Meadville goes on record against Allegheny College potentially tearing down four homes it owns

Jul. 24—Meadville City Council has gone on record against Allegheny College from potentially tearing four homes the college owns on Prospect Street. Residents in the area also are opposed.

However, Allegheny College hasn't filed for any demolition permits with the city or publicly announced plans it will do so.

"No demolition permits have been applied for," Gary Johnson, the city's planning and zoning officer, told the Tribune. "If they would tear them down and keep it a green space they wouldn't need a variance. If they put in a parking lot, then they'd need a variance from the city."

A parking lot also could go in — if the zoning in the area were changed by council, according to Johnson.

A petition signed by 51 residents on Prospect Street and other nearby streets opposing the potential removal of the four houses was sent to Allegheny College officials in June.

Copies of the same petition were sent last week to the Meadville City Clerk's Office and The Meadville Tribune.

The four homes, located on the south side of Prospect Street between Park Avenue and Smith Street, are immediately to the west of a parking lot owned by Allegheny College. The college, which acquired the homes between 1996 and 2012, has used them as off-campus residential housing.

The petition claims by demolishing the houses and making a parking lot and empty space, "the college will be eroding the residential and aesthetic character (of) the neighborhood and contributing other negative effects, such as environmental degradation."

The petition asks the college be a good neighbor, consider the integrity of the neighborhood and the desires of its residents "by pursuing alternative plans for these lots and homes."

At its meeting Wednesday, Meadville City Council on Wednesday voted 4-1 to "formally oppose" a rumored Allegheny College plan to demolish four college-owned houses on Prospect Street.

At Wednesday's meeting, Mayor H. LeRoy Stearns recalled discussions with college leaders several years ago, and expressed surprise at the idea that the college would tear down the houses.

"I am not in favor in any way, shape or form of those houses being torn down," Stearns said. "If that is where they're heading, that is not what was discussed about five years ago that I recall."

Councilman Sean Donahue, the only council member to vote against the motion, said he opposed demolition, but felt members of council should meet with college officials first to hear a definitive version of the college's intentions for the properties before expressing formal opposition.

Councilwoman Autumn Vogel argued formal opposition should come first.

"Once they've torn them down," she said, "you can't get them back and you can't get the neighborhood back."

Stearns and Vogel were designated to seek a meeting with college officials to discuss future plans for the properties.

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.