Windber may expand business district

Windber Borough Council will vote Tuesday on expanding the central business district to allow a physician to build a new medical center.

Keith Vasas, chairman of the borough’s planning commission, said his colleagues approved the expansion on Wednesday and he expects council to do the same.

He said council is satisfied with plans by Dr. Jerry Gray to construct a medical building on Somerset Avenue at 17th Street. The 5,350-square-foot building and a parking lot would occupy about three-quarters of the block.

Vasas said the area of Somerset Avenue across the street from the proposed medical center already is zoned for business.

The rezoning would include the remainder of the block to 15th Street, where the AmeriServ bank is located, and directly across 15th Street to the borough building. Both would then conform to the zoning code, he said.

The borough building and AmeriServ were established before zoning came about in 1959.