Douglas Albert, who owns an art gallery, says retailers need more of each other downtown. worlds: allow high-density in certain areas while protecting the charm and ambiance. Roll the clock back about 15 years. State College Borough is
geographically confined. There’s few places left to build. Penn State continues to grow. The Borough Council decides to allow provisions for some more density.
“The concept was: State College had reached a point where there was no room to grow, we were landlocked in terms of developable area,” Fountaine says. “There was a concept that high, vertical growth was a means of improving and increasing diversity within the community (and) at the same time, doing some things intentionally to try to maintain those sites as signature building sites, not necessarily just a freefor-all of redevelopment within the downtown corridor.” The challenges the borough faces are not unique to State College. The market demand for student housing near campuses, the suffering of brick-and-mortar retail from online sales, decades of suburban sprawl, these are all national trends. State College is fortunate, however, that its downtown never saw the level of deterioration that many Pennsylvania towns and cities have experienced over the last several decades, both urban and rural. Its population is increasing, despite statewide trends. That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges, or that local governments and businesses are powerless to act.
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North Atherton Place 1637 N. Atherton St.
814.867.0744 2017 October T&G - 49