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Introducing the County
Comprehensive Plan
Posted 1-30-2005
In the world of politics and
government, nothing should come as a surprise. But at our year-end
commissioners' public meeting, I was very surprised that the crowd was there
not to talk about the county's budget, but our passing of the first-ever
comprehensive plan. I didn't think passing a planning document that projects
a vision for our county could be construed as anything but positive, but I’m
learning something new everyday.
I must say that the
overwhelming number of people at our meeting supported the comprehensive
plan. As with almost every other county in Pennsylvania, we created a
document that will be "living", in the sense that it will be periodically
updated. We created it with years of work from a volunteer steering
committee and a very capable consultant, and without any county dollars. The
plan was entirely financed using grant money from the commonwealth. The
reason we waited for years to complete the plan was that the state was
requiring us to do it, but was not willing to pay for it. Once the state
agreed to do so, we moved forward. Perhaps most importantly, we created the
plan with public input from throughout the county, as public hearings were
held to not only gather ideas, but to share the plan's content and to get
further input.
To me, none of the guiding
principles of the plan were controversial. In fact, they make a lot of
sense. We want to maintain the county's predominantly rural character,
conserve natural resources, and preserve agricultural land. We want to
accommodate future development primarily (but not exclusively) within an
urban/suburban growth triangle that runs from New Kensington to Latrobe to
Monessen. We recognize that some growth may occur outside of that triangle,
but it is important to plan to preserve contiguous tracts of unimproved open
space.
We recognize the importance of
transportation and want to prioritize improvements that reduce travel time
throughout the county and reduce congestion on our highways. There is a
direct relationship between transportation and economic development. We want
to promote new, and enhance existing, economic development centers that are
accessible to various areas of the county. By doing so, we can minimize
adverse traffic impacts on local neighborhoods and communities. Also, with
planning techniques and development standards that are set by municipal
governments, we can produce clustered commercial development that will
discourage the proliferation of curb cuts on our commercial highways.
Housing and community
development is also an important part of the plan's vision. We must continue
to work to revitalize cities, downtown areas, and urban neighborhoods, and
to restore their status as attractive and convenient places to live. It is
important to have a variety of housing types and residential neighborhoods,
while preserving and expanding the county's affordable housing stock. We
hope to encourage mixed-use development and utilize design techniques that
instill a sense of place. If architectural and landscape standards are
elevated to achieve a higher quality of land and building development, we
can improve the visual appearance of the county as well.
Ultimately, we want to
maintain the basic attributes that make the county an attractive place to
live work and play. That goal essentially means we want to maintain the
relatively low tax obligation, keep the crime rate low, enhance the high
quality of schools, create more career opportunities, offer housing and
neighborhood variety, and offer abundant leisure and recreational
opportunities.
Do any of the goals I've just
described sound threatening? They should not. First of all, land use
planning in Pennsylvania is still decided at the municipal level. We can
encourage municipal governments to implement appropriate parts of the plan,
and the commonwealth is offering incentives for municipal cooperation, but
there is no countywide zoning in the works.
It seemed much of the
opposition was directed towards the concept of planning itself. To some
people "planning" is associated with old-style Soviet centralized planning.
This plan is so far from those concepts I cannot even render a comparison.
But, what is interesting to me is that we plan many aspects of our personal
lives. We plan how we operate our households, and certainly every successful
business plans. So why when government, which is often criticized for doing
"business as usual", does planning do some people view it in a sinister
manner?
Achieving the goals of the
first-ever Westmoreland County Comprehensive Plan will not be easy, and they
will not be realized immediately. But, we cannot just muddle along with no
vision for improving our county and maintaining all its positive attributes.
Everyone can in some way be a part of this plan, and, through its
fulfillment, we can help build a better place for future generations.
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