Brent Landis
Agriculture Services Coordinator
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(XcXLI Lancaster
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E-mail:blandisOleci.com
I recently had the opportunity where the building industry
to coordinate a tour for Jim supports urban growth boundaries
Landers, a newspaper reporter for (UGB's).
The Dallas Morning News, who Kauffman feels that in order to
was interested in writing a feature enact effective UGB's, the
article on Lancaster County's decision needs to remain in
land-use planning. Lancaster County, not Harrisburg.
In order to give Landers a A possible statewide planning
background on the planning board to create a vision for land
activities in Lancaster County, we use * n ma y be beneficial, but a
met with several County leaders statewide planning board will not
including Lancaster County enhance the decisions for land-use
Commissioner Terry Kauffman, * n Lancaster's community,
who made it evident that according to Kauffman.
Lancaster has been in a decade To grasp the details and future
long struggle with land-use direction of the UGBs we met
planning. In fact, the County is at with Ronald Bailey, the executive
risk of losing significant acres of director of the Lancaster County
the precious farmland it is known Planning Commission. In 1994
for. One unique thing about first UGB ' S were established
Lancaster is that it is one of the to help contain growth but
only counties in Pennsylvania unfortunately they have had
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limited effectiveness. In 1997, 75
percent of new homes were built
within the UGB's. But the
problem exists with the 25
percent of homes that were built
outside the UGB's since they
consumed 66 percent of the total
land developed. The UGB's are
set to control the next 20 years of
growth, however at the current
consumption of land, Lancaster
County is growing at two to three
times faster than predicted.
The answer to this rapid use of
land lies in a couple of areas.
First, we must use our current
land within the UGB's more
efficiently. Many of the current
developments are using between
half and one acre lot sizes, with
some as big as five acres. If we
were to make these lot sizes just a
quarter acre or less, we could
utilize our land much more
effectively. We must also
simplify the process of land
development within the UGB's to
prevent the spread outside of
them, while making it more
difficult to develop those acres
outside the boundary.
Land-Use Planning: What challenges
Will The 21st Century Hold?
v '
rus
SYCAMORE IND. PARK Route 30 at the
255 PLANE TREE DRIVE Centerville Exit.
LANCASTER, PA 17603
(717) 393-5807
To view land-use planning
from a business perspective, we
met with Dan Witmer, president
of The Lancaster Chamber of
Commerce & Industry. Witmer
feels the heart of Lancaster's
economy is primarily based on
manufacturing and the business
community, not on agriculture.
He feels public preservation may
not be the best answer in land use.
According to Witmer, we must
allow business growth to occur in
the county in order to retain a
healthy economy. He also noted
that the Chamber supports
Lancaster County's
Comprehensive Plan and its
related Urban Growth
Boundaries.
It appears the future of
Lancaster County's farmland is
headed in a good direction as it
anticipates the largest single
contribution ever from the state to
protect farms from development.
As the County continues to lose
over 2,500 acres of precious
farmland a year, the nearly $7
million in state money that is
expected to pay for agricultural
' '* x '
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conservation easements in
Lancaster County is needed
greatly. This extra money will
allow the Lancaster Ag
Preservation Board to purchase
easements on 4,000 acres, some
of which have waited since 1993.
The Preservation Board views the
expected 500,000 new residents
in Lancaster County in the next
SO years as the biggest challenge
in the future and the preservation
of individual farms as just a small
component in preserving the food
chain.
A Chinese Proverb simply puts
it, "The well-being of a people is
like a tree: Agriculture is its root,
manufacture and commerce are its
branches and its leaves. If the
root is injured, the leaves fall, the
branches break away, and the tree
dies." It seems impossible to try
and solve the County's land use
planning struggles, with one
simple answer. There are many
different angles and approaches
that officials must look at when
considering land-use strategies.
The important thing is to plan for
future growth of your county, so
that when faced with those
difficult decisions, a plan is intact
to use that is agreed upon by both
the agriculture and business
communities.
Feel free to send your
comments and ideas by email to
Brent Landis at the Chamber at
blandis@lcci.com or call him at
717-397-3531.
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