In 2023, the town of Erie bought a piece of land north of historic Briggs Street for $6.9 million, against a backdrop of a vision to turn part of it into open space and part into a mixed-income neighborhood that could include affordable housing. Two years later, the Town Council’s ongoing deliberations have left the project stuck in the conceptual phase.
The 46-acre piece of land lies east of Reliance Park, just across County Road 1 ½, not far from where the road turns into Briggs Street — the heart of historic Old Town Erie. The purchase of the land included a mix of money: $3.6 million from a federal grant and the rest from the town’s Trails, Natural Areas, and Community Character fund.
According to town staff, the town’s Open Space and Trails Advisory Board had expressed interest in the property but could not afford to purchase it alone. Town leadership decided to use part of Erie’s allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act — a COVID-era federal relief program that sent funding to municipalities — to complete the acquisition.
Erie purchased the land, sometimes known by the potential name “Village at Coal Creek,” in October 2023 with the goals of expanding open space and recreational trail opportunities along Coal Creek, creating a mixed-income neighborhood with affordable housing, and potentially renovating existing infrastructure for Parks & Open Space storage and office needs, according to the town’s website.
Before purchasing the land, staff completed environmental analysis to confirm development feasibility, town spokesperson Gabi Rae said. Staff also evaluated access, flood zones, utilities and other site conditions to confirm that a walkable neighborhood adjacent to open space was viable.
After the purchase, staff conducted further soil borings and evaluated the existing pond’s structural integrity. “No concerns were identified through this process,” Rae said.
In December 2024, town leadership approved a contract with landscape design firm Dig Studio to do the planning and urban design work for potential housing and open space on the site.
Council changes course
The property was purchased under Erie’s former Board of Trustees, before the town adopted a home-rule charter that put Erie under a council.
The current council’s views on the land have diverged from the original vision, and sitting council members are in disagreement for what a final project should look like.
During an April meeting this year, the seated council — which includes Councilmembers Anil Pesaramelli, John Mortellaro, Brian O’Connor and Mayor Andrew Moore who were elected in fall 2024, along with returning members of the former Board of Trustees Emily Baer, Brandon Bell and Dan Hoback — received a briefing on the property.
After long discussion, the council directed Dig Studio to draft concept plan options showing how the land could be divided evenly for potential development and open space purposes.
At the time, council members asked Dig Studio to move forward with a possible parks facility and open space — but delay a full concept for the possible housing, which would have zeroed in on more specific details of how a residential development could look.
Senior Planner Aly Burkhalter said under that direction, staff and Dig Studio would work on concept plans that could allow the council to move forward with rezoning 50% of the land for open space, while keeping the other half of the land zoned as it currently is — a type of agricultural zoning — which wouldn’t allow for housing development, and the council could decide at a later time what to do with that portion of land.
“Part of the dilemma is … is this even the right place to put housing?” Moore said at the April meeting. “I’m not even talking about affordable housing, but just housing in general, knowing that OSTAB had this as one of their highest priorities to purchase the whole land.”
Staff told the council that while some parts of the land were not ideal for development, the central area of the parcel was buildable, and open space could surround it. But some council members — including Moore and Mortellaro, who is the council’s liaison to OSTAB — argued that using the center area of the land for development would fragment open space and could conflict with the spirit behind the Trails, Natural Areas, and Community Character fund, which, in part, is intended to protect views and scenic landscapes.
Responding to those concerns, Parks and Recreation Director Luke Bolinger said the purchase agreement with OSTAB always assumed a split of housing and open space.
“The half of the land that we’re talking about building on is not TNACC funds — it’s ARPA funds,” Bolinger said, adding that the portion envisioned for building previously was home to an industrial development and would need remediation to become open space.
Councilmembers Pesaramelli and Baer supported keeping housing in the plan.
