Public meetings for Lebanon County’s comprehensive plan to be held this week

Local residents interested in sharing their thoughts about Lebanon County’s future are invited to participate in one of two public forums this week to provide input on development trends and planning priorities for the next 10 years. 

An informal open house and public forum will be held Wednesday, Nov. 12, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Lebanon County Department of Emergency Services, 1805 Cornwall Road, Lebanon. 

A virtual public forum will follow that public event on Thursday, Nov. 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. Residents are asked to register for the online session by emailing Michelle Brummer at mbrummer@gftinc.com (subject FORUM) by 6 p.m. Wednesday. The virtual link will open for attendees at 5:45 p.m.

The draft land use map, developed in April 2025, is an important document to aid county officials in determining what the current development footprint look like, residential versus commercial and industrial patterns, where are the working lands, agriculture and forest, and what lands are protected either by ownership or easement.

Read More: Lebanon County officials to seek public input on new comprehensive plan

Brummer told LebTown that Wednesday’s event will be informal and residents can arrive at any point during the two-hour meeting, which will be divided into two one-hour sessions. 

“It’s really meant to drop in at the top of the hour, stay as long as you like. If that means 20 minutes, that’s fine. If for somebody else that means 50 minutes, that’s fine, too,” Brummer said. “But if they drop in to get a flavor of what we’re looking for and they have time to talk to our team or answer the paper survey, that’s great.”

No matter how a resident decides to participate, the goal is for them to get the information they need and then provide their comments to be part of the comprehensive planning process.

A comprehensive plan is a long-range policy document that sets a vision for the future, outlining strategies for growth and development across various sectors, including land use, housing, transportation, infrastructure, economic development, and environmental protection. 

“If they want to hop in and see what the comprehensive plan is all about, that will be at the top of the hour (each hour) and they can come back later to the comprehensive planning website and give further input, that will be fine, too,” Brummer added.  

From 4 to 5 p.m. and again from 5 to 6 p.m., the comprehensive planning team will highlight countywide development patterns and conditions including discussions about land use (developed and working lands); housing, employment, and commercial services; transportation/mobility; public water and sewer infrastructure; and public services. 

“We’re not trying to reach a decision by 6 p.m., it will be very much an open door because there will also be the Thursday night session,” Brummer said. “We’ll have additional work and we’ll have a different conversation at (additional) public meetings in 2026. Even after those meetings, there will be a formal review and adoption that we’ll be required to go through before the plan is adopted, so there will be many opportunities for folks to talk to us one-on-one or give us input through the website.”

Whether attending in person, virtually or filling out online forms on the county’s comprehensive plan’s website, participants will be invited to answer key questions such as: 

• What matters to you today in your community and across the county?
• What matters for the future of your community and the county?

Brummer said attendees will have opportunities to explore maps, statistics, and trends, and to engage directly with planning team members on various topics at these meetings. 

Some of those topics include: 

• Qualities that make Lebanon County a desirable place to live – and how those have changed over time. 
• Current development aspects that meet community needs and opportunities for improvement in those areas.
• Suitable types of future development as the county grows.
• Features or qualities of Lebanon County that should be preserved for future generations. 

Brummer noted that the plan’s website will include a section for people to populate if they are more comfortable filling out the form than speaking in public.

“There are people who come to meetings who aren’t all that interested in public speaking. They may not like to speak out loud or maybe they want to be careful how they articulate, I want to be more thoughtful about that,” she said. “So we will have both a paper survey and an online portal where people can leave other comments or additional comments, they can elaborate on something all because we know that there are quiet people in the room.”

While the plan’s homepage is now live, the portion for people to leave comments will be open to the public later this week, according to Brummer. 

“That way, if people are unable to attend at either one of those times, there’s still a way for them to answer similar questions that we’ll ask to prompt discussion and give responses at those sessions,” she said.

The new website contains a plethora of information about the new plan’s process, and includes a link to the archive file of the 2007 comprehensive plan. 

“The new plan will be a tighter and more succinct plan because the old one was catching up on 40 years of community development data. It was the ’70s since the last time the county did a real plan. It was really previously a mini plan, and there weren’t many recommendations in it since the late ’80s,” Brummer said about the 2007 plan. “Part of this is to benchmark where we were and where we’re going.”

A key feature on the new web page is a place for residents to upload photos that highlight county assets or problems that Lebanon Countians would like the planning committee to address. 

Photos can be submitted through June 30, 2026, and for each photograph submitted, the submitter will be entered into a drawing for four one-day passes to the Lebanon Area Fair.

“We all know the metaphor that a picture is worth a thousand words and this gives folks a chance to say this place is what’s important to me, I don’t want this to change,” Brummer said. “Whether it’s a general picture of their neighborhood or maybe they love downtown Lebanon or a particular scenic view from a vista from around Lebanon County. Maybe it’s a picture of their place of work.” 

The point is to provide non-verbal examples to include in the report of what should remain and what needs to change throughout the Lebanon Valley.

“It’s about what’s important to them, what’s good about living in Lebanon County, what are some of the problems they see,” Brummer said. “It could equally be about please fix this kind of condition or problem. A picture of congestion, or an overflowing parking lot, things like that. It just gives people another form of language to communicate.”

Photos submitted have no limits, added Brummer. 

“This park is where our family gathers every year or maybe the park is part of Lebanon’s history. It’s another way to give people a chance to communicate with us,” she said. “Maybe it’s the rail trail that you walk once a month or bike every day or possibly it is your commuter route. These are great pictures that tell us how Lebanon County is used and loved.” 

Following this set of information-gathering sessions with the general public, Brummer said the planning committee will meet with municipal managers and leaders during the first quarter of 2026 to gather information from those officials to incorporate into the new plan.

“We’ll look at development trends, (municipal) building permit data because it is one thing to say something is planned and approved but it’s another for it to actually be constructed,” Brummer said. “So we’re in the process of trying to get a handle on some of those trends.”

Results from both forums will be published on the county’s comprehensive plan website, accessible from the homepage of Lebanon County’s website, in late November 2025.

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