Regional Recreation and Sustainability Planning

When I headed out to last night's Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee meeting, I glanced at the agenda and figured the big story would be Sanatoga Green.

Yawn.

Boy was I wrong.

It was on the agenda, but there was not much to say. It has been tinkered with, but remains the same basic plan.

More interesting was the presentation by John Lesher, chief environmental planner for the Montgomery County Planning Commission, who talked about Pottstown's sustainability plan.

It's the only one in the state, to his knowledge anyway, that includes both a borough and a school district, so let's polish our buttons on that one.

One of the more interesting snippets to come out of Lesher's talk -- we covered the plan fairly extensively back in January when it was adopted -- was how much the environment in which we live affects our health.

Here is the graphic.

He showed a graphic from a study that showed how much more important environment, lifestyle and special factors determine our lifespans -- more than genetics or infectious agents.

We spend 90 percent of our health money on medical care, but it is only response for 10 to 20 percent of how long we live or how healthy we are.

Here's the sound bite, "zip codes are more important than genetic codes" in determining our lifespan and over health, he said. Meaning that effort put into things like making Pottstown a nicer place to live actually help us to live longer.

Along those lines, the regional planners took an important vote and agreed to once again be the umbrella organization for the Pottstown Area Regional Recreation Committee and, hopefully, the retaining of director Michael Lane.

Upper Pottsgrove Township Manager Carol Lewis outlined that Lane and his predecessor, Justin Keller, had collectively obtained about $300,000 for each of the six towns that participate in in paying for his services.

Each town currently pays about $5,000, this due to a $100,000 grant from the state which expires next year, and a matching grant from the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation.

Next year, without the state grant, the price may rise to about $8,000 unless New Hanover and East Coventry -- the two towns which do not participate -- decide to jump into the pool with the other towns.

"Pottstown has definitely benefited from this," said Councilman Ryan Procsal.

The planners voted unanimously to continue to be the umbrella organization. Lewis said the recreation committee will make presentations over the next few months to the boards of the participating municipalities -- and the non-participating ones if they want to consider it -- to get their approval for the funding.

And now, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Sustaining Recreation

Traffic Study as Slow as a Traffic Jam

So as the collection of news stories and blog posts below indicates, regional planners have been talking about a regional traffic study for a long, long, long time.

And apparently, now that one is underway, it won't get done any time soon.

Last night folks from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Committee -- which oversees planning in Pennsylvania, and New Jersey around Philadelphia and the surrounding counties -- outlined the traffic study they indent to conduct in the area.

Or, to be more accurate, they outlined the steps they will take to undertake a regional traffic study in the area.

Long story short? It will take the next two fiscal years to complete. But before you complain, you should know they are doing it for free, or at least for the $65,000 worth of work they budget for the Montgomery and Chester county areas each year.

I'll spare you the technical talk, some of which you can find below in the Tweets. In essence, the DVRPC will look at the planned large projects in the area, from New Hanover's 700-plus town Center project to the 500-plus Sanatoga Green project in Lower Pottsgrove and make some recommendations.

As Montgomery County Planner John Cover explained it, the ultimate result will be to set priorities for major improvements on a regional basis, and take that regional approach to PennDOT to get the improvements done.

Most projects, taken on a municipal level, fix a few hundred feet of road near their entrance, maybe add a turning lane or traffic signal, and leave the rest for area driver so suffer.

The idea here is to look at the cumulative impact of major housing and commercial proposals, calculate their impact, and make the most important improvements, even if they are in a town or borough other than the one where a project is located.

Got it?

Good, here are the Tweets.

Regional Traffic/School Impacts are Cumulative

Photos by Evan Brandt

Montgomery County Planner Donna Fabry outlines aspects of the New Hanover Town Center proposal, involving more than 200 acres and more than 750 homes, during Thursday's meeting of the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee. 

Whether its the number of children packing a classroom or the number of cars jamming Route 73, the cumulative impact of impending residential development is something planners should examine regionally, not on a town by town basis.

That was the apparent consensus among regional planners Thursday as they considered not only the traffic impact of a proposal to build more than 750 new homes in New Hanover Township, but also the cumulative effect when combined with projects in neighboring towns.

