Three central Pennsylvania municipalities submitted applications to the same grant program for significantly different municipal parks. This webinar analyzes the steps each community took to successfully secure funding despite the uniqueness of their projects.

This full-day program explores issues that zoning officers, planning and zoning officials face on a regular basis, and discusses effective strategies to address them. Attendees are eligible to receive six (6) continuing education credits toward their "Certified Zoning Officer" designation and 6 PMGA Planning/Zoning points.

Learn about strategies for starting an anti-blight campaign, the struggles you may face, and the massive rewards for persisting. Andrew Holter of Strategic Municipal Group will also present case studies to show the highs and lows of fighting blight.

In this webinar, a municipal grant writer will speak about “lessons learned” from her years of helping communities strategically use grant funding to accomplish their priority projects. Hear suggestions on how to develop quality, well-planned projects that are attractive to funding agencies. Learn tips on how to craft your community’s story so that it can be translated into competitive grant applications. Get honest, firsthand insight into some of the most popular state grant funding programs used by municipalities.

It is sometimes very easy for municipal officials and employees to confuse conditional uses and special exceptions and the procedures for addressing both. In this webinar, Kurt Williams and Tyler Beaston of Salzmann Hughes will review what you can and cannot do, as well as what you should and should not do, when your township receives request for conditional uses and special exceptions.

This year has seen a reemergence of development pressure and, with it, the return of validity challenges of old from those wanting to shake free of land use restrictions. However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a recent decision involving the regulation of short-term rentals, signaled a shift in thinking about how zoning ordinances are to be interpreted (in the context of a validity challenge). Join Michael Crotty of Siana Bellwoar as he uses these events to highlight the importance of familiarizing municipal planners and officials with the legal framework and processes behind validity challenges.

In this webinar, Gery Nietupski, an attorney who has navigated through numerous disputes between supervisors and elected auditors, will review all relevant provisions of the Second Class Township Code pertaining to elected auditors, discuss court decisions setting forth the legal authority (or lack thereof) that elected auditors have regarding numerous important issues, including setting wages and benefits of working supervisors and imposing surcharges against supervisors, and offer best practices for how to address other common interactions between supervisors and auditors, including requests for information and copies of township financial records.

This three-day event was created just for you — newly elected (or veteran) supervisors, other newly elected officials, and new secretaries/managers. Learn the everyday tasks to running a municipality, explore the tools and resources available to help you do your job successfully, and experience real-life scenarios through discussion with experienced PSATS members.

Economic Ecology™ is a comprehensive approach to meeting regulatory compliance by effectively utilizing resources. Case studies will reveal how a strategic floodplain restoration project can maximize pollutant reductions, create numerous environmental benefits and provide financial incentives for communities. Included is an overview of a proven approach to achieving PRP compliance, actual measurable results and a how-to on leveraging partnerships to create opportunities and fund projects.

If your township is looking for ways to pay for much-needed infrastructure repairs, replacements or upgrades, then don’t miss this webinar. You will learn about all of the opportunities that PENNVEST offers in terms of project financing, including for wastewater and drinking water treatment plants, line replacements, stormwater and MS4, non-point source pollution, onlot system repairs, agriculture best management practices, and brownfields, as well as the ways that your township can best position itself to get project financing approval.

This presentation details the planning and financing process for turning your township's unused or underused assets into recreational lands and facilities that boost the quality of life for your residents. Speakers include architecture professionals who have completed numerous parks, trails, greenways, active & passive recreation areas, and recreation centers. Many of these projects received grant money that helped to finance these recreational developments.

This webinar will show examples of web-based maps and applications that align with local government planning needs, data resources freely available to local governments and introduce tools for mobile field data collection.

The next step for many MS4 communities is to implement Pollutant Control Measures for their discharges to surface waters impaired by acid mine drainage, pathogens, and priority organic compounds (i.e. PCBs). This first phase of these requirements is to map storm sewer sheds associated with these discharges, due with Annual MS4 Status Reports on September 30, 2019. This webinar will help prepare you for this new requirement and plan for what is to come.

