Planning official explains dorm decision
A recommendation by the Fayette County Planning Commission against rezoning property near Penn State Fayette Campus to allow the construction of student housing was not made because the property is in a tax-free zone, a county official contends. Tammy Shell, executive director of the Fayette County Office of Planning, Zoning and Community Development, said the planning commission made the recommendation because the members didn’t feel the project was “conducive with the use for which the property was rezoned.” The property was previously rezoned from A-1, agricultural rural, to M-2, industrial.
At its November meeting, the planning commission voted not to recommend changing the current R-2, medium-density residential, and A-1 zoning to B-1, general business, to allow the construction of the dorm units. Shell said the commission members didn’t feel that the student housing units would mix with the tenants in a technology park.
Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, former owner of the property, initiated the rezoning petition. MillCroft Industries Inc. of Canonsburg wants to build up to four three-story buildings with a capacity of 168 students on a vacant 8-acre parcel near the University Technology Park, North Union Township. Penn State Fayette has officially objected to the plans on several points.
The land is located along Route 119, in a tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ). During the group’s quarterly meeting Thursday, Fay-Penn President Mike Krajovic criticized the planning commission members’ vote, saying the decision was based on the property’s location in the KOZ.
Shell acknowledged that the planning commission discussed the KOZ, but the tax-free designation was not the reason for the recommendation.
Although the planning commission is against the proposal, the county commissioners will have the final say on the rezoning and will hold a public hearing on the request at 1:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 29. The commissioners’ final meeting of the year is scheduled for Dec. 30, when the issue might come up for a vote.
Krajovic said Fay-Penn is hoping that the commissioners will approve the rezoning to allow the construction of the dorms. He called the dorm project an investment on property that would otherwise sit vacant due to the slope of the land. Krajovic added that the project would save Penn State money because a private developer is proposing it, would bring more students into the county, and numerous businesses have expressed support for the proposal.
Because all the tenants of the units must be full-time students, it is unlikely that the students will provide much tax revenue because few will have full-time jobs, Krajovic said.
“Everyone wins in this situation,” he said.
He added that Fay-Penn is disappointed and confused by a separate ruling by the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board against a use variance that would have allowed construction of the dorms. That decision is under appeal.
Ricardo Cicconi, a zoning board member who ruled against the use variance, said the KOZ issue wasn’t a factor in his decision to deny the request.
“It was purely whether or not they established a hardship,” Cicconi said. “It wasn’t the only possible use for the property.”
Shell said the zoning board must determine that a petition meets five criteria to allow a use variance, and the members ruled that the petition did not meet the criteria.
Krajovic said the hardship is that there is nothing in the current zoning code that allows construction of dorm units. The county is updating the zoning and land development ordinances, which were adopted in 1968.