City Council Weighs Public Concerns on Adding Age-Qualified/Veteran Housing Zoning Amending

By Christopher Miller

LOCK HAVEN – Lock Haven City Council met Monday evening for their special public hearing meeting regarding the consideration of Ordinance 2025-02 amending Chapter 410 “Zoning” of the Lock Haven City Code.

The zoning amendment will amend the ordinance to add multifamily dwellings as part of an age-qualified housing project or a veteran housing project as a permitted use by right in the Low-Density Residential (R-L), Medium-Density Residential (R-M), and High-Density Residential (R-H) Zoning Districts.

This comes after an appeal by Third Street Associates to the Zoning Hearing Board decision was made to the Court of Common Pleas. The case was reversed and the request was then granted.

Third Street Associates seeks to construct a new senior living facility located at 342 Third Avenue in Lock Haven on the site of a formal commercial/industrial building that has sat vacant for at least the past ten years.

Public comments on the matter included those worried about adequate parking in the area, health and welfare of the residents and neighbors in the vicinity of the proposed housing, impacts to infrastructure, the number of “lost” truckers trying to find First Quality and ending up driving down the narrow roads in Lock Haven’s “hill section,” the possibility of a property sale in the future and those owners wishing to change the housing from age-qualified or veteran to a fair-market apartment complex, overcrowding of the lot, and local resident property tax values.

“The minimum parking at the facility is 0.75 parking spaces for each dwelling unit,” a city resident said. “The site is an acre and a half and they want to put 40 units there, all developed and parking lot, no green space, no picnic table

Councilman Jeff Brinker called on council members to “make calls” and to “do your research” before officially voting on the matter.

“Has anyone called Williamsport or State College asking about the number of units they have and the number of vehicles their residents have,” Brinker asked. “Instead of having people making rounds counting cars, let’s place a phone call and come back with solid data rather than human observations.”

Councilman Jeff Brinker was the lone “no” vote on the ordinance.

Monday night’s reading of the ordinance was the public hearing and the topic will be revisited when council meets next on March 17.