Bucks County, Pa. West Rock H I II East Rockhill Sellersville Perkasie I I 1

Bucks County, Pa. West Rock h i II East Rockhill Sellersville Perkasie I I 1. THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN P E N N R I D G E J 0 I N T P L A N N I IV G C 0 M M I S S I ON Bucks County, Pennsylvania a m 1 1 June 1974 East Rockhill Township Perkasie Borough Sellersville Borough West Rockhill Township iI TABLE: OF COhJTENTS .Page INTRODUCTION ....................... i Chapter 1 COIICEPT .................... 1 Chapter 2 COALS E OSJECTIVES. .............. 5 Chapter 3 HATUPSiL RESOURCES ............... 9 Chapter 4 I-IOUSIYG .................... 15 Chapter 5 COMMERCIAL-INDUSTRIAL ............. 19 Chapter 6 THE DEVELOPMEIJT DISTRICT ............ 29 Chapter 7 BOROUGH CORES ................. 33 Chapter 8 TRANSPORTATIOY ................. 45 Chapter 9 RECREATION ................... 53 Addendum .. East Rockhill Township ............. 57 I 1 i 1 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Natural Planning Areas Follows 10 2: 13atural Resources and Open Space Ratios 12 3: Permeability Follows 12 4: Sewage Problem, Severe and Moderate Follows 12 5: Occasional Flooding or Ponding Follows 12 6: Severe Flooding Follows 12 7: Seasonal High !*later Table FOllOWS 12 Above 1.5 Feet a: Wetlands Follows 12 9: Slopes 8 -. 15% Follows 12 10: Slopes 15 - 25% Follows 12 11 : Slopes Greater than 25% Follows 12 12: Erodable Soils Follows 12 13: Depth to Bedrock, 3 1/2 Feet or More Follows 12 14: Forest Follows 12 15: Lakes Follows 12 16: Ponds Follows 12 17: Land Use Intensity Follows 14 18: Iiousing Need Projections 16 19: Housing Units 16 20a: Population and Employment Projections Follows 16 20b: Housing Needs and Employment by Income Follows 16 21: Number of Establishments and Employees 20 by Municipality and Industrial Sector 22: Leading Commercial and Industrial Sec- 21 tors - Pennridge 23: Pennridge Employment Growth by Munici- 21 pality - Primary Industries 24: Pennridge Employment Growth by Munici- 22 pality -. Secondary Industries 25: Pennridge Employment Growth by Munici- 23 pality - Tertiary Industries 26: Manufacturing Industries in Pennridge 24 27: Commercial Industrial Development Follows 26 28: Pennridge Employment Growth by Munici- 28 pality 29: Undeveloped Land 29 30: Regional Plan Follows 29 31: Development District Follows 29 32: Residential Acreage 31 33: Sewage Treatment Allocations 31 34: Development District Capacity 32 35 t Urban Core Illustration Follows 36 36- Highway Classification Follows 48 37: Weekday Rail Passengers 51 38: Place of Employment 51 39: Hierarchy of Use Relationship 55 40 : Area Requirements 56 41: Proposed Recreation District Follows 56 1 I I ITIT 30 DUCT I 0 N In May, 1972, Pcrkasie and Sellersville Boroughs and East and I,I West Rockhill To~mshipsformed the Pennridge Joint Planning Commis- sion. The four municipalities felt a common need to update their existing plans and ordinances. Over the past two years, the regional planning approach has offered many advantages to these municipalities. Few problems stop at municipal boundary lines. While the intersection of Fifth Street and Blooming Glen Road, for example, is wholly within Per- kasie, major traffic generators are in East Fockhill:, so intersection improvements benefit residents of both comunities. The problems of schools arc? related intimately to land use and zoning decisions at the municipal level, yet all residents pay eouzlly to the school district. Sewerage is another regional consideration critical to many sorts of planning decisions. The Pennridge Joint Planning Commission organized to coordin- rite planning programs by developing a sin5le comprehensive plan for the region. It is intended that each municipality adopt this plan, by resolution, as its Comprehensive Plan, The power to implement this plan rests where it always has. with the elected officials of each municipality. If a municipality makes changes in this docu- ment, they shall be specified in an appendix when the plan is adop- ted. Each Rockhill Township has prepared such 2.n addendum. i ChaDter 1 CONCEPT The concept of the Pennridge Comprehensive Plan is to approach regional problems with solutions that meet locel needs as well as regional ones. Special attention is given to the protection Of natural resources to insure ecologically sound development. Ma-jor emphasis is on ensuring the planned developrent of the Pennridge area. Both of these aims are embodied j-n the Development District Concept which is the basis of this Dlan. DEVELOPMEMT-- DISTRICT PLANNING PRINCIPLES The Development District ConceDt has been put forward because it represents a method of coordinating planning and provides a bet- ter chance of success than in the past. For a variety of reasGnsS traditional planning has consistently failed to meet its objectives. See page 3 for East Pockhill concept. Planning in the past has relied crlmost entirely upon zoning as an implementation tool. But zoriing must be coordinated with a variety of other tools if it is to work. Zoning has been called a game* which speculators try to use to their own