Conservation Tools

Agricultural Protection Zoning (APZ) is used by counties and municipalities to preserve the availability of agricultural lands for farming. This helps maintain the critical mass of active farmland necessary for preserving an agricultural economy in the community. The local government designates areas where agriculture is intended to be the principal use. Regulations are established for these agricultural zoning districts to constrain non-agricultural development and uses. Typically, non-farm residential development is limited to a small percentage of a tract or restricted to a fixed number of residential units or lots determined by the size of the farm. APZ regulations usually permit business uses supportive of agricultural operations. APZ regulations can help to:

• Maintain a critical mass of farmland that keeps businesses and organizations that support farms, such as farm suppliers and granges, viable.
• Minimize conflicts such as resident complaints about manure odors and farmer complaints of trespass.
• Promote more efficient agricultural operations.
• Protect prime agricultural soils, which, if developed, are irretrievable.
• Keep farmland affordable for farmers.
• Protect the character of the community.

APZ requires a high level of community support to be effective because an APZ’s protections are only as strong as the municipal governing body’s commitment to maintaining the zoning classification.

Agricultural security areas are intended to promote viable farming operations over the long term by strengthening the rights of farmers to farm and the farming community's sense of security in their use of the land. Landowners in an ASA receive protection from local laws and ordinances that would unreasonably restrict farm practices as well as protection from condemnation. Farmers also receive a 1% interest rate reduction on loans through the Small Business First Program and the Machinery and Equipment Loan Fund.

Farmland owners with a combined area of at least 250 acres of active farmland may petition their local government to establish an ASA.  The governing body of the local municipality may approve the proposal or a modified version or it may reject the proposal.

To qualify for the state agricultural conservation easement purchase program, land must be part of an ASA that is at least 500 acres.

A build-out analysis projects the number of residential units and commercial/industrial square footage that could be built if all unprotected, buildable land within a specified area is developed in accordance with municipal zoning. Analysis can also include the impacts from permissible development on tax base, traffic, school enrollment, park needs, sewage and water facilities, natural and historic resources, farmland and rural landscapes, and overall quality of life. The results of the analysis typically are conveyed through maps and charts.

A build-out analysis allows a community to test its development regulations – to see its likely future if all the remaining buildable land in the community is developed in conformance with the municipality’s ordinances. The analysis answers the basic question: If existing land development ordinances and open space programs (or lack thereof) remain unchanged, how much land may ultimately be developed and where?

Community visioning is a process in which all local stakeholders have the opportunity to express ideas about the future of their community and offer a valuable additional voice to aid decision-making and influence development choices. Through public meetings, design charrettes, public surveys, and growth scenario comparisons, community visioning can clarify the goals and priorities of the community. The visioning process can be lead by municipal staff, representatives from neighborhood groups or business associations, and other local leaders. An effective community vision will lead to comprehensive planning documents and supporting regulations that reflect the will and vision of the community. Most importantly, the extensive public involvement in the community vision leads to a sense of community-wide ownership and buy-in in planning documents and projects.

CommunityViz is a software package for planning, designed with a specific mission in mind: to assist decision makers in visualizing, analyzing, and communicating about potential futures of their communities. Through interactive maps, CommunityViz shows existing zoning and land-use plans and shows future build outs of communities by placing proposed and allowed structures on the landscape. Through the creation of scenarios and inputting various types of data, the program allows users to generate detailed analysis of different proposed land use plans and measures of their impacts.

The visual translations are effective in communicating options in land use zoning to local government officials and the interested public. Municipalities interested in adopting or amending zoning ordinances that reflect a departure from traditional zoning concepts would benefit from CommunityViz tools that can objectively and comprehensively evaluate the impacts of different land use approaches.

Development threat analysis graphically depicts where unprotected open space lands are most vulnerable to development pressures over a specific time frame, usually 10 to 20 years.  To help identify areas where conservation efforts should be prioritized, the mapped results of the development threat analysis are overlaid with maps showing areas with high ecological, agricultural, recreational or other conservation values.

