would interfere with the ability of those roads to carry through-traffic.

Strengthen business activity, historic com-

munity character and a pedestrian-friendly environment in the centers of Kenhorst, Mohnton and Shillington.

Promote the reuse or redevelopment of older

industrial sites.

Seek to extend the best features of older

development into newer development and promote compatible “infill” development in villages and older parts of the boroughs.

Further improve the visual attractiveness of

the region, with an emphasis upon the most highly visible corridors, and by promoting street trees, landscaping and preservation of creek valleys.

Emphasize tourism that is built upon the

area’s heritage, arts and culture, and recrea-tional assets.

Putting this Plan into Action

Update municipal development regulations

to carry out this Plan, and periodically up-date the Plan and regulations as needed.

Continually work to put this Plan into action -

through a program of updated planning and many short-term actions within a long-range perspective.

Promote substantial citizen input, including

making sure residents are well-informed about community issues and encouraging volunteer efforts to improve the community.

Maximize communications, coordination and

cooperative efforts between the municipali-ties, the school district, adjacent municipali-ties, the County and other agencies and organizations.

Future Land Use Plan Categories

The Future Land Use Map is shown on the other side of this Summary. The following describes the categories of that Plan.

Low Density Residential

These areas should primarily provide for single family detached development. With on-lot well and septic systems, a one or one-and-a-half acre minimum should be required. With central water and sewage services, a lot size of approximately 1/2 acre to 1/3 acre would be appropriate in most areas. Through the Open Space Development option, approximately 1/3 to 1/5 acre lots could be provided, with 30 percent of the tract preserved in open space.

Medium Density Residential

These areas should primarily provide for single family detached homes, twin houses and town-houses. With central water and sewage service, an average of approximately 2 to 6 homes per acre would be appropriate without open space preservation. The Open Space Development option could provide for approximately 1/4 or 1/6 acre average lot sizes with 30 percent of the tract preserved as open space.

High Density Residential

This category is intended to provide for a mix of housing types at densities at over 6 homes per acre. Higher densities (such as 8 or 9 home per acre) could be appropriate if the housing was limited to persons age 55 and older.

Mobile Home Park

This use is usually considered single-family homes, but when placed in parks require services associated with higher density development.

Mixed Residential/ Commercial

This category is intended to provide for a mix of light business and a mix of housing types. These areas should provide for retail stores, offices, personal services, day care centers, banks, exer-cise clubs and similar uses. The heaviest com-mercial uses should be prohibited that are most likely to spur demolition or create nuisances for neighbors.

Development should be encouraged that comple-ments the existing character of historic areas. For example, buildings should have setbacks from the road/street that are similar to nearby older build-ings. New parking should be located to the rear or side of buildings.

Agricultural

The need for agricultural preservation and the methods to achieve it are described in the Agricul-tural and Natural Resources Conservation section of this Plan. The desire is to preserve large contig-uous areas of prime farmland, mainly through encouraging land-owners to sell conservation easements to the County or Township.

Rural Conservation

These areas have important natural features that make them suitable for only the very least intense types of development. The vast majority of the Neversink Mountain is already preserved.

A very large minimum lot size can be justified because the extreme difficulty in drilling suitable wells, the natural features of the sites and the limited access to public roads. A 10 acre minimum lot size is recommended. New lots should only be possible if the applicant conducts a well test and finds a suitable well site before being granted subdivision approval. Larger lots could be required if steep slopes or other natural features are in-volved.

Commercial

This category is intended to provide for a wide range of commercial development, particularly in

areas of more “highway” orientated commercial development. These areas should provide oppor-tunities for uses such as gas stations, vehicle sales and auto sales. A careful set of standards are needed to require coordinated traffic access among different uses.

Industrial

The Industrial areas are intended to provide for a wide range of industrial uses. These areas are particularly important to meet obligations under State law to provide opportunities for all types of businesses.

Public/ Institutional

This category recognizes existing large public, semi-public and institutional uses, such as schools and municipal buildings.

Recreation

Recreation land provides space and facilities for people to engage in active and passive recreation activities. These include playgrounds, parkland, state game lands/forests, as well as recreation land owned by non-profit recreational groups and commercial recreation.

Transportation Network

Land in this category contains roads and rail-roads. Other transportation modes such as air service, bus and motor freight services, as well as parking garages, are included in the Commercial category.

Land Uses and Housing - Continued from front page

Governor Mifflin Area Comprehensive PlanGovernor Mifflin Area Comprehensive Plan for

Brecknock Township, Cumru Township, Kenhorst Borough, Mohnton Borough and Shillington Borough

This Plan was adopted in 2017 by the five municipal governing bodies.

This Comprehensive Plan was funded primarily with a grant from the Russell Hiller Charitable Trust Fund administered through the Berks

County Community Foundation. The Russell Hiller Charitable Trust provides grants for programs that improve the quality of life for residents of

the Governor Mifflin School District.

What is the Comprehensive Plan?

This Comprehensive Plan is intended to establish overall policies for the development, economic vitality and conservation of the Governor Mifflin Region over the next 15 years. The Region in-cludes the Boroughs of Kenhorst, Mohnton and Shillington, and Brecknock and Cumru Town-ships. This Plan is not by itself a regulation, but is intended to provide the policy direction for chang-es to the municipalities’ development and land use regulations.

The Comprehensive Plan includes

the following major parts:

The Overall Vision and Goals of the Plan

The Natural Features and Agricultural Conservation Plan

The Land Use and Housing Plan

The Community Facilities and Services Plan

The Economic Development Plan

The Transportation Plan

The Historic Preservation Plan

Putting this Plan into Action

Direction: the Major Goals of this Plan

Overall Goal:

Continually strive to make the region an even greater place in which to live, work, learn, visit, shop and play, with a strong sense of community, scenic preserved open spaces, preserved agricul-tural areas, an attractive historic character, active downtowns, a vibrant economy, desirable loca-tions for businesses, high-quality schools, and an excellent quality of life.

Agricultural and Natural Resources

Conservation

Protect important natural features, with a

special emphasis upon the Schuylkill River-front, creek valleys, wetlands and steeply sloped woodlands.

Make sure that new development properly

respects the natural features of a site.

Seek to maintain agricultural activities in

large portions of the area.

Protect the amounts and quality of ground-

water and creek waters.

Historic Preservation

Protect and preserve the most important historic structures.

Encourage appropriate reuse and historic rehabilitation of older buildings, as well as encouraging new construction that is con-

sistent with historic surroundings.

Community Facilities and Services

Provide high-quality community facilities and

services in the most cost-efficient manner, including addressing needs for future growth.

Provide for logical extensions of public water

and sewage services to accommodate planned growth areas.

Emphasize full cooperation and coordination

of municipal and emergency services across municipal borders.

Transportation

Maintain and improve the existing transporta-

tion system and services used today where financially feasible.

Keep travelers safe and secure, no matter

the mode of transportation.

Invest in projects that strengthen the ability of

regional commerce to access national and international trade markets, and support regional economic development and tourism opportunities.

Give travelers a variety of well-designed

transportation choices that are in good condi-tion.

Enhance the performance of the transporta-

tion system in environmentally sustainable ways that increase resiliency to both climate change and vulnerability to natural disaster.

Economic Development

Develop appropriate policies to guide the development of land suited for development and redevelopment.

Prioritize public infrastructure investment that will attract businesses and development to commercial corridors.

Promote the Lancaster Avenue/Pike corri-dors and recruit and retain appropriate busi-nesses in these corridors.

Develop tools to reduce impediments to challenging sites.

Remove existing and remove future blight and neighborhood decline.

Land Uses and Housing

Provide for orderly patterns of development

that provide compatibility between land us-es, particularly to protect the livability of existing residential areas.

Maintain an attractive rural character in

much of the region. Promote use of the "Open Space Development" concept to cluster development on the most suitable portions of a tract, in order to permanently preserve important natural features and open spaces.

Make sure that the overall densities of devel-

opment are kept moderate to avoid over-whelming the capacity of the road system, the school district and the region's natural features.

Provide areas for a range of housing types

and densities. Work to meet obligations under State law to provide opportunities for all types of housing and all legitimate types of land uses.

Strengthen older residential neighborhoods,

with an emphasis on encouraging home-ownership, rehabilitating older buildings, and avoiding uses that are likely to create nui-sances.

Direct most development to locations that

can be efficiently served by public water and sewage services, in order to minimize the total amount of land that is consumed by development and to direct most housing away from agricultural areas.

Direct most development of the uses that

generate the highest amounts of traffic to locations that have good access to inter-changes of Route 222 or Interstate 176.

Direct new commercial uses to the down-

towns, existing commercial areas and other selected locations that allow for safe and efficient traffic access. Avoid new strip com-mercial development with individual drive-ways onto heavily traveled roads, which

Continued on back page