of land literally in their backyard. In this case, the neighborhood halted a direction of development they opposed.

Another outstanding example of quality development planning is shown in the Stonebridge development (also in Ferguson Township). A bike path was designed through the middle of this neighborhood before home construction began. This bike path has since been connected to the high school, which creates a wonderful corridor from downtown to out-of-town nieghborhoods. The reason I was so impressed with that is because it proved that some people like buying a home with a bike path through the backyard.
This is in striking contrast to putting a bike path across someone’s backyard who didn’t want such a thing. I can understand the resentment a homeowner feels when their private backyard is suddenly made open to everyone else’s eyes. In many cases this isn’t fair and the residents become bitter towards the local planners who built it. But did they attend the planning meetings beforehand or did they simply complain afterwards?

The Centre Region is putting in new developments at an alarming pace. Wouldn’t it be a better future if these new neighborhoods were designed with bike paths and open spaces from the start? This would give people a choice when they pick a lot and build their new home. Many would enjoy the bike path access and would not mind the rest of the neighborhood traipsing along it on Saturday morning. Those who prefer privacy could build off the bike path corridor. As more roadways are built the bike paths will conflict with dangerous intersections. If tunnels were designed into the plan from the beginning their costs would be minimized. College Township showed progressive thinking when they designed the path underneath rt. 26 near Lemont. Most residents would welcome similar projects in the future. There are downsides to economic and population growth and most prevalent of those are environmental concerns. Local residents can get involved in these issues on a proactive level, but only if they do so during the planning stage. It’s too late to protest when the bulldozers are on site. The time for change is when land becomes available and townships consider rezoning or negotiations with developers begin.

The next time you see a “Zoning Change Requested” sign in your travels stop to read it. Contact your township planning office to get a meeting agenda list. Think about what local government could do to improve the quality of life in your neighborhood. Then get involved. There is no single vision for the future of Centre County, but there is ample opportunity for common ground.