A proposal to have the Montgomery County Planning Commission contact the Delaware Valley Planning Commission and consider the implementation of a regional traffic study -- as a way to gain leverage to force intersection and road improvements -- passed unanimously.

New Hanover Township Supervisors Chairman Phil Agliano

outlines the specifics of the proposed Town Center plan.

And although no vote was taken Thursday night, two members of the Boyertown Area School Board -- John Landino and Clay Breece -- said the building projects proposed in New Hanover and Douglass (Mont.) townships will have an impact on the school system as well.

"Nobody wants to build a new school," Landino told this blogger. "And every parent wants their child to go to the local school."

Boyertown has held off on a re-districting proposal for elementary schools, Landinso said, but noted that all of the growth in the district -- which incorporates part of two counties -- is on the Montgomery County side.

"The Berks side is not growing," Landino said. "So we keep pushing everybody (students) west."

In addition to the impact of Boyertown schools, the traffic these new residential projects in Lower Pottsgrove, New Hanover and Douglass, "will all be funneled ultimately to Route 100 and Route 422, after turning Route 73 into more of a parking lot than it already is, the planners observed.

Which is why they agreed, once again, to pursue the idea of a regional traffic study as a way to measure and hopefully, mitigate the impact of all the residential development.

And here are the Tweets from the meeting.

Greenway Study Plan May Be Complete in 2017

Photo by Evan Brandt

Montgomery County Planner Donna Fabry with the regional planning

award presented to the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning

Committee recently by the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce.

What's the best way to manage the stream that runs through your property?

Should a township mow a field all summer or let it turn into a natural meadow if its now being used?

Can planting more street trees help reduce stormwater runoff in developed areas and reduce the need for costly storm sewer upgrades?

Its questions like these that may soon have an answer in our little corner of Southeast PA.

Well, not so little actually.

The largest greenway stewardship study ever funded by the Pennnsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is currently under way in 26 different municipalities in Montgomery and Chester counties.

Undertaken by a partnership between the Montgomery County Planning Commission and the Natural Lands Trust, the greenway stewardship study is looking at more than 4,000 properties in four adjoining regional planning commissions -- the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee and those in the Upper Perkiomen Valley, Central Perkiomen Valley and Indian Valley.

Overlay map shows different landscapes that

are part of the Greenway study.

Already a year old, the massive undertaking aims to inventory all parcels over 10 acres, identify the type of one of 10-landscapes it represents and to develop best management practices for the owners, whether private or public.

The data gather phase will be competed by the end of this year or the beginning of the next, said Montgomery County Planner Eric Jarrell.

Then the plan will be written at the same time the Natural Lands Trust, which is helping gather the data and assess the properties, will be writing a guide for the best ways to manage your fields, streams, forests and urban greenways.

Representatives from each of the four regional planning groups will then be tasked with helping the outreach effort to provide education and information to those property owners to help them make ecologically helpful decisions about how they manage their property.

The other item of interest which occurred during the regional planning meeting was discussion of major projects in Lower Pottsgrove, most notably Sanatoga Green.

Tom Troutman, the township's representative, questioned whether large projects such as these comply with the regional comprehensive plan.

Montgomery County Donna Fabry said that when Lower Pottsgrove changed the zoning that made Sanatoga Green possible, it was not in keeping with the regional comprehensive plan, but that the planners have no authority to stop it.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Building Bridges in Douglas (Montgomery), Literally and Figuratively

Photo by Evan Brandt

Justin Keller, recreational circuit rider for the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee, left, asks the Douglass Township Supervisors if they would like help with grant writing or planning for the township's open spaces and parks development plans.

I had a choice between at least three township meetings last night -- Upper Pottsgrove, Lower Pottsgrove or Douglass (Mont.)

I chose Douglass because A) Township Manager Peter Hiryak was kind enough to e-mail me the agenda ahead of time; B) the agenda for Upper and Lower, as shown on their respective web sites both seemed equally non-consequential; and C) I had not been to Douglass since Anthony Kuklinski was named the chairman of the board of supervisors.

The meeting was over in a half hour, but there were updates on how Douglass handled the Winter Storm Jonas; what regional recreation planner Justin Keller can do for Douglass and what's going on with the County Line Road Bridge project.

Read the Tweets and be updated: