Conservation Tools

The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code requires the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services to prepare a comprehensive State Land Use and Growth Management Report every five years, beginning in 2005. This report is to be a comprehensive land use and growth management report with information, data and conclusions regarding growth and development patterns in PA along with recommendations to state agencies for coordination of executive action, regulation and programs. This is the inaugural report.

The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code requires the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services to prepare a comprehensive State Land Use and Growth Management Report every five years, beginning in 2005. This report takes an in-depth look at statewide and regional growth and development patterns. It will be a vital tool in assessing trends and barriers related to land use, population and development and will be a tremendous resource in mapping out future growth opportunities for Pennsylvania."

This chapter of Human Population Growth and Land-Use Change, written by Peter Claggett synthesizes the USGS findings about the rate of urban sprawl in the Chesapeake watershed and outcomes from a vulnerability assessment.

This report discusses a first attempt to use Scenario 360 to set up an application that would report a set of development impacts associated with a sample development to a planning board.

Greenscapes: The Green Infrastructure Element of the Lancaster County Comprehensive Plan defines a vision, goals and objectives, strategies, and tools to preserve, conserve, restore, and enhance natural resources through the establishment of a countywide, integrated green infrastructure system. It highlights the importance of protecting large blocks of contiguous land and improving connectivity as it aims to establish a network of natural areas, conservation lands, and working landscapes. Greenscapes provides a blueprint for accommodating appropriate growth and development while preserving the region’s most valuable natural resources, native species, cultural assets and agricultural economy.

Press release announcing the kick-off workshop for the Hazlet 2030 visioning process and describes the purpose and funding for the process.

This document was used at a public workshop and presents the existing conditions, describes prior planning efforts and the key focus areas, and provides questions for public discussion during the workshop.

Communication towers in North America kill millions of birds annually, and most of these are Neotropical species that migrate at night. This paper reviews and analyzes the literature on the features of towers that can be regulated, particularly tower design and placement, to provide a scientific basis for regulation of tower construction and operation.

This book contains practices and tools used in Pennsylvania to promote responsible land use. The document is available from the following website free of charge:

A thoroughly detailed, up-to-date technical manual and in-depth report on New Urbanism. New Urbanism, a reaction to sprawl, is a better way to plan and build 21st Century communities. It is based on principles of planning and architecture that work together to create human-scale, walkable communities. A pdf of the report "The New Urbanism: A better way to plan and build 21st Century communities" by the guide's authors is included as a pdf in this library item.

The Schuylkill Watershed Priority Lands Strategy is a new model that recognizes the land-water connection and identifies the highest priority lands to protect. GIS modeling was used to identify areas within the Schuylkill Watershed that are the most important to preserve for both ecological and drinking water source protection, further defined by development threat over the next 20 years. This website is designed to make the data, methodology, results and maps of the Schuylkill Watershed Priority Lands Strategy easily accessible to open space planners, land trust staff, municipal officials, funders and others for use in making strategic open space protection decisions.

This web page gives an overview of the Virginia Vulnerability Model, which was developed in an effort to map predicted growth in Virginia. This model can be integrated with other datasets, such as the VCLNA Cultural Model or Ecological Model, to identify which cultural and ecological cores are most at risk to growth pressures. The model may be used to help guide local land use planners in the development of their comprehensive plans in an effort to control growth and subsequent development within their jurisdiction. It allows users to look at the landscape as a whole and assess how growth may impact the environment, what remaining farmland or timberland is available and how water quality will be affected before more development is introduced.