Five municipalities advance regional development plan for Cornwall-Lebanon

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By quorum votes, the planning commissions for Cornwall Borough and North Cornwall, North Lebanon, South Lebanon, and West Cornwall townships agreed following a public hearing Wednesday to move forward a drafted Cornwall-Lebanon Regional Comprehensive Plan, which will next come before municipal governing bodies.

The motion adopted by each commission included that they would accept the draft plan, approve its distribution to the county, the Cornwall-Lebanon School District, and contiguous municipalities (all of whom will have 45 days to review the plan and make comments), and forward it to their respective governing bodies.

Each governing body will have the choice to adopt the community and economic development plan as-is or request further revisions, following an advertised public hearing.

Minor revisions, Gannett-Fleming-TranSystems senior project manager Michelle Brummer said, may be made without need to reconvene planning commissions. However, larger additions or significant changes will require representatives of involved municipalities to further meet and discuss before sending back for approval.

The regional plan, which is shared between municipalities in the Cornwall-Lebanon School District, is an advisory document containing policy recommendations for participating municipalities. A previous plan was adopted (by all municipalities except Cornwall, which joined in 2022) in 2013, with comprehensive plans recommended to be revised every 10 years.

Goals of the plan, written exactly as listed in the 117-page document, are as follows:

1. Maintain a balance of developed, urban areas and conserved, rural lands.
2. Sustain the region’s distinct urban and rural characters.
3. Maintain circulation systems; expand travel options, especially within the
   Planned Development Area.
4. Expand and diversify the economic tax base and family-sustaining, living
   wage employment.
5. Protect farmland and the business of farming.
6. Foster reasonable housing choices in type, cost, and attainability.
7. Plan, build and maintain sustainable physical infrastructure.
8. Enhance water management and conservation.
9. Provide cost-effective local government services.
10. Protect sensitive natural resources from development and their impacts and
    restore connectivity and quality, where feasible.
11. Preserve significant historic resources and encourage conservation of other
    historic resources.

Brummer explained that the Fair Share Doctrine requires zoning ordinances to include developable land for every zoning district. In order to ensure new development is in places that is suitable for it, Brummer said, the plan includes several recommendations for changes in zoning.

The document also recommends that planning commissions and municipal officials undergo a study defining the “character” of different locations throughout the area, with the goal of adding zoning provisions “to encourage protection of desired localized character.” Brummer said this encourages new development to match old development aesthetically.

Another focus of the plan details increased congestion on major roadways (in particular, the State Route 72 corridor), and recommends that municipalities improve existing roadways and work to make other travel options, like walking or biking, more doable for residents. An example is the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail, of which the plan encourages continued growth, and other recommended improvements to sidewalks, street lighting, crosswalks, and more.

The plan estimates that 2,608 additional units will be needed by 2040, and encourages participating municipalities to encourage residential growth, including growth of low-to-moderate income households.

With more deaths than births of residents, Brummer said, the area is reliant on migration from other places within or beyond Lebanon County.

Aspects of the plan received some pushback from attendees, including Cornwall Planning Commission member Ray Fratini, who voiced concern about the loss of agricultural land to residential and commercial uses, and opposition to the Fair Share Doctrine.

Representatives of a few municipalities discussed the possibility of shared zoning maps, which would spread this responsibility over a larger area. Brummer said the Comprehensive Plan does not formalize this, but could provide legal justification for why the municipalities should share zoning maps.

A resident asked whether CLSD would be able to handle population increases, to which superintendent Dr. Philip Domencic explained that the school’s projections estimate student populations to remain flat for the next five to ten years. Though current high school class sizes are larger (400-500 students per year), elementary classes, he said, are closer to 300.

He said his concern is with increased student poverty, noting that while in the past, only 10% of students were eligible for free or reduced lunch, 45% of students are now eligible for the program.

This committee has been at work developing the plan (taking into account concerns of both committee-members and residents who submitted feedback) for over a year.

Read More: (2024) Cornwall-Lebanon Regional Comp. plan seeks feedback from area residents

Following the 45-day review period, involved municipalities will hold public hearings before putting adoption to a vote.

The comprehensive plan is an advisory document and does not require participating municipalities to take any specific action. Read the draft in full here.