Analysis of development pressure is primarily based on population and employment forecasts and additional assumptions on attractors to development, such as transportation access and public sewer and water service.  Some analyses incorporate parcels’ access to employment centers and municipalities’ vulnerability due to weak resource protection ordinances. More sophisticated techniques can include land value projections.

In addition to helping determine conservation priorities, development threat analysis can provide the information needed by government to adjust public policy to redirect development to more suitable areas.

Development threat analyses are not intended to and cannot replace local knowledge about specific real estate values or parcels in which developers are interested. 

Growing Greener: Conservation by Design incorporates conservation considerations into the development process and municipal ordinances, patterning development around networks of open space. Conservation by Design arranges new development on sites to be developed so that half or more of the buildable land in subdivisions is permanently set aside as open space. The same number of housing units can be built—just on smaller lots—so landowners and developers are not financially penalized. Conservation by Design differs from traditional cluster developments in that it places conservation planning at the beginning of the development process rather than at the end and establishes higher standards for both the quantity and quality of open space.

Outdoor lighting that is excessive or misaimed can be an aesthetic blight, a safety hazard, a visual annoyance or hindrance, an environmental polluter and a health hazard. Bad lighting is also a waste of money and energy. Good outdoor lighting uses energy wisely and avoids the safety and nuisance problems of obtrusive lighting. Without an effective lighting ordinance in place, municipalities are powerless to control the quantity and quantity of lighting in the community. The Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council (POLC) works directly with municipal governments to develop outdoor lighting ordinances that promote outdoor lighting quality for the comfort and safety of the municipality's residents and businesses. POLC publishes Model Outdoor Lighting Ordinances, which can be extremely useful when a municipality lacks specific expertise with lighting issues and seeks well designed ordinance language that can be tailored to its specific needs.

Demolition, alteration and incompatible development present a continual threat to Pennsylvania’s historic legacy. While federal and state regulations offer only limited protection, local municipal ordinances can substantially protect historical resources. Municipalities across the Commonwealth offer diverse stories of success, maintaining and enhancing historical and architectural character.

Pennsylvania law provides municipalities a range of options to tailor regulatory approaches for historic preservation to specific local objectives. The Historic District Act authorizes municipal protection of historical and architectural character through the regulation of new construction, alteration, restoration, or demolition of buildings within districts that have been certified by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The Municipalities Planning Code authorizes the use of zoning ordinances to protect historic resources – in fact, mandates it. Zoning regulations can be used to protect historic resources whether located with other historic resources in a district-like setting or dispersed at isolated sites. Zoning also provides opportunity to create regulatory incentives for historic preservation.

A municipality may more effectively provide for future trails, parks, networks of open space, road improvements, or other public uses by identifying the location of key public grounds and infrastructure in advance of the public’s need and reserving the necessary land on an official map. By reserving the land, the municipality expresses its intent to acquire that specific land at some future date. This expression of intent does not affect existing property ownership; landowners still own and control their land. However, the owners are constrained in building on, subdividing or otherwise developing the reserved land until (1) they receive a special encroachment permit or (2) they provide written notice of intent to develop and then allow the municipality up to a year to acquire the land from them.

The municipality and landowner may negotiate the sale of the reserved land or an easement, or they may agree to an alternative approach that will still meet the public need. If negotiations fail, the municipality may use its powers of condemnation, although municipalities rarely exercise these powers. If the municipality does not acquire the land within a year of the notice, the reservation lapses and the owner is free to build or subdivide following the normal regulatory process.

There are a number of land use planning and zoning tools available to municipalities in Pennsylvania, authorized through the Municipalities Planning Code (MPC). These tools make it possible for municipalities to guide growth, protect land, and establish commercial, residential industrial, and agricultural corridors within the community, thus protecting natural, historical, economic, and cultural resources in the process.  

The Municipalities Planning Code was first enacted in 1968 and became effective January 1, 1969. Through this enabling act, municipalities have been given the ability to plan for and control land use. The Act has been amended numerous times, most recently in 1988 and again in 2000, strengthening municipal controls in regulating land use. 

