State College Nixes New Downtown Parking Garage After Public Uproar

When the community of State College, Pennsylvania decided to demolish three downtown businesses via eminent domain to make way for a new parking garage, local residents mobilized to fight the project. As Asia Mieleszko writes in Strong Towns, the group, Strong Towns Happy Valley, gathered local support to rescind the decision.

Business owner Jay Horgas, who owns one of the buildings in question, says he was told several years ago his business would not be in danger. “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.”

According to Mieleszko, “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.” Parking amounts to roughly 20 percent of the area’s commercial district. Many of them have “plenty of spaces available” even during the busiest times, like Penn State college football game days.

After a petition protesting the project garnered 5,000 signatures and with hundreds of people present in person and virtually to protest the project at an August 21 council meeting, the borough council brought the issue to a vote and reversed the decision. While the parking garage isn’t entirely off the table, the move signals the importance of grassroots organizing.