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Residents raise traffic and flooding concerns over proposed Center Street apartment project
Summary
A Clarks Summit resident told council neighbors are worried a proposed three-story apartment on Center Street will increase traffic, worsen flooding and change neighborhood character; council and staff said zoning hearings and a traffic study are required before final approval.
Jeanine Port, a Center Street resident, asked Clarks Summit Borough Council for updates on an apartment proposal at the former United Cerebral Palsy day‑care site and said neighbors are worried about traffic and flooding. "I... live on Center Street," Port said, and she urged the borough to make sure the project will not worsen safety or drainage conditions.
Council members and staff said the development must go through the borough's zoning process. A zoning hearing board meeting was scheduled for Aug. 12 to consider two variances tied to the project, and council members said a traffic study was expected before land‑development approval. "I believe a traffic study will be completed prior to the project being approved," a council member said.
Port said the building proposed would be three stories and expressed concern about how many additional vehicle trips it could add to a street that already functions as a commercial cut‑through. She told council she understood unit counts roughly as 17 one‑bedroom and 11 two‑bedroom units but said she would verify figures before the zoning hearing.
Council and the borough solicitor explained that the application involves a conditional‑use review and variances. The solicitor said council can attach conditions to approvals aimed at protecting health, safety and welfare, and that the project will also proceed through planning‑commission and land‑development reviews where additional conditions or studies can be required.
Port also raised flooding concerns and asked how stormwater and impervious‑surface limits would be handled; staff said engineers for the project must demonstrate compliance with the borough's impervious‑surface rules and that the applicant was seeking approval to reduce impervious coverage from the current measured 70% on the parcel to roughly 67% as part of the redevelopment.
Port said she planned to attend the Aug. 12 hearing and to circulate information to neighbors. Council members urged residents to use the hearing and planning processes to present evidence and testimony and noted that residents had been notified and had an opportunity to speak at the earlier conditional‑use proceeding.
The conversation closed with council describing the next procedural steps: the zoning hearing, potential planning‑commission review, submission of any required traffic and stormwater studies, and the ability of council to attach conditions if the use is approved.
