South Strabane approves comprehensive plan
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
Carolyn Yagle, South Strabane Township’s planning consultant, speaks during a Tuesday night public hearing about the township’s new comprehensive plan.
Courtesy of Carolyn Yagle
South Strabane Township supervisors approved, by a 3-2 vote, a new comprehensive plan, marking the first update to the plan in 22 years.
The supervisors agreed it was time for a new plan, since the last one hadn’t been adjusted since 1995. However, they did not all agree on the direction the new plan is taking.
Supervisors Laynee Zipko and Ed Mazur voted against the plan following a public hearing Tuesday night.
“This is the opportunity to change our direction, and we’ve been going in the wrong direction for a very long time,” Zipko said.
Zipko’s main concern stemmed from a proposed land-use map at the very end of the comprehensive plan document, which can be found on the township’s website. Zipko took issue with the map’s suggestion to develop “high-density” housing in sections of the western part of the township that she said could use more commercial, industrial or agricultural development.
“High-density housing uses more tax base than it generates,” Zipko said. “We’re having trouble balancing our budget, so we need to generate taxes.”
The area already is zoned residential, but Zipko said that “has always been a mistake.”
One member of the comprehensive plan committee, Cynthia Rossi, accused Zipko of having “a pony in the race,” because Zipko’s farmland is in the area suggested for high-density residential.
“In good planning, you group like uses together,” Rossi said.
Rossi and Mazur also noted that infrastructure, such as sewer lines, isn’t available in the eastern part of the township, making it difficult to put high-density housing or other types of development there.
Zipko’s neighbor, Craig Winters, also spoke at the hearing about his fears of having to give up his farmland to make room for apartments and housing.
“I just don’t think that’s right,” he said. “My family plans on farming another 100 years. This amendment – I don’t like it, and I hope other residents agree.”
The map, however, isn’t binding, according to the supervisors, the township solicitor and the township manager, Brandon Stanick.
“It’s not a legal document,” Stanick said. “It’s more of a guide for how the township wants to develop over the next several years.”
Another member of the comprehensive plan committee, Jimmy Stewart, agreed the comprehensive plan overall is a “working document.”
“Our comprehensive plan hadn’t been changed in 22 years, and now we’re trying to get stuff done,” he said. “A lot of work went into this, and it was unbiased.”
He reminded the board and the public that the plan isn’t “cut in granite.”
“It’s not the 10 Commandments,” he said. “We just want to make things better.”
Zipko argued that the map will be used as a recommendation for future zoning maps and ordinances, and that now is the time to create “a better balance” regarding the township’s land use. She made a motion to table the vote on the comprehensive plan until the two newly elected supervisors take over in January, but her motion failed for lack of a second.
Supervisors Ed Mazur and Jack Keisling lost in the primary election and will not be on the board in January. In their places will be J. Bracken Burns and Richard Luketich, who were elected to the board in the general election last week.
One resident at the hearing, Judy Panasik, questioned whether this new comprehensive plan would actually be carried out or, like that last one, “just words on paper.”
Carolyn Yagle, the township’s planning consultant, addressed the public and the board during the hearing to answer questions. She said the township would develop an implementation committee, which would help to make recommendations for what actions the township should take in carrying out the comprehensive plan.
The comprehensive plan can be found at www.southstrabane.com.