By Reidar Jensen, Penn State
NEW YORK – Penn State’s Board of Trustees Friday (March 18) approved the sale of a 25-acre parcel of undeveloped land to Ferguson Township and the Centre Region Council of Governments (COG) in Centre County. The land, located along Whitehall Road near the University Park campus, is adjacent to a 75-acre parcel sold by the University to the township and the COG in 2008 for the purposes of developing a regional community park.
Ferguson Township acquired a 10-year option to purchase the 25-acre parcel as part of the 2008 agreement. In exercising the option, the township and COG will purchase the property for its current appraised value of $375,000. The terms of the sale of both parcels limit the municipality to public use of the land.
Penn State has a long history of selling or leasing property for public benefit:
— In 2008, in addition to the sale of property to Ferguson Township and the COG, the University also sold a 59-acre parcel of the Mellon Property to the State College Borough Water Authority for purposes of conservation.
— In 2007 the University’s Board of Trustees agreed to sell 165.3 acres of undeveloped Potter Township land, also part of the former Mellon Properties, to Centre Hall Borough and Gregg and Potter townships for use limited to public purposes.
— In July 2004, the Board of Trustees approved the sale of 75.5 acres in College Township for use as community playfields.
— Also in 2001, the University entered a $1-per-year lease of 4 acres to Alpha Community Ambulance Service, now known as Centre LifeLink EMS.
— In 1996 the University began a yearly $1 lease of 63.2 acres to Centre Region Recreation Authority to develop Millbrook Marsh Nature Center. In 2007, that lease was extended through 2042.
• A similar agreement in 1996 leased 4.8 acres adjacent to the Centre Furnace Mansion, site of the charter signing that established the school that was to become Penn State, to the Centre County Historical Society.