advantage. They gamble that they can obtain a chanpe of zoninp on a niece Of land and thereby increase its value. Vhen a specula.tor wins this game,? the results are almost always bad for the community. Traditional comprehensive plans are not geared to the incremen- tal nature of growth, but are based on an ultimate land planS Under this scheme, one of two things happens. Either the community zones too much land for various uses, resulting in a random pattern of growth; or the community sets its ultimate plan with a limited pro- jection of growth which zoning distributes evenly over the entire township, with resultant low densities. The courts have called this restrictive or exclusionary- zoning. In Bucks County and many other areas, sewer planning often goes on in isolation from the comprehensive planning process. This results in a lack of coordination between these two very important' types of planning. In some cases, sewers are extended to service problem areas. At'tracted by the new ,sewers, developers build...and the line is soon inadequate to s,erve the volume of development. Under traditional zoning, then, communities all too often end up reacting to the proposals of individual developers or to other outside pressures. The Development District is based on the concept that the community shall control its future; and that in,order to do so, the community must utilize a variety of policies. * Babcock, --The Zoning Game 1 II i The Development District Concept entails four stages of growth: urban areas, development areas or districts, resource protection areas or districts, and rural holding zones. In the following para- graphs, each of these areas will be discussed and specific implementation policies will be identified. Urban Areas are mostly developed. The boroughs of Perkasie .. and Sellersville are considered urban areas. Two types of problems that occur within the urban areas are totally different from the growth problems of the rest of the region. One sort of problem is that the old commercial centers of the boroughs lose business to suburban shopping centers, often leading to the decline of the up- ban cores. The municipality must deal with the problem of halting this decline so that neighborhoods surrounding the borough cores , are retained as good living environments. The second type of Pro- blem arises from the small pieces of undeveloped land in the boroughs which often present special development problems due to their shape, size, or physical characteristics. The terms "renewal, 'I "preservation, and "redevelopment more accurately describe the problems of the urban area than do the terms P1growthl'and "development. '' The Development District is where some development has occurred and sewer lines are available, although their.capacity may not be adequate -to serve long-term growth. The Pennridge Development Dis- trict, described later in the text, is intended to accommodate POPU- lation growth to the year 1990. In this area, the muni'cipality, scho'bl district, and other authorities will provide required facilities such as road improvements, new schools, and police and fire protection, as well as the extension of public water and sewer. The intensity of this district will be greater than was shown in earlier _. comprehensive plans in order to guide most development to it. The Development District is "intended to reduce the adverse ef- .... fects of scattered urban development. It represents the philosophy of determinfng where development will take place, rather than simply reacting to developers-. The principal tools of Development District ,-. implementation are zoning and capital programming. The thlird element of the' Development District Concept is the -Resource Protection Area. This is an area of unique environmenfal. resources as identified by the. Resource Protection Map.. Develo merit witliin, these areas should be limited to low Zntensities Wi high opdn space ratios in order to insur hat resources such as the rock hills and Perkiomen floodplains- e preserved- for the future. The Rural Holding -.Zone is where development is to be discour.- aged. Wi'thin the 20-year plpnning period, it will not be provid wit?i'public services such as water and sewer. Although the lack services will 'discourage development, this is not sufficiedt to achieve the holding of this land from development. Capital invest- ment in sewers within the Development District must be coordinated with rezoning the rural holding zone to lower intensities. The zoning and capital programming policies will be coordinated with taxation policies such as Bucks County's Act 515 program which provides lower taxes for those who covenant not to subdivide or develop their land for at least ten vears. All these policies wj-ll be integrated with the Act 537 Sewage Facilities Act policy, with I strict control of on-site disposal in areas where soils are poor. The East Rockhill Concept is one which embodies some of the principles of the development district hut also recofyizes certain other principles as specified in the East Rockhill Addendum.

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