Conservation Tools

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 PA 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.

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.

The goal of Pike County’s Open Space, Greenways and Recreation Plan is to set a sustainable direction for both protecting our natural resources and enhancing the quality of life for our citizens for today and the future.

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

This model ordinance was written to promote consistency between the county comprehensive plan and local comprehensive plans and to help municipalities to manage and direct growth in a sustainable manner. The model ordinance has different provisions for urban areas, rural areas, and redevelopment areas within Lancaster County.

Pike County Pennsylvania's comprehensive plan and summary brochure.

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.

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.