State College Chose Parking Over People. The People Fought Back.
Downtown State College, PA. (Source: Wikimedia Commons/Goonsnick.)
On August 7, 2023, State College, Pennsylvania, (a borough—not a city or town—in central Pennsylvania home to Penn State University) voted to authorize eminent domain to demolish three downtown businesses for a parking garage. There are three garages within a five-minute walking distance, even more lots, and on-street parking available throughout downtown. For the next few weeks, a Strong Towns Local Conversation, Strong Towns Happy Valley, mobilized opposition to the project. By August 21, the vote was rescinded. The businesses are safe from the wrecking ball but the parking garage isn’t totally off the table.
In August 2023, Jay Horgas learned the bar he operated in the building he owned with Ray Rockey would be leveled for a parking garage. State College, a borough in central Pennsylvania, planned to acquire the centrally located property via eminent domain and invest $50 million in a parking structure to replace the one a block away—the Pugh Street Garage—which officials claim is nearing the “end of its useful life.”
Horgas was in disbelief; several years ago, he asked whether his building would be in the path of the proposed garage and swore he was told not to worry. Furthermore, when all was said and done, he was never personally notified. Instead, he learned he’d lose his business, The Brewery, in operation since the 1960s, when a reporter reached out for comment on August 7. That was just hours before the council voted to authorize the appropriation of his building. “They never said anything to us,” Gorgas told StateCollege.com. “There has not been one lick of dialogue about this.”
Those in favor of demolishing the businesses (which, in addition to Horgas’ and Rockey’s bar, include a pizza place and music store that have called the downtown building home for years) argued that State College needs more parking. The immediate vicinity is served by several paid parking lots, garages, and on-street parking: the crumbling yet still operational Pugh Street Garage is a block away, the block of the bar has the McAllister Parking Deck, and a five-minute walk produces at least two parking lots and the Fraser Street Garage.
“In fact, we have maps showcasing that 20% of our commercial district is dedicated to parking lots and garages,” Ethan Dean, a Penn State graduate student shared, in disbelief that elected leaders would use prime real estate for such an unproductive use.
Dean runs a Local Conversation in State College, Strong Towns Happy Valley, and along with Nicholas Rajeev Rizzio has been instrumental in mobilizing an opposition to the new parking facility. In addition to pointing out an overabundance of existing parking alternatives nearby, he shared that another local advocate began informally monitoring the capacity of the garages on the busiest days of the year in State College: move-in and game days. Even on those days, the facilities had “plenty of spaces available,” a finding consistent with many recent studies.
For Dean and Rizzio, the project exemplifies the borough’s commitment to auto-centric development, in spite of what its Comprehensive Plan expresses. With a $50 million price tag, it is by far the costliest of the 31 projects in the 2022-2026 Capital Improvement Plan. According to the Centre Daily, the remaining $85 million budgeted is to be split among 30 projects, some of which may be supplemented by grants, and many of which officials conceded would likely not even materialize. Projects explicitly benefiting “Bicyclist and Pedestrian Safety” amount to less than $200,000 altogether.
“At the same time, the borough’s land use has forced people to live outside of downtown and even outside of the borough’s borders with no option but to drive in,” Dean observed. Coupled with diminishing bus service (Rizzio pointed out its coverage and frequency have only decreased in the last decade) and restrictive zoning that inhibits development within walking distance of downtown, those living in and just outside of State College have little recourse.
Incentivizing driving by investing $50 million in new and updated parking facilities, however, will only double down on the problem. For one, with limited existing structures zoned for the type of commercial space Horgas and Rockey owned, relocating within downtown wasn’t an option. “Not to mention, if a bar isn’t going to be downtown, basically on campus, where’s it going to be?” Rizzio questioned. “Do you want people to drink and drive?”
Secondarily, carving out more space for vehicle storage is an invitation for more cars in a downtown that just days prior to the vote mourned another traffic fatality. “This definitely underscores the need for safe bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the region.” Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins said of that crash. On the the same block as The Brewery, a cyclist was injured in late June and in 2022, another was killed in a crash nearby that invoked outrage over the borough’s unsafe infrastructure.
“Pedestrian and bike safety is very serious business and I want us to take action to respond to this tragedy and to continue to prioritize those investments so that this is the last time this will happen in our community,” State College Mayor Ezra Nanes said at the time. “I place no blame, I only call us all to action.”
That’s why Strong Towns Happy Valley and its allies—nearly 5,000 people signed a petition admonishing the eminent domain acquisition—spent August mobilizing locals to combat the project and instead, envision a different path forward for State College. For three weeks, advocates organized educational events, coordinated conversation after conversation with elected officials, and provided comment at every hearing. In that time, they were able to prove just how unpopular the August 7 decision was. What they didn’t anticipate was that State College was actually listening.
On August 21, 2023, State College’s council chambers were standing room only, with hundreds tuned in virtually, to ostensibly “voice their displeasure with the [August 7] decision during the public hour,” StateCollege.com reported. The parking garage wasn’t even on that Monday’s agenda.
Shortly before public comment commenced, however, the borough staff introduced the matter into session and voted to reverse it. The vote was unanimous. “That was met with a roar of applause and standing ovation from those in the audience,” the local news shared.
This was a major success for Strong Towns Happy Valley and the local businesses who no longer have to fear demolition. However, the parking garage isn’t entirely off the table. Dean and Rizzio would love to see the money go toward pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure upgrades, but knowing how challenging re-appropriating those funds is, they at least want downtown to be off limits. “There’s more than enough parking here.”
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Asia (pronounced “ah-sha”) Mieleszko serves as a Staff Writer for Strong Towns. A dilettante urbanist since adolescence, she's excited to convert a lifetime of ad-hoc volunteerism into a career. Her unconventional background includes directing a Ukrainian folk choir, pioneering synaesthetic performances, photographing festivals, designing websites, teaching, and ghostwriting. She can be found wherever Wi-Fi is reliable, typically along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.