A marriage of sorts

Two PA municipalities develop a comprehensive plan

By TOM KANE

SHOHOLA & LACKAWAXEN, PA — Taking a lead from the state’s encouragement for townships to plan together and share resources, Shohola and Lackawaxen townships have completed a multi-municipal comprehensive plan that will take the two municipalities into the future.

A comprehensive plan is not an ordinance or a law, but a guide that determines community goals and aspirations in terms of future community development.

“It dictates planning policies in regard to transportation, utilities, land use, recreation, open-space preservation, historic preservation, economic development and housing,” said Michael Mrozinski, the Pike County assistant planner who guided the townships through the plan’s development.

“The multi-municipal comp plan is a process in which two or more municipalities start working together and set goals for growth that involves all their resources,” he said.

These two townships successfully addressed current conditions and future goals by identifying community resources and planned strategies to manage growth, he said.

In order to make the multi-municipal process more inviting, the state funded 50 percent of the costs. The remaining 50 percent was provided by the Scenic Rural Character Preservation program. “It cost the townships nothing,” Mrozinski said.

A number of other Pike and Wayne County townships have completed or are working on multi-municipal plans. The Milford Borough and Milford Township were the first to complete such a plan; Damascus and Oregon, Dyberry and Texas as well as Honesdale Borough and Bethany Borough are working on plans, and Matamoras and Westfall have nearly completed their plan.

The Shohola-Lackawaxen plan produced a number of valuable maps, reports and enhancement concepts for use by officials. The plan also involved a survey of residents to gather opinions about the direction the townships ought to take.

“These two townships have included a separate plan for preserving open space, greenways and recreation facilities,” Mrozinski said. The plan looks at such things as linking existing open areas together where possible and planning for future actions such as land trusts expansion and conservation easements.

“With a multi-municipal plan, you have a bigger territory that you are planning for,” said Shohola supervisor George Fluhr. “With this kind of plan, there is more uniformity. Just because you step over a boundary line, the problems aren’t different. It’s valuable for both townships to work together on the things that affect us.”