Private water wells and springs are vital to Pennsylvania’s rural water infrastructure, which provides drinking water to approximately 3 million residents and farms. Because Pennsylvania lacks state regulations covering private water supplies, their proper management becomes the voluntary responsibility of homeowners who often lack a proper understanding of how they should be managed. In this webinar, Peter Wulfhorst with Penn State Extension will review results obtained from over 30 years of research and outreach, help municipal officials understand how they can help ensure the viability of private drinking water supplies, and provide available resources for municipalities and homeowners.

The Pennsylvania State Archives announced earlier this year that municipalities are now able to keep permanent records exclusively in electronic form (no paper or microfilm copy required!). But this policy change does have several requirements, most notably that permanent electronic records must be kept in PDF/A format. What does this mean for your municipality and its record keeping responsibilities? Join archivist Tyler Stump and learn about the new policy and how electronic recordkeeping requirements are changing. Stump will also be discussing electronic records best practices that can help your township effectively and efficiently store its electronic records.

There are numerous reasons that a property owner does not pay municipal charges. Sometimes, the reason is because a property owner has made a conscious and unilateral decision to delay payment. This payment behavior is unlikely to change without the creation of incentives for payment. Through the use of both positive and negative incentives, Townships can encourage property owners to not only pay their delinquent real estate tax and municipal fee bills, but to pay their future obligations on time. This webinar will discuss billing and collection strategies that Townships can employ to enhance the collection of delinquent accounts and create incentives to increase their current collection rates going forward.

This webinar will illustrate for township officials/employees and consulting engineers the importance of considering traditional and non-traditional best management practices (BMPs) that can be used to meet MS4 requirements when working with agricultural operations. Peter Vanderstappen, the State Conservation Engineer with the United States Department of Agriculture, will review examples of effective methods that can achieve your goals while avoiding expensive engineering. These simple methods will result in best management practices that are not cost-prohibitive to landowners and result in MS4 credits for your township. BMPs to be covered include concrete lots, waste management facilities, bunk silos and trails and walkways.

Municipalities across Pennsylvania have been inundated with record-setting rainfall and flooding. To help townships prepare and respond, the presenters in this webinar will discuss affordable options, such as localized warning systems, and the challenges that can arise when stream work is not properly designed and permitted. Participants will also learn more about the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s booklet, Guidelines for Maintaining Streams in Your Community.

Does your township have shopping areas and office parks with underutilized parking areas? In Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County, drone flights over parking lots show many shopping areas and office parks are underparked, even during peak hours. While parking minimums have been standard practice in the planning world for decades, little research has been used to calculate the number of spaces actually needed per land use. This webinar will provide a review of parking requirements in general, the drone imagery collection process used by Susquehanna Township, examples of trends and changes in parking requirements, and suggestions for potential updates to your parking ordinances.

Not sure whether your municipality is complying with its’ purchasing obligations or just looking for ways to be more efficient when purchasing? In this webinar, Jason Snyder will discuss the requirements that municipalities must satisfy when bidding public contracts to procure materials, equipment, and services. Mr. Snyder will also review limitations on purchases, quotes, and bids, as well as current exemptions from municipal bidding, (including DGS/COSTARS piggyback contracts). He will also discuss prevailing wage advertising and bonding requirements. The webinar will include an electronic download of the Pennsylvania Purchasing Handbook.

This webinar will address the growth of short-term rentals in communities nationwide. Claudia Shank of McNees Wallace & Nurick will explain how municipalities can regulate short-term rentals and lessons learned from recent Pennsylvania court cases.

Conservatorship (Act 135) is a powerful blight remediation tool that gives municipalities and other interested parties the right to seek temporary possession of blighted, abandoned properties for the purpose of making repairs, and bringing them up to code or demolishing them. Using case studies from rural and urban areas, in this webinar, Winnie Branton will provide step-by-step guidance on how to build you case from property identification and due diligence to final plan cost recovery.

Riparian Forest Buffers (RFPs) can provide many benefits to municipalities across PA. RFB benefits include streambank stabilization, reduced erosion, MS4 credit opportunities, improved water quality, enhanced recreational opportunities, and much more. This webinar will cover a range of topics to help municipalities understand and consider RFP installation, including: opportunities to plan RFBs to meet specific municipality needs, funding avenues, and proper planning and maintenance RFBs.