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Altoona Planning Commission member Larry Bilotto this week apologized to his colleagues for his vote to approve the land development plan for a Penn State Altoona construction project, saying that if he'd visited the site prior to that December meeting, he'd have learned information not highlighted by the college -- perhaps leading him to vote differently.
"I don't think they explained all they wanted to do or why," Bilotto said of Penn State representatives who explained the site for an addition to the Cypress Building, just off the end of Ivyside Drive. "It seemed like they told us what they wanted us to hear."
Bilotto isn't happy that the college will remove a row of about 10 spruce trees on the edge closest to Ivyside Drive, so workers can pour a sidewalk; and that they'll remove a sidewalk across the parking lot that is "very functional."
The new sidewalk will eliminate the need for students to walk through the parking lot to reach other campus buildings -- something that is "very important to us," Rob Hippo, director of business services for the college stated in an email. The trees that will be cut down to make way "have grown well beyond their useful life."
Their lower branches are gone, so they're not good for screening any more and they block the light that would otherwise further illuminate the sidewalk itself and the parking lot, according to Hippo.
"Proper walking paths and appropriate lighting levels for our students and visitors is a safety concern," he wrote.
The land development plans include a notation about the trees being removed, but the presenters didn't talk about that during the December meeting.
"They didn't put the whole picture together," said commission Chairman Dave Albright.
The trees are about 20 feet high, with trunks about a foot in diameter at the base.
They appear to be healthy, but there are no branches up to about six feet.
The commission has traditionally emphasized screening to shield non-residential properties from nearby homes, Bilotto said.
Still, those trees are not there as part of a previously approved land development, so there is no obstacle for the campus to remove them, according to Rebecca Brown, director of the Department of Codes and Inspections.
The college didn't say anything untrue in its presentation in December, but its representatives weren't as forthcoming as they could have been, according to Bilotto.
"It tripped my trigger," he said.
The college may consider additional planting to provide screening "if contingencies allow" at the end of the project, Hippo wrote.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.