“Honoring the spirit of dividing it in half and using both funding sources for it, if we are planful with the open space and with the neighborhood development we’d be addressing both,” Baer said, adding: “I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. I think that we could have a neighborhood that serves the concern of the community that has emerged for a long time over housing affordability, and that this is a priority open space for the community … to design something that could serve both purposes would be the best community good, and I think that’s possible.”
Concept plans and delays
In September, town staff brought the council three concept plans that showed the land split up in varied ways.
The three options combined a potential stretch of land for development and other parts for open space.
According to a September memo, OSTAB did not recommend that council move forward with any of them, writing: “Developing a portion of the site for housing would permanently eliminate several of the outstanding features of the property. For this reason, OSTAB does not express a preference for any of the three VCC conceptual designs.”
The Town Council can go against OSTAB’s opinion if it wishes. At that time, the council could have selected one of those three options to be fleshed out into a “final concept plan” and, later, a rezoning application, Rae said in September.
Instead, the council requested additional alternatives that showed what the land would look like without any development — delaying an outcome once again.
During a Nov. 18 special meeting of the council, Burkhalter, who has since left her position, presented five concept plans for the land, including an all-open-space option and concepts that allowed room for development (Some of the five plans in November mirrored the three options from September.)
At the November meeting, Moore floated several ideas for development, including relocating the St. Scholastica Catholic church to the property. He also suggested exploring a partnership with Catholic Charities — an affordable-housing provider — while noting he had “no idea if it’s viable.”
Pesaramelli, who has repeatedly criticized the “stalling” of the project, said on Nov. 18 that Moore appeared to be searching for ways to avoid affordable housing.
“Time was spent doing the due diligence about having half affordable housing here and half open space,” Pesaramelli said. “And we are seeing this thought process from you: How can I avoid affordable housing?”
His colleague, Baer, expressed frustration at the growing number of alternatives.
“I feel like we are all over the place,” she said. “I think a mixed-income neighborhood could be a great amenity as part of town … I think we could incorporate mixed-used zoning so we could be connecting Old Town, and extending it, even. I don’t understand the church piece and maybe I’ll learn more about that at some point, but I have concerns with all the whiplash from this conversation.”
By the end of that meeting, the council had agreed to eliminate a potential Parks & Recreation facility on the land and decided to continue discussions about the rest of the options in an executive session, or a closed-door meeting.
ARPA factor explained
There has been some confusion this year around the ARPA money used for the purchase of the land. Several council members said that until staff’s September presentation, they believed ARPA dollars required the project to include housing.
Pesaramelli told the Daily Camera in September he was “caught by surprise” at that meeting, saying he had assumed that “some percentage needs to be affordable housing.”
City staff clarified in September that this is not the case.
When Erie first received its allocation, the U.S. Department of the Treasury was still developing formal guidance, Erie spokesperson Rae said. The town “initially operated under the 2021 Interim Final Rule and later transitioned to the Final Rule,” she added, both of which allowed broad uses of ARPA dollars as long as they were tied to an eligible category and properly reported.
The town’s finance director, Sarah Hancock, in September said the $3.6 million in ARPA funds used for the purchase is considered a “completed project” in federal reporting terms, and the expenditure complies fully with the ARPA Final Rule. “The town is not legally required to construct housing on the property,” Hancock said.
“The previous (board) requested that the ARPA funds be used exclusively for … housing. So that’s where we’re coming from. It’s less of an ARPA requirement and more the direction that we were given,” she told the Daily Camera.
Under ARPA, Hancock said, “there is an option to shift gears.” But what it comes down to for the current council, she said, is whether it intends to continue the commitment made by its predecessors.
Baer has suggested replenishing $3.6 million to the town’s Affordable Housing Fund if the Village at Coal Creek site is used for a non-housing purpose, although it wasn’t clear in the November meeting where that money could come from.
Hancock said there is also an ethical dimension to changing course.
“If that direction changes, then we have to understand the implications of that,” she said. “I think we have to talk about the ethics of that — after you’ve made a purchase, which is what I think the council is wrestling with now.”