County Planning Districts

This event is an in-person screening of this webinar; there is no virtual component.

County Planning Districts: An Innovative Approach to Municipal and County Collaboration in Community

Westmoreland County employed the Planning Districts approach to advance the County Comprehensive Plan’s "Reimagining Our Westmoreland." This regional planning and local action strategy acknowledges existing geographic, economic, cultural, educational, and transportation groupings. By leveraging these relationships, the county aims to address shared challenges and tackle issues arising from an aging and declining population at the local level.

The county’s comprehensive plan outlines seven districts. The idea is to look beyond municipal boundaries to communicate, collaborate, and work together cooperatively. By doing so, neighboring municipalities can better support and empower each other to accomplish their goals.

Central to the Planning Districts approach is the notion that communities benefit more when they actively participate in planning for their future. While the county cannot drive local priorities, we do have the technical expertise and resources to facilitate a process that helps communities determine their own priorities.

The Planning Districts approach recognizes three essential elements:

1. County government and regional partners are best suited to deliver planning and technical assistance.

2. Local government is best suited to understand local needs/wants and to carry out recommendations in the plan.

3. Collaboration between the two is the formula for implementation.

The Lancaster County comprehensive plan, Places 2040, was designed to serve as a guide for maintaining quality of life rather than an encyclopedia. A partnership between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors has been crucial in developing and implementing this plan. Instead of limiting the conversation to county and local governments, the Lancaster County Planning Department has collaborated closely with "Partners for Place"—local organizations involved in land use.

During this session, Mr. Van Blarcom will highlight how these partnerships support an implementation strategy that is both issue-oriented and geographically focused. In the five years since the plan’s adoption, the Lancaster County Planning Department has prepared several multi-municipal comprehensive plans based on the Places2040 model. They have used GIS to identify areas where policy changes would have the most significant impact and applied this analysis to recommend potential adjustments to growth area boundaries.

Speakers

• Victoria Baur, Deputy Director, Westmoreland County Planning & Development
• Jason Rigone, Executive Director, Westmoreland County Planning & Development
• Kip Van Blarcom, Director, Implementation & Outreach, Lancaster County Planning Department

Moderator

- Peter Wulfhorst, Penn State Extension

AICP Credits: 1.25 ASLA Credits: 1.25

Group viewing brought to you by Lancaster County Planning.

Lancaster County Planning strives to provide educational opportunities for our planning partners – professional planners, municipalities, consultants, designers, engineers, local planning commissions, and interested citizens. In 2024, we will continue to provide an opportunity for our partners to join us at our office to view a mix of live and recorded webinars we have purchased or registered for from various sources on a variety of planning topics. Many of these programs will provide AICP CM and ASLA continuing education credits. Due to site license restrictions, we are not able to share our webinar access information with interested parties. For independent access, please contact the webinar provider directly.

For questions related to this event, please contact 717-299-8333 or email [email protected].

Host or Publisher Lancaster County Planning