Comprehensive Plans

Allegheny Places establishes an overall vision for our future and a roadmap to get there. The comprehensive plan provides the County with a framework for the strategic use of public resources to improve the county's quality of life.

A build-out analysis was completed as part of Chambersburg’s comprehensive plan update process. The build-out analysis is included in appendix 4.

In response to the interest that the Monroe Township Supervisors expressed in finding a new way of visioning the future of their community and the impacts of their land use decisions, the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy created a visioning presentation that shows a community build-out analysis for the conservation zone located within Monroe Township.

Recognizing the essential relationship between land use, urban form, and transportation decisions, in 2006 the Town of Mooresville, NC initiated three major planning projects: Comprehensive Land Use Plan, a Comprehensive Transportation Plan, and an update of its Zoning Ordinance. Following a suggestion by the Federal Highway Administration, the Town decided to incorporate scenario planning to better link the three planning processes.

Long-range plan for the Philadelphia area.

Allegheny Places, Allegheny County’s first comprehensive plan, establishes an overall vision for their future and a roadmap to get there. The comprehensive plan sets policies for development, redevelopment, conservation and economic initiatives. The plan provides a framework for the strategic use of public resources to improve the quality of life for all residents.

Final report on community visioning initiative in Damariscotta, ME.

The Designated Rural Area (DRA) concept was introduced in the rural strategy of the Lancaster County Comprehensive Plan’s growth management element as a method of local implementation. The key to implementing the rural strategy is its refinement from the countywide scale down to the township or multi-municipal level. Therefore, the purpose of this DRA implementation strategy is to create a locally reproducible methodology that identifies and maps DRAs through a local comprehensive plan update and/or separate strategic planning update process.

Regional comprehensive plan for East Donegal Township, Marietta Borough, Mount Joy Borough, Donegal School District.

This report is designed to aid municipalities and developers in effectively financing mixed-use development. Included are an overview of the benefits and challenges to implementing mixed-use development, best practices in financing (including specific financing mechanisms), different organizational structures for financing, and strategies for achieving success. Case studies of successful mixed-use projects in the Delaware Valley region are presented, as well as funding sources that exist in the region.

This booklet summarizes how municipalities can use the development process to their advantage to protect interconnected networks of open space: natural areas, greenways, trails and recreational lands. Communities can take control of their destinies so that their conservation goals are achieved in a manner fair to all parties concerned. All that is needed are some relatively straightforward amendments to municipal comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances and subdivision ordinances.

The Comprehensive Plan (Landscapes2) for Chester County, PA

Comprehensive plan for Chester County, PA.

Comprehensive plan for Lehigh and Northampton counties

This guide describes the basic elements of land use planning and regulation available to municipal and county governments under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code. WeConservePA guide. 6 pages.

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania adopted a new comprehensive plan, Montco 2040: A Shared Vision, on January 15, 2015. This nationally awarded plan, which is a complete update of the 2005 comprehensive plan, focuses on the future of Montgomery County until the year 2040. The plan, which contains goals and a future land use plan, will guide overall growth and development in the county. Montco 2040: A Shared Vision provides an overall framework for local municipal plans and provides guidance on issues that transcend local boundaries, such as highways, public transportation, flooding, trails, growth trends, redevelopment trends, shopping needs, impact of large developments, overall housing needs, natural systems, and economic growth.

Regional strategic plan for the Pennsylvania communities of Elizabethtown, Conoy, Mount Joy, and West Donegal.

This section of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code lists the powers and duties of planning agencies.

Amendment to the township's comprehensive plan that includes an expansion of its urban growth boundary.

Regional comprehensive plan for Salisbury, Leacock, and Paradise townships in Lancaster County, PA. This plan focuses on the specific issues raised by each township in the planning process. These included stormwater management, preservation of large tracts of farmland, management of farm-based businesses, and preservation of community character in the face of new infrastructure investments, including a state road expansion in Salisbury and the extension of public water to the Village of Intercourse. The plan is not meant to function as a full update to the comprehensive plans; it was designed to be used in concert with each community’s adopted comprehensive plan.

Pike County Pennsylvania's comprehensive plan and summary brochure.

Comprehensive plan for Lancaster County, PA, including map of urban growth areas.

In an effort to update both its Regional Growth Management Plan and Regional Transportation Plan, the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission implemented scenario build-outs throughout its entire service region, which includes 103 municipalities in the counties of Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry.

Provides a detailed description of forests and their benefits; analysis of threats to forest land; and description of various tools municipalities can use to maintain, protect, and restore forests.

A comprehensive plan is more that just a document disclosing past and present land use trends with a proposed course of action. It is a process of organizing for the future, creating a blueprint for tomorrow's land use patterns. This publication provides a detailed overview of this tool.

This guidebook helps local planning commission to understand the reasons for, and roles of, the planning commission in municipal land use decisions. It addresses the statutory authority and composition of planning commissions in Pennsylvania and the specific powers and duties of the commission. It concludes with a detailed discussion of the common roles of commission members – particularly in terms of hiring planning consultants – and a series of appendices providing model ordinances and procedures for establishing planning commissions and the adoption of a community’s comprehensive plan.

Historic preservation plan for Borough of West Chester (PA).