Multi-municipal plans - How are we doing?

In 2000, the state of PA passed Act 67 and 68, which amended the Municipal Planning Code (MPC) to encourage  cooperation between municipalities in developing Comprehensive plans. This approach allows municipalities to share services, transfer development rights between municipalities, and develop land use strategies that make sense.

 

10,000 Friends of PA, developed and published a Planning Beyond Boundaries series, a guide for local governments that are interested in Multi-Municipal Planing. Additionally, they conducted a 2007 study to determine the effectiveness of ACT 67 and 68. The results of the study are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Multi-Municipal Plan Results

Plan Complete	116
Plan adopt by all participants	110
Utilized count zoning	3
Utilized individual zoning	57
Utilized joint zoning	14
No zoning/no data available	39
Plan adopt by some, not by others	5
Plan not adopted	1
Plan currently in progress	51
Total Multi-municipal plans	172

Source: 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania: Multi-municipal Planning and Implementation in Pennsylvania (Report Summary)

 

According to the report, 30% of the state's 2nd class townships are participating in regional planning. This is a good start, as the various local governments start to break down the barriers in developing regional comprehensive plans.  

As our economy woes continue to deepen, I suspect local governments will look to save taxpayer money by regionalizing local services.

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