As part of the land development process, a Pennsylvania municipality may require the developer to dedicate land to the municipality for public parks and recreation purposes. Called “public dedication” in the state’s Municipalities Planning Code, this tool is also referred to as “mandatory dedication”.

A municipality may also provide the option for the developer to choose from several alternatives to public dedication. However, municipalities may not mandate these alternatives. The developer may voluntarily agree to do one or more of the following instead of or in addition to public dedication:

• Pay a fee to the municipality to be used for providing “parks and recreation facilities” accessible to the new development. This is known as “fee-in-lieu” of land dedication;
• Construct recreational facilities; and/or
• Privately reserve land within the subdivision for park and recreation purposes.

Public dedication is based on the concept of impact fees: Development creates increased demand for municipal services or facilities. Requiring the developer to provide amenities or funding for expanded or enhanced public amenities is an efficient and equitable way to offset some of the impacts of a new development.

 COMING IN MID-2013

Municipalities interested in adopting or amending sign ordinances need to determine what type of sign ordinance is important to them. Developing a sign ordinance involves coming to consensus on a signage vision for the municipality, the willingness of elected officials to draft and implement the regulations, and an understanding of current case law on sign regulations.

Sign ordinances that work well have clear, easy requirements that are consistent with current case law. The ordinances can be adopted as a part of the zoning ordinance or as a stand-alone ordinance. Model sign ordinances are available for municipalities to use as a guide for drafting their signage regulations. 

Pennsylvania municipalities use a variety of approaches to plan for and regulate the use and disturbance of steep slopes. Regulation is accomplished through the zoning ordinance and the subdivision and land development ordinance. A zoning ordinance can regulate the use of land characterized by steep slopes, and can include supplemental regulations or standards that prevent steep slope impacts. A subdivision and land development ordinance can also include design standards that prevent steep slope impacts, and typically requires from development applicants detailed site information such as topographic surveys and grading plans.

Unlike zoning ordinance provisions, subdivision standards are more easily modified or waived by a municipality when requested by a development applicant. Using a zoning ordinance instead to address the use and disturbance of steep slopes can afford this natural resource a higher degree of protection.

Steep slope regulations may be established within a zoning ordinance as an overlay zoning district or as a set of supplemental zoning regulations. They can be primarily use-based, performance-based, or a combination of the two. When coupled with other municipal tools, such as Conservation by Design, they can achieve landscape-scale conservation benefits.

Transportation planning practice has begun to embrace the connection between land use and transportation, seeking to accommodate a range of transportation choices and addressing the land use context in which transportation improvements are to take place. Municipalities can establish street and sidewalk standards for their communities or improve existing ones using several popular planning concepts such as Complete Streets, context sensitive design, and traffic calming principles. Streets and sidewalks can be designed to complement the character of the surrounding neighborhood and safely accommodate a wide variety of people, uses, and needs, including those of pedestrians and cyclists. Good design can improve mobility, the health of communities, and the broader environment.

To translate standards into practice, municipalities may update their subdivision and land development ordinances to require new developments to conform to their new standards. Municipalities may also embark on improving existing streets and sidewalks, funding these improvements via grants, using tax revenue on a pay-as-you-go basis, or through bonding.

Under development.

While land use planning and development since the mid-1900s have placed great emphasis on separating different land uses and serving cars and trucks, Traditional Neighborhood Development stresses the integration of different housing types and other land uses and the creation of paths, streets and lanes to equally serve pedestrians and the automobile.

Many TND ordinance provisions are crafted to recreate old-fashioned neighborhoods, where a compatible scale of homes, shops, eateries, libraries, churches, and other land uses are interspaced among grid-like streets, sidewalks, and village greens. The compact form promotes walking, biking, and use of public transportation to meet many of the residents’, visitors’, and workers’ daily or weekly needs (e.g., school, work, recreation, shopping).

