Land Development

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“Your parking requirements stink!  What do you mean we have to provide 25 times the number of parking spaces than what the ITE says, or we have to get a variance? What is our hardship other than your requirements haven’t been updated in over 50 years? If your parking requirements were a car, they would be considered antique!”

“Your project doesn’t have enough off-street parking! All those vehicles will park in my spot on the street in front of my house and block my three driveways! How will the plow truck get through? Where will the neighborhood kids play?”

Obviously, these outrageous statements are made up, but the underlying premises are true: parking is and continues to be a contentious issue in numerous communities (for example, see here and here). Continue Reading Waivers and Modifications for Parking Relief:  What Do You Mean We Don’t Need a Variance?

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This is a guest post by Andrew Notarfrancesco, Vice President of JEM Group

For most people, a primary residence is the largest investment they will make over their lifetime. Therefore, it’s no surprise that people will be curious, critical, or even opposed to any type of real estate development in their community which they feel could have an adverse impact on the place they chose to live. This is frequently the case with affordable housing, where the age-old ‘not in my backyard’ stigma often stems from beliefs that low-to-moderate income neighbors could undermine the local quality of life and security.Continue Reading Better Housing and Building to Improve Lives

Kicking off 2022, we can celebrate a win for builders and developers with the enactment of PA Senate Bill 208, which was signed into law by Governor Wolf on December 22, 2021.

SB 208 made numerous changes to Section 509 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (the “MPC”), which deals with posting financial security to guarantee completion of the public improvements depicted on a plat. Pursuant to Section 509, a municipality can require a developer to post financial security (usually in the form of a letter of credit or a bond) in an amount equal to 110% of the cost of the public improvements shown on the plan before releasing it for recording. These bonded improvements typically include roads, stormwater and drainage facilities, open space improvements, and required buffer landscaping.Continue Reading Amendments to the MPC Clarify Municipal Bonding Requirements

Problem:  A clean, renewable energy (CRE) developer is proposing to construct a solar energy project on land within a rural agricultural area of our community. We have government goals and initiatives promoting the reduction of carbon footprints by accelerating the pace of replacing dependence on fossil fuels with CRE sources (e.g., solar, wind). At the same time, similar goals and initiatives suggest supporting farmers and preserving more farmland. We think that both are important. Do we create a win-lose scenario by supporting one and sacrificing the other?

Answer: You may not have to choose.
Continue Reading Agrivolatics: Two for One – Harvesting Crops and Solar

If you attend municipal meetings regularly (like yours truly), you know that stormwater management is a frequent topic of discussion and debate. Simply put, stormwater is the precipitation which flows off impervious surfaces during a weather event rather than infiltrating into the ground. Naturally, development of any type changes stormwater infiltration and runoff patterns. In today’s world, even small construction projects
Continue Reading Grab Your Umbrella- Here Comes the Rain (Tax)

If I told you that, in Pennsylvania, municipal (including county) planning agencies, such as planning commissions or planning department staff, are permitted to act on subdivision or land development plans (“SLD Plans”) and related waivers or modifications, most of you would likely say that I’m wrong, crazy, or flat out lying!  Most of you would say that planning agencies are to review and make recommendations on SLD Plans, and that governing bodies (e.g., councils, supervisors or commissioners) take action to approve or deny SLD Plans and waivers or modifications.  Well, most of you would be right, but only partially.
Continue Reading You Can’t Do that in Pennsylvania! Or Can You?: Planning Commissions Approving Subdivision/Land Development Plans

Consider the following scenario: You have recorded your plan for a single-family residential development and begin to install infrastructure.  After streets, utilities and curbs are constructed, individual lots are sold off and residents begin to move into your development.  After a week or two, you receive several complaints that the Post Office is not delivering mail to the mailboxes you installed along the frontages of each home.  When you reach out to the Post Office, you are told that curbside mail delivery is not available for your development and instead you must install centralized mail in the form of cluster box units (“CBUs”).  What do you do?

The foregoing scenario (or something similar) is occurring more and more regularly throughout the country as the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) continues to prioritize its transition from traditional curbside mail delivery to CBUs in residential developments.
Continue Reading Mr. McFeely’s Speedy Delivery – Now to Cluster Box Units Only

Hopefully, the title alone has George Harrison’s acoustic intro playing in your head.  If not, maybe this will help.

Here comes the sun (doo-doo-doo)
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s all right

The Beatles’ classic was not foretelling of the arrival of solar energy development projects in Pennsylvania, but it could serve as an anthem now.

Last month, Rachel McDevitt of StateImpact Pennsylvania published an article about the emerging solar energy development “boom” in Pennsylvania.  The article is a wonderful deep dive into the recent growth of solar projects.  It outlines the usual questions and concerns surrounding those projects.

McDevitt notes that
Continue Reading Here Comes the Sun . . . Solar Development in Pennsylvania

Thank you for following our Land Use Blog throughout 2020.  Without spending too much time on the past, please enjoy our Top 5 posts of 2020!

TOP 5 POSTS OF 2020

  1. Jon Andrews, Looking Through the Kaleidoscope – Land Use in Pennsylvania
  2. Claudia Shank, Simplified Zoning: Paradox or New Paradigm?
  3. Peter Wertz, Water Flows Downhill

…

Tomorrow is Halloween.  In honor of the holiday, I’d like to spend some time reflecting on a use that is ubiquitous this time of year: the cemetery. We don’t often talk about them in a planning context, but cemeteries are an important part of our built environment.  Unlike most other land uses, they are generally permanent in nature. However, despite the fact that cemeteries are present in nearly every community, they are often overlooked as a land use category in zoning ordinances. Similarly, they are rarely incorporated, or even referenced, in comprehensive plans.

Although admittedly dated, this 1950 article from the American Society of Planning Officials breaks the cemetery problem into two categories: maintenance and use of existing cemeteries, and planning for new ones.
Continue Reading Cemeteries: Planning Perspectives and Modern Trends