In May 2025, Penn State University’s leadership announced plans to close seven of its branch campuses to students in the Spring of 2027, including York’s campus, which has provided York residents with educational opportunities since 1939.

As a community, this is the moment to determine the next best use of campus and its substantial facilities. That’s why the York County Economic Alliance, on behalf of Penn State York donors, funders and key stakeholders, has launched a process to determine just that: a compelling, realistic and meaningful plan for the future.

The master site development planning process for future use of campus will include three major parts:

First, we will fully document the existing conditions, site constraints and restrictions on future use. Due to the ways in which the acquisition and development of campus were funded over the decades, a number of deed restrictions, rights of first refusal and reversionary clauses constrain the ways in which the campus—and even specific buildings—can be used in the future and by whom. Some of our future use concepts may work within those constraints; others may require legal or legislative action to remove the restrictions. We need to understand those potential curative pathways as well.

Second, we will assess the market and engage key stakeholders, elected officials, community members and potential institutional partners in providing feedback on future uses by conducting interviews, focus groups and public surveys. This is an important step because we need to understand which concepts are economically viable and if there is enough demand in the market to warrant them. We also need to know what the community wants and needs. This includes campus neighbors in the City of York and Spring Garden Townships, as well as the rest of York County, which has historically been served by Penn State York.

Finally, we will combine the site constraints, market analysis, and stakeholder input to develop one or two realistic proposals for future use (or uses) of the campus. We don’t have a preconceived idea of what these proposals will be. They could include turning the campus over to a single institutional user, like a vocational school or an existing college. They could include partnering with a large non-profit to occupy some of the buildings, while making others available for community use or programming. They could include a wide variety of mixed uses, including education, nonprofit services, offices, commercial spaces and housing. The Pullo Center may continue to offer performing arts programming, while other buildings are used in entirely different ways.

We’re making a good faith effort to let this planning process lead us to what is the “the highest and best use” for campus in the future.

To ensure our team and our consultant can evaluate all input equitably, we are asking the community submit ideas, feedback and comments via the following link: