I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Susquehanna County Commissioners
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I I 1992 I SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY COMMISSIONERS I Warren R. Williams, Chairman Josephine Marshall, Vice-Chairperson John Blachek I Jerry Myers, Chief Clerk I SUSQUEHANNA COUNTYPLANNING COMMISSION Gerald W. Balmer, Chairman I Frank A. Kwader, Vice-Chairman Walter Galloway, Secretary Ted Place, Treasurer Catherine Hough I Polly S. Pritchard Carl Stahl Lee Walker I Jerome E. Fives I STAFF Carl Pease, Planning Director Eleanor Xurosky, Planner I Robert G. Templeton, Planner Peggy Sprout, Assistant Secretary I I NORTHERN TIER REGIONAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION Phil D. Roos, Executive Director I Gordon P. Davis, Graphic Specialist PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS I SCRANTON REGIONAL OFFICE Edward F. Dempsey, Regional Director Joseph Kneidinger, Planner I Cindy M. Stefursky, Planning Secretary I I I LOCATION SUSQUEHA"A COUNTY 'I I I I I I I cc I I I I 1 I Source: Northern Tier Regiod Planning and Development Commission 8 I I' I LU CAI'1 0 N 1 SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY I I I I 1 I I I I I I I I 7- 1 8 I POLITICAL BOUNDARIES ARARAT ! !4 ! ai HARFORO GI i ! AUBURN SCALE I I (IN HILLS1 ! i i I I I CLIFF OR0 i 1 I I II I LANDMARK PLA"IN(3 SERVICES, Inc. CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction and Summary. ................i -iii Physiography. ..................... .l- 8 Community Facilities. ..................9 - 22 Housing. ........................ 23 - 29 Land Use. ....................... .30 - 33 Population. ...................... .34 - 44 Transportation. .................... .45 - 51 Goals and Objectives. ..................52 - 78 . LIST OF MAPS Location Map Political Boundaries Map Topography Map General Soils Map Hydrogeology Map Fire District Map Ambulance Map School District Map community Facilities Map Transportation Network PennDOT State Route Designations I Planning District Map u I LIST OF TABLES Municipal Land and Buildings Emergency Services Municipal Police Summary Professional Health Care Licensees Community Water Systems Land Use Classifications Housing Summaries Population Summaries I Mileage and Daily Vehicle Miles traveled by maintenance I functional class for state roads. I INTRODUCT I ON AND SUMMARY I I INTRODUCTION AND SUM-MARY -r,e cennsyivan~aNunicipaiicies riailfiiny LaGe jnc~ii0 or ,983) requires that Tennsylvania counties prepare and adopt ii I comprehensive plar, by February 21, 1992. Sach an action has both binding and non-binding consequences. I Legally, once a comprehensive plan is adopted, in whole or in part, any action of the governing body, its departments, agencies, and appointed authorities must be submitted to the I planning commission when the proposed action relates to: - the location, opening, vacation, extension, widening, narrowing, or enlargement of any street, public ground, I pierhead, or watercourse; - - the location, erection, demolition, removal, or sale of any I public structure located within the county; - the adoption, amendment, or repeal of an official map, subdivision and land development ordinance, zoning I ordinance, or provisions for planned residential development, or capital improvements program; or I - the construction, extension, or abandonment of any water line, sewer line, or sewage treatment facility. In addition, any action of a school district, following the I adoption of a comprehensive plan or any part thereof by the County, relating to the location, demolition, removal, sale, or lease of any school district structure or land, must be submitted I to the county planning commission for their recommendations. For these situations, then, the County's adoption of 211 or part I of a comprehensive plan has legally binding consequences. For all other situations the Comprehensive plan's effect is non- binding, but no less important. 1 Generally, the purpose of a comprehensive plan is to set policies. Policies are set in relation to an inventory and evaluation of as many aspects of the natural and manmade I environments as feasible and an assessment of community interests and concerns. Policies should be set with this 'big picture' in mind. In addition, they should be long range in perspective and I slightly utopian or ideal in character. As such, the plan's primary non-binding function is to guide decision-makers as they face the many difficult choices before I them. It serves as a reference; an overview of the way things are in 1989 and 1990 and how county residents feel the future of Susquehanna County should be. It should be referred to again I and again during the course of carrying our County business. 1 Act 170, the Municipalities Planning Code, stipulates that I i comprehensive plans shall include, Sut not 5e lirnited to, the I following: - 3 statement of objectives cor:cerning frrttrre developmeat including the Iccation, zharzcter, and timing of I ue iief upmac , - 2 ;?Ian for land cse which may inclzde 2rovisions for the I amount, intensity, character, and timing of various land uses: 1 - a plan to meet current and future housing needs; - a plan for movement of people and goods; 1 -a plan €or community facilities and trtilities; - a statement of the Interrelationships among plan I components; . - short - and long-range plan implementation strategies, and I - regiosal trends. B The chapter on Transportation primarily addresses the road Retwork as a limit on economic development. It identifies the I- 81 corridor and connecting highways as the primary locus of I potential commercial and industrial development and recommends that the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission's 1979-81 Corridor Study be updated and adopted as part of the County's comprehensive plan. I Susquehanna County's comprehensive plan consists of seven component chapters - Physiography - Community Facilities - I Housing - Land Use - Population - Transportation - Goals and Objectives. These components address in full or in part, those items listed above and stipulated to be in a comprehensive plan. I The first six chapters are largely descriptive, the latter contains the recommendation for action. I Summarizing: The chapter on Physiography describes the county's topography, 1 surface and groundwater resources, wetlands, soils, geology, and climate, while attempting to draw attention to the natural environment's limitations on development. I The chapter on Community Facilities is an inventory of county and municipal public and quasi-public facilities, noting any deficiencies. In general, the County is doing an adequate job I providing, maintaining, and improving county owned facilities and supporting a variety of non-County owned and operated facilities and activities. The only weak area might be in the category of U ii I I I County owned recreational facilities. 1 .. mho ~~,,-,+..'q v-l- TJ<LL -,-?D-L t7 1,--1 m'Jnlci2?2 - 2--?,2I "-- facilities should be an expanded effort to encourage and coordinate the improvement of existing facilities and the I development of new facilities through multi-municipal agreements and technical assistance relating to design, construction, and B financing. The chapter on housing provides a wide range of information on the County's housing stock, including recent trends (1980-90) I that have developed in recent years. The chapter on land use is a basic inventory of existing Land Use throughout the County. Included therein are: General land use I patterns, changes in land use, effects of changes in land use and conclusions. I The chapter on population and economy is primarily composed of graphs and charts that depict various trends in both population 1 and economy. Finally, the nuts and bolts activities suggested in answer to the question "what are we to do next?", are contained in the Goals and Objectives chapter. Goals based on the findings of the I descriptive chapters and an extensive public participation process are followed by 281 specific and implementable I objectives. For all the inventories, descriptions, analyses, projections, and recommendations typically contained in a comprehensive plan, a I plan is only as good as the extent to which it is carried out. This requires a commitment on the part of the County to allocate sufficient resources toward achieving the stated goals and 1 objectives. Therefore, it is recommended that the County Planning Office be expanded to include at least one person whose job it is to 1 oversee the implementation of the comprehensive plan. this person's duties would be diverse and include, in no particular order, long range planning, overseeing the implementation of a I zoning law, public relations, the dissemination of information, assistance to local municipalities, creation of a capital improvements program, development of a uniform permitting process I and code enforcement program, grantsmanship, and more. I I 1 iii I PHYSIOGRAPHY I I PHYSIOGRAPHY TOPOGRAPHY I Susquehanna County lies mainly within the Glaciated Low Plateaus section of the Appalachian Plateaus Province. However, a small part of the southeastern comer of the county belongs to the I Appalachian Mountain Section of the Valley and Ridge Province. The area is characterized by moderate to steep hills trending generally in a northeast - southwest direction. This is a result of the direction of glacial movement. The last of at least three glacial 1 advances which ended some 7000 years ago covered all of the area except the peaks over about 2200 feet. As the ice sheet advanced from the northeast, it ground down the hilltops, 6Ug some valleys and I deepening others, depositing glacial drift over virtually the entire area. Later, as the ice melted and the glacier retreated, much of this drift was transported by the swollen rivers and deposited as outwash. Some of the present streams are flowing over buried valleys as deep below the surface as I 300 feet. In some places they cut a series of terraces into the varied deposits of outwash. The highest point in the county is in the southeast comer of Herrick township where the North I Knob of the Elk Hills reaches an elevation of 2693 feet above sea level. Much of the rest of the county is high and rolling with, for the most part, elevations above 1500 feet.