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Centre County Planning and
Community Development Office

Cultural, Environmental, and Recreational Resources


Pashek Associates Background

Pashek Associates Logo

Pashek Associates is an innovative consulting firm of Recreation Planners, Landscape Architects, and Community Planners, with offices in Pittsburgh, and Mercer County. We are committed to improving the environment and the quality of life in the communities we touch. We are passionate about our work and strive to ensure an enjoyable journey through the process we undertake with our clients.

Pashek Associates implements a collaborative design and planning approach of listening and being responsive to our clients' needs. We work directly with our clients to develop creative and realistic design and planning solutions that meet or exceed expectations of quality and service.

Our qualified professionals bring diverse backgrounds and over 75 years of collective experience to your project. Pashek Associates can offer comprehensive services to meet your project's needs. We have the ability to provide prompt delivery of the required work with continuity and responsiveness over the course of the project. Our trail planning experience and unique consensus building public process will ensure a successful study.

Our planning philosophy emphasizes that the most successful and effective plans result from active community participation and involvement of a planning committee. We believe that it is important to talk to community members throughout the planning process because they have the best sense of the important issues to be addressed, assets to be preserved and enhanced, and challenges to overcome. Our planners engage citizens and key interest groups using various unique and highly interactive techniques.

To complete the Bellefonte Central Rail Feasibility Study Pashek Associates, (landscape architects and planners) has teamed with URS (a large multi-disciplinary engineering firm with statewide trail planning experience) Richard Wilson, attorney and Gary Landrio, railroad title specialist and corridor real estate appraiser of Stone Consulting and Design, Inc.

Pashek Associates recently won a PPA award for the Ford City Trail, located on a brownfield site adjacent to the Allegheny River. We have conducted rail trail planning studies in Warren County and several trail corridors in Allegheny County. Pashek Associates has also prepared trail studies in Beaver County, Monroe County (Pocono area) and in Garrett County, Maryland. The Brodhead, McMichael and Pocono Creeks trail study in Stroud Township received a planning award from the PA/DE chapter of ASLA.

Our trail knowledge includes familiarity with the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities (which also addresses multi-use paths), Universal Trail Assessment Process, the Americans with Disabilities Guidelines for the Development of Outdoor Recreation Facilities, the Institute of Transportation Engineers publication titled the Design and Safety of Pedestrian Facilities and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals Bicycle Design Guidelines to name a few. We have used these guidelines to develop rail trails, shared use paths along local roads and trial loops in parks. John Buerkle has given lectures on trail design at Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society meetings and the International Trails and Greenways Conference.

The URS Corporation has over 500 employees in the Commonwealth, with over 100 employees specializing in planning and transportation engineering services. The Pittsburgh office will provide the planning and engineering services required for this study.

URS has experience with bicycle/pedestrian issues throughout the state. They are currently under contract to perform statewide trail planning for PennDOT. Work on this project includes conducting training with state, regional and municipal planners on the use of the PennDOT bicycle and pedestrian checklists, lists that encompass all of the elements that must be considered during the planning and design of PennDOT funded trail construction projects.

Along with its specialized bicycle/pedestrian planning activities, URS's Pittsburgh Office provides a full range on transportation engineering and environmental services. Particular to the Bellefonte project, URS is fully versed in the structural and environmental requirements by the Commonwealth for trail projects. URS has performed hundreds of bridge inspections for both PennDOT and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in the past year. Additionally, their staff has performed a number of environmental impact evaluations for PennDOT.

Richard R. Wilson, Esquire, has broad legal expertise in the surface transportation industry, having represented railroads, motor carriers, major industry shippers and others dealing with freight transportation. He has served as Special Rail Counsel to the House Transportation Committee of the Pennsylvania Legislature and served various Class II and III railroads. Mr. Wilson is a recognized authority in the acquisition and preservation of railroad corridors for economic development and recreational use. In 1992, he published the Pennsylvania Rails to Trails Non-profit Corporation Organization Form Book which is now distributed through the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Rails to Trails Conservancy.

Mr. Wilson has served on the Rail Planning Group for the Southwestern Planning Commission and was formerly Board Chairman of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Rails to Trails Conservancy. As part of his legal practice, he continues to be involved in numerous recreational trail projects. Mr. Wilson has served as legal counsel and board member of the Montour Trail Council. He has represented the Regional Trail Corporation, The Allegheny Trail Alliance, The Allegheny Valley Land Trust, Friends of the Riverfront and the Conemaugh Valley Conservancy.

For Montgomery County, Mr. Wilson has represented the County in connection with litigation relating to title issues involving the Perkioman Valley Trail and is currently representing Lancaster County in connection with the acquisition of the former Conrail Enola Branch for recreational trail purposes. Throughout his professional career, he has reviewed numerous instruments of conveyance to determine the quality of title for various railroad rights of way on behalf of railroads, trail organizations and government agencies.

Mr. Gary Landrio, of Stone Consulting and Design, Inc. has a great depth of experience with both railroad operations and rail trails. The Stone team members have managed railroads since 1976. Their trail experience begins with a trail conversion project in 1992. Stone conducted a rail trail corridor analysis for the New York State Department of Transportation in 1992 on a 118-mile long corridor. Rails to trails and rails with trails issues were evaluated.

The Stone team has conducted rail corridor property evaluations since 1990. These include the determination of property title, evaluation of the quality of such title for both continued rail and future trail uses. Many of these determinations included identifying all of the adjacent property owners. Also included was an evaluation of each adjacent landowner's claim to the rail corridor. Much of their title work was expanded into full corridor appraisals by Stone and used by financial institutions, the Federal Surface Transportation Board and the Internal Revenue Service to set asset values.