JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Cambria County Transit Authority on Thursday night showed off two options under consideration for a new transit center in downtown Johnstown.
Both options are in their infancy stages, with no cost estimates or funding sources fleshed out, and both would require the acquisition and demolition of the city’s Main Street parking garage.
Christof Spieler, project consultant and vice president of planning for Huitt-Zollars, said the options are two “very different concepts with different implications, functionality, cost and how they fit into downtown Johnstown.”
At a meeting held Thursday by videoconference, Spieler and CamTran Executive Director Rose Lucey-Noll presented the public with the two leading designs, chosen by CamTran from among four options that were publicly presented in December.
CamTran’s Downtown Intermodal Transit Center, 551 Main St., was constructed in the mid-1980s, and is a throughway abutting the city’s underutilized parking garage, Spieler said.
The transit center’s new designs, in progress since last September, are funded using U.S. Department of Transportation Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant funding.
Lucey-Noll stressed, however, that funding only covers the conceptual planning phase. After a design is chosen, new funding will have to be identified to engineer and construct a new transit center, which could take years, she said.
One of the two final design options would replace the parking garage with bus bays situated around a central area with waiting space for riders, restrooms, and a cafe and convenience store. Only a few bus bays would be located in the area of the existing transit center footprint.
“There’s been general interest in retail and convenience store nearby,” Spieler said. “A cafe with retail options to buy groceries came up in the feedback we were receiving after the recent closure of Ideal Market downtown.”
However, Spieler said there would not be much space for a store in that design – and developing a store is not a function of CamTran, but would be conducted in partnership with the City of Johnstown or a private developer.
The other option presented Thursday was anticipated to be the more expensive option because it entails a larger footprint. A central area would be created where the existing transit center is located, with buses parked around it so that people do not have to cross in front of other buses to board.
To achieve that, CamTran would have to acquire and demolish the long-vacant Main Street East commercial building, also at 551 Main St., as well as the city’s parking garage.
That project would also leave enough room along Clinton Street for land development, such as a grocery store and park with a performance stage, Spieler said.
Either new design option would require agreement from the City of Johnstown, as its parking garage would be demolished along with spaces in the same building that are leased to businesses, including Primo’s Pizza, which has been operating at 126 Clinton St. for the past four years.
“I’m already moving forward to find another location in the central business district,” Primo’s owner Shane Shirt said at his business Thursday. “More than likely, I’ve already found one steps away from where I am now. My plan is to move within a year or more.”
He said he remains committed to keeping his business in downtown Johnstown and has no issues with the parking garage being demolished.
“I think it’s time for this garage to come down and be revitalized,” he said. “It’s long-overdue.”
CamTran’s public video conference meeting Thursday drew 18 participants and few comments or questions, but Lucey-Noll said CamTran’s board of directors has gathered a wealth of public input since the plans started developing last fall.
Lucey-Noll said CamTran’s board of directors will choose one of the two options discussed Thursday after funding is obtained.
As with other CamTran projects, Lucey-Noll said, the organization will seek federal and state funding, as well as local funds as required to match state or federal grants.
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