Pike adopts grand comprehensive plan

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA - After efforts that date back to the late 1990s, the Pike County Department of Planning put forward the Pike County Comprehensive Plan. The Pike County Commissioners officially adopted the three-volume plan at their meeting on November 1.

A comprehensive plan, also called a master plan, is defined as a guide or map that municipalities use to manage its growth and give direction to land-use ordinances and zoning decisions.

“This is not a document that forces the townships to do anything,” said Harry Forbes, commissioner’s chair. “It’s a process that all of them have joined.”

“It’s actually a guideline and not a rule,” said Sally Corrigan, county director of planning. “Our role is not monitoring but advising.”

“We are experiencing an unusual mix of people coming into the county from other areas, other states that are not familiar with how a commonwealth works,” Forbes said. “Movement begins at the lowest level of municipal government and proceeds from there.”

“This is a process that will continue with our open space and greenway initiatives, with plans that will address wetlands and other quality of life issues,” said Mike Mrozinski, the principal member of the planning department who has worked on the plan from the beginning.

“The best way to describe the townships’ involvement with the plan is for them to achieve a general consistency with the county’s goals as we face some tough issues around development,” Mrozinski said.

Corrigan gave an example of how the county comprehensive plan would work by pointing to the cooperation between Lackawaxen and Shohola townships in their efforts to develop a multi-municipal plan. “We are working with these two townships to help them meet the goals they have set and help them determine what they want,” Corrigan said. “The two will submit grants to the county and the state in looking for funding for things like consultants. We will help them do that.”

This April, a general meeting of municipalities will roll out all the programs that are being worked on or will be worked on, said Rich Caridi, county commissioner. “It will be a breakfast meeting to help explain how they can use the comprehensive plan,” he said.

The townships all cooperated in completing a survey of needs that the comprehensive plan would meet. Over 25,000 surveys were mailed out to municipal officials.

“Unlike in the past, this comprehensive plan will not be finished only to sit on a shelf and not be used,” Corrigan said. “There are built-in assurances that that won’t happen.”