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BELLEFONTE -- The Centre County Board of Commissioners approved three memorandums authorizing reimbursement costs to Benner, Snow Shoe and Potter Townships, associated with plans for several development sites around the county.
The memorandums are part of an agreement by the developers to reimburse the townships for engineering inspections and approvals of their respective projects. Final approval of the plans is vested in the Centre County Planning Commission.
The commissioners unanimously approved all three memorandums of understanding Tuesday, which broadly outline the final plans for land development and subdivision of these properties as agreed upon by the developers, township and county.
In Benner Township, the board approved a proposed 124,000 square foot e-commerce fulfillment center warehouse. This comes after revised plans to build a 1 million square foot facility at Benner Commerce Park were withdrawn by SunCap Property Group on Feb. 9.
"We cannot speculate on why it is being downsized," said SunCap representative Matt Virgin after being asked by the press.
"This is the first step in beginning the redesign," said Virgin, sharing that the project is planned to go to a pre-application meeting in early April.
There has been continued speculation about the end user of the facility. On April 19, 2022, SunCap representatives told commissioners they were bound by a non-disclosure agreement and could not identify the applicant.
"We continue to have growth in Centre County, and perhaps I'm assuming Amazon isn't making any particular comment about the business climate here. I'm sure that sales online perhaps have slowed a little bit and at least in the short term they don't need a million square feet," said Board Chair Mark Higgins. Higgins' comments fueled speculation that Amazon is the employer who originally was set to bring upwards of 700 jobs to Centre County.
In Snow Shoe Township, approval was given to the planned development of a Dollar General along Route 144 beside Rees' Truck Stop and across the road from the existing Family Dollar.
"It seems like this will be a welcome development for the folks who live there, in terms of bringing some type of groceries in, even if not necessarily as much of the fresh food they may need," said Commissioner Amber Concepcion who raised the concern that residents lack appropriate access to fresh produce.
"This is a Dollar General market, meaning there will be a grocery component to this facility," said Christopher Schnure, indicating there are plans for the chain to offer fresh foods to customers in Show Shoe.
In Potter Township, approval was given to a residential subdivision plan for The Horizon at Brush Valley. The development is located south of Lower Brush Valley Road, approximately 0.5 miles east of Centre Hall Borough at the intersection of Lane and Kreitzer Avenue.
The proposal includes an additional 39 residential lots and one open lot, with corresponding infrastructure. This is phase two of a plan to build a total of 94 residential lots on the property.