This educational forum explores issues that zoning officers and planning and zoning officials face on a regular basis, and discusses effective strategies to address them.

The recent publications by Daniel Parolek of Opticos Design and policy changes from around the country have spurred a renewed interest in ‘Missing Middle’ Housing. Missing Middle Housing includes a diverse set of housing types that were fundamental building blocks of pre-1940s neighborhoods. Today, typical single-family zoning often prevents a range of housing options within a given district or proposed residential development. This presentation will review how Cranberry Township has worked to create greater flexibility and remove regulatory barriers imposed by typical Euclidean zoning. Specifically, the presentation will examine the Township’s recently adopted Planned Neighborhood (PN) Overlay and its elements. In addition, the presentation will review important metrics to consider as other communities analyze their existing housing stock and plan for long-term solvency and financial sustainability.

As individuals grow apart in today’s society, communities need to come together. Communities not only provide a geographic location where people live, they also offer social interaction and common ties that bind their people together. Ideally, these community features and related opportunities should be available to benefit all within a community, including the very young and old residents. Many communities would like to engage citizens in an all-age inclusive planning process, but do not have the knowledge, staffing or expertise to develop such assessments and strategies to capture information for use in a decision-making process. In this webinar, representatives of Penn State Extension will first engage participants in a discussion of challenges they have faced and provide practices for how they can address them to the benefit of their communities.

This 90-minute virtual class provides a comprehensive overview of current zoning issues and problems as they interact with the UCC. Topics include and overview of the MPC, zoning requirements and difficulties, responsibilities of BCOs to meet and manage zoning challenges, permit issuance and enforcement conflicts, violation letter requirements and templates, and legal issues in zoning.

In this webinar, representatives from the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission will review key issues that are important to your township’s comprehensive planning and implementation efforts (using Susquehanna Township as an example), including infrastructure, land development, open space, housing/building stock, cultural resources, and transportation. They will also discuss how you can most effectively use the tools in the Planning Toolkit developed by TCRPC.

In this webinar, Jason Wert with RETTEW will review the many benefits – financial, long-term resiliency, and sustainability – that grid-independent solar operations can bring municipalities and municipal authorities. He will use as a case study the University Area Joint Authority in State College, which incorporated a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) into its original solar array and has since achieved approximately 80% grid-based energy independence through this integrated system at its wastewater treatment and reuse facilities.

The PSATS Zoning Academy is a multi-day class that is focused on providing attendees with a foundational understanding of all important aspects of zoning in Pennsylvania. This class will greatly benefit newer zoning officials, those looking to become zoning officials and municipal officials and employees seeking a better understanding of zoning’s impact on municipal operations

Designed to emphasize the importance of parks and public open space as essential elements in community infrastructure, this webinar will highlight opportunities for land managers to improve maintenance, operational efficiencies, and sustainability efforts. Participants will also network in small groups to share best practices in resource management and capital planning across various industries, that can be applied to public works, facilities, grounds, and public property stewardship.

In this webinar, representatives of the Montgomery County Planning Commission will cover several new and emerging areas in the planning world and their efforts to address them. They will review the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on commercial environments and how those impacts might continue. They will also share suggestions regarding what municipalities and developers are doing or could do in the future to address the pandemic impacts on their commercial areas. In addition, they will address the uptick in the number of multifamily residential developments that have been proposed or are in development and review new research on the impacts of multifamily housing and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts this residential segment.

This session will cover a variety of common “quality of life” matters for townships, including managing short-term rental issues, fireworks, and numerous property maintenance challenges and will leave you with best practices to better position your township to be proactive.