A new land use, the high cube or automated warehouse, is starting to pop up around Pennsylvania and the county. These warehouses have a variety of forms, from “a warehouse on top of a warehouse” to largely robotic retrofits in an existing building, but in essence will have significant transportation, emergency management services, workforce, tax and environmental implications, among other things. Because they come in a variety of forms including, new developments, site redevelopments and existing building additions, and retrofits, high cube and automated warehousing affect subdivision and land development, zoning and/or building codes needs. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission has drafted a series of municipal considerations that its representatives will review with webinar attendees. This is a first of its kind community guide in the US to address this emerging form of development and its associated technology.

Home business activities and functions are considered a form of home-based businesses or occupations (HBBs) as defined, permitted and regulated by most municipal zoning ordinances. In this webinar, representatives of McNees Wallace and Nurick, LLC will explore opportunities and options for municipalities to proactively plan and zone for HBBs.

Repurposing existing buildings for new uses can be an important aspect of redevelopment. These projects come with benefits for the greater community: encouraging sustainable building practices, retaining historical features, and local economic impact. Adaptive reuse does pose challenges including: site limitations, potential remediation from previous usage contamination, and meeting modern building code/zoning requirements. These challenges and benefits will be explored along with incentives (State and Federal) for adaptive reuse of existing buildings.

The use of short-term rentals continues to explode around Pennsylvania and the United States. Short-term rentals can bring the benefit of economic development and tourism dollars to your community, but also challenges and complaints if not regulated in an appropriate manner. In this webinar, Shawn McGlynn will review the current state of short-term rentals in Pennsylvania and provide best practices for how to best regulate them.

In this webinar, presented by Daniel Mallinson and Goktug Morcol of Penn State University, you will learn how municipalities are managing the sharing economy, which includes such emerging services as ride sharing, bike sharing, and short-term rentals. Township officials will also be encouraged to share how their communities are addressing such platforms as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb.

Are your existing ordinances giving you the flexibility and authority you need to address emerging challenges like the implementation of 5G technology, the growth of short-term rentals, urban agriculture, and accessory dwelling units? If not, funding is available to update your ordinances, and this presentation will help you craft policy with the flexibility you need to address these issues and the evolving needs of your community. We'll discuss the specific challenges these trends present to planning officials and offer practical advice for how to revise the ordinance to solve those challenges. We'll also walk you through the revision process and tell you how to get outside funding to support it.

Today's recreation customers want a diverse range of facilities and programming. Most communities, however, cannot meet these needs on their own so some are opting to form public and private partnerships to enhance programming. This workshop will provide examples of how communities are using partnerships to increase offerings, resources, and audiences. Attendees will also learn how to form effective partnerships of their own.

Numerous companies have facilities or wish to install new facilities in the narrow ribbon of real estate known as the public rights-of-way. Yet, townships are charged with the task of managing these facilities to protect public safety. This webinar will review how to balance those competing interests, including by covering three major legal rulings that have fundamentally altered the ability of townships to perform this task--the 2019 PA Supreme Court decision in City of Lancaster v. PUC, the 2019 FCC Cable Franchise Order, and the 2018 FCC Wireless Order.

This interactive session focuses on the crucial role of the township's building code official. These professionals are a critical part of the building process from reviewing projects to upholding safety standards.

During this session, township officials will get some insight into residential agricultural land uses and how best to manage them. Uses include the keeping of bees and chickens, composting, and gardening. The panel will include bee and poultry experts to help attendees gain a greater of understanding of these practices while learning how they fit within residential zones and how to regulate/manage them.