TND can accommodate growth while leaving most farmland and open space intact. TND can occur in infill settings (i.e., where vacant or underdeveloped land exists within an urban or village area) and involve adaptive reuse of existing buildings. TND can also occur in “greenfields”, involving all-new construction on previously undeveloped land. Either setting may be appropriate if the area targeted for TND is designated for such development through a thoughtful, well-designed municipal or regional planning process.

Traffic-calming incorporates a variety of design and management strategies into local streetscapes to control motor vehicle speeds and traffic volume for the safety of both motorists and non-motorists. For example, speed tables or speed bumps compel drivers to slow down to speeds at which they are better able to react to unexpected situations such as a child darting across the street. Even if a crash does occur, lower speed crashes are less likely to kill or seriously injure.

Transfer of Development Rights programs enable landowners within valuable agricultural, natural and cultural resource areas to be financially compensated for choosing not to develop some or all of their lands. These landowners are given an option under municipal zoning to legally sever the “development rights” from their land and sell these rights to another landowner or a real estate developer for use at another location. The land from which the development rights have been severed is permanently protected through a conservation easement or other appropriate form of restrictive covenant, and the development value of the land where the transferred development rights are applied is enhanced by allowing for new or special uses, greater density or intensity, or other regulatory flexibility that zoning without the TDR option would not have permitted. The TDR tool is similar to Pennsylvania’s county agricultural conservation easement purchase programs, except with TDR, the development rights purchased from the farmer/landowner can be reused rather than being retired under the agricultural easement scenario. Pennsylvania’s TDR programs have focused largely on the protection of farmland, although historic and natural resources have also been permanently protected in Pennsylvania using the TDR tool. Under Commonwealth law, use of TDRs must be voluntary, and TDRs are established in a municipal zoning ordinance as one of several use options available to a landowner or developer.

A tree ordinance is an expression of citizen concern about trees and their intrinsic value as well as of community pride. A tree ordinance is also a regulatory tool to help facilitate decision-making and management of trees in a municipality.

The International Society of Arborists categorizes tree ordinances into three main categories:

• Street tree ordinances primarily cover the planting and removal of trees within public rights-of-way. They often contain provisions governing the maintenance or removal of private trees that pose a hazard to the traveling public. Also included are ordinances with tree planting requirements, such as requiring tree planting in parking lots. Tree protection ordinances are primarily directed at providing protection for native trees and/or trees with historical significance. They usually require that a permit be obtained before protected trees can be removed, encroached upon, or in some cases, pruned.
• View ordinances are designed to help resolve conflicts between property owners that result when trees block views or sunlight. A tree ordinance is usually implemented as part of a broader community effort to address tree-related goals.
• Ordinances regulating the harvest of timber are addressed at this website under the heading Timber Harvest Ordinances

An urban growth boundary (UGB) is a line drawn on a map that separates areas where government policies encourage urban development from areas where government policy encourage agriculture, silviculture and other non-developmental rural activities. Typical goals of a UGBs are the:

• Promotion of compact, contiguous development patterns,
• Preservation of open space and land that is environmentally sensitive or important,
• Preservation of farmlands and the rural character of areas outside of the UGB,
• Reinvestment in existing urbanized areas,
• Creation of transit-oriented, mixed-use land use patterns,
• Lowering of development costs by allowing development in areas efficiently served by urban infrastructure.

A regional UBG can be established by creating several individual UGBs within a county or multi-county area.

Small-scale solar and wind energy systems tap plentiful and renewable energy sources and can produce energy at the location where it is needed. The systems reduce reliance on foreign oil, reduce pollution and help to create green jobs, among other benefits. However, these systems may also have negative impacts including excess solar panel glare, wind turbine noise and rattle, impacts to scenic or historic resources, or safety hazards if abandoned. Accordingly, the municipal governing body may adopt zoning regulations to allow use of alternative energy systems and realization of their benefits, while mitigating potential impacts through a permitting process.

This guide assists users with development of zoning regulations for alternative energy uses that are non-commercial, in other words, accessory uses that power the principal use (i.e., a home, business, or farm) on a building or lot. This guide does not address utility scale or commercial alternative energy systems that are the principal use of a lot.