County holds meeting to explain zoning ordinance, map
REPUBLIC – About 20 residents braved a Monday evening snow storm to attend the first of many meetings intended to explain a draft of a new Fayette County zoning ordinance and zoning map. Andrew Schwartz of Environmental Planning and Design of Pittsburgh, the firm hired by the county to plan the zoning changes, and Fayette County Planning, Zoning and Community Development Office Executive Director Tammy Shell reviewed the plans and answered questions from residents in the Redstone Recreation Center.
Additional meetings have been scheduled for Thursday in the Bullskin Township Municipal Building and Feb. 18 in the VFW on River Avenue in Masontown.
Each session runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The tentative changes would affect the 32 municipalities that rely on the county’s zoning ordinance for land development issues. Only 10 municipalities have their own zoning ordinances and maps.
Schwartz said zoning maps for each of the 32 affected municipalities and maps that detail the zoning for each parcel of land in those municipalities should be completed in the next few months.
He explained that a steering committee used access to main roads and public sewage and water systems as well as topography to determine which areas are suitable to commercial development. Areas where sewer and water development is expected were also considered.
“The significance of sewage and water is dramatic,” Schwartz said. “It’s difficult to develop land without sewer and water.”
The steering committee determined that if all developable land in the county was developed, the county could support a population of about 2.5 million. After deciding that would be too many, they chose 600,000 as the target population, Schwartz said. The picked that figure instead of 800,000, he said. The current population is about 150,000.
According to the draft map, 80 percent of the land in the 32 municipalities would remain rural with a limit on development to one house on every 10 acres.
Most of the commercial and residential development areas on the map were concentrated along main or “arterial” roads like routes 40, 21, 119 and the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
Schwartz said the ordinance and map project development for the next 15 years, but recommended that county officials review the documents every five to 10 years.
Shell said Fay-Penn Economic Development County spent two years collecting data from the municipalities to prepare the draft map and ordinance.
Responding to a question from a