Residents in the State College area shared their ideas and concerns for the land at the recently closed Rockview state prison Wednesday night at a meeting hosted by the Spring Creek Watershed Commission.
Around 60 people filled the community room and talked for nearly two hours in the Schlow Centre Region Library.
Barbara Fisher said she’s lived in the area since 1965. She told the story of how farmland in Ferguson Township almost became a mall, but the community came together and instead turned the land into the Tom Tudek Memorial Park.
“And now we are on the brink of another major decision," Fisher said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections recently closed the State Correctional Institution at Rockview, blaming significant maintenance costs and a shrinking prison population. Now, the future of the 5,700 acres of land left behind is uncertain.
“The farmland I consider to be a nonrenewable resource," said Elizabeth Crisfield, the executive director of ClearWater Conservancy. "That is prime, prime soils. If you build on soils, you can’t recover them.”
One speaker suggested the land should go to the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Many people expressed concern that the land will be developed and harm the nearby Spring Creek.
Kevin Abbey chairs the Spring Creek Watershed Commission, an intergovernmental entity made up of 12 municipalities in Centre County. Even though he says the fate of the land at Rockview isn’t up to them, he's hopeful that the community will come together to advocate for preserving the land.
“I'm hopeful because I think people want to do the right thing," Abbey said, "and it's a matter of linking arms and figuring out how to do that.”
Abbey said they’re gathering input from public hearings like this to share with state officials.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections still owns the land at Rockview. Eventually, it will be up to the state’s Department of General Services to put the land up for bid or to transfer it to another owner.
