Planning Commission grants conditional approval for Thaddeus Stevens dormitory and dining hall

Lancaster City Planning Commission voted to conditionally approve a land development plan for a five-story dining hall and dormitory at Thaddeus Stevens two‑year technical college, with city staff listing five conditions the applicant must meet before final plan approval.

The plan will build a combined dining hall and modern dormitory on roughly 1.3 acres of primary project area on the college campus and remove an existing parking area. “We have under 1,500 students. Roughly half the students live on campus,” said Dr. Christopher Metzler, vice president of student services at Thaddeus Stevens, and described the project’s purpose. “This facility will have 500 seats in the dining hall,” he added. Project presenters told the commission the dormitory portion will provide 150 beds.

The project team said the new building will consolidate kitchen facilities, provide a receiving/loading dock sized for a 40‑foot box truck, and place stormwater management beneath the loading dock area. Ben Morton, landscape architect and client manager at RGS Associates, said the building site spans a…