Pennsylvania prepares for growth

A key tool is the comprehensive plan

By TOM KANE

WAYNE AND PIKE COUNTIES, PA — A term that is being thrown about a lot these days whenever the subject of growth comes up is “comprehensive plan.”

It’s a fact that Pike County is the fastest growing county in Pennsylvania. But it’s not so well known that Wayne County is being listed among the fastest.

That’s no surprise when you realize that after September 11, people from the New York metropolitan area started coming north and west to find homes.

“As people leave the metropolitan area looking for a home, they head west and end up liking what they see in Pike and Wayne counties,” said Pike County planner Mike Mrozinski.

That means a lot of growth is coming our way, some of it fast. That also means that local planners have to prepare for it equally fast.

According to professional planners, a crucial document that municipal leaders must use in the face of this growth is the comprehensive plan.

What is a comprehensive plan?

Planners define a comprehensive plan as a map—a guide—for the future that contains the goals, objectives and strategies for the development of a community. For example, it plots the direction that zoning should take, and lays out rules for handling developers and growth issues like storm water run-off.

In Pike County

The Pike County Planning Department is a few weeks away from introducing a county comprehensive plan to the public.

“We’re holding a meeting on Wednesday, March 15 with our advisory committee to finalize the document and get it out to municipalities, neighboring counties and the school systems for a review period,” Mrozinski said.

Nearly a year ago, the department circulated 25,000 questionnaires to get public input. “We got about 1,770 responses to the questionnaire, which isn’t great but it’s okay.”

Mrozinski said a new comprehensive plan was needed since the county has been experiencing extensive growth and “the state mandates that every 10 years a new comp plan should be developed,” he said.

Townships, who are urged to update their plans, will have the advantage of many items in the county’s plan to assist them, he said.

One county priority is the development of a multi-municipal plan with neighboring townships. “It’s a priority of the state and there is funding available to help townships develop such a multi-municipal plan,” said Mrozinski.

Lackawaxen and Shohola are ready to begin the process of joint planning. “We are going to set up some meetings with the county, but it hasn’t happened yet,” said Shohola supervisor George J. Fluhr. “Our current plan goes back to 1995. We’re in the early stages. We’re looking at all the options open to us.”

“We hope to meet with Shohola to investigate the possibility of a multi-municipal comprehensive plan,” said Brian Stuart, chairman of the Lackawaxen Township Board. “We may either work alone or with Shohola, but it’s clear that we need to work on our plan.”

Damascus leads the way In Wayne County

In Damascus Township, under the leadership of planning commission chair Ernie Matern, two committees of volunteers have been working for nearly a year to make the plan understandable to the public.

“One committee is developing a questionnaire that will be mailed to every resident to get their input into the comprehensive plan process,” Matern said.

The second committee is working to enlist neighboring townships to join Damascus in the development of one comprehensive plan. So far, they have enlisted Oregon and Manchester townships. “The three townships will develop one plan that they will hold in common, but they will also include separately some elements that are unique to their own township,” Matern said.

Matern and his subcommittees investigated other Pennsylvania municipalities that have gone this route. “We wanted to see how they did it,” he said.

Matern and resident Marty Kunstman held three evening community meetings to get input. “All three meewere well attended,” Matern said.

The Damascus team is waiting to receive funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) that will make their plans possible.

“The DCED will make a priority of any townships that will work together on a multi-municipal comprehensive plan,” Kunstman said.

“The funding is the reason we joined forces with Damascus and Manchester, “ said Bill Douglass, a member of the Oregon Township Planning Commission. “It would be very costly do develop a plan ourselves.”

Wayne County Planning Department

“We’re working on an agriculture land-use study that attempts to show how farms have changed over the years,” said Ed Coar, Director of Wayne County Planning. “The goal is to get an actual picture of what has happened to agriculture land and, in general, the change in land use in Wayne County.”

Coar will also look at residential use and how that has changed, and forest use and how that has changed.

“If you do a study of agriculture, it’s going to draw in all land uses,” Coar said. “It’s going to be a complete analysis of land use change in Wayne County over the last 40 years.”

The land use studies are the beginning of the comprehensive plan process, he said.

“Even though the studies haven’t been completed yet, many municipalities have requested and received land use information already,” Coar said. “The comprehensive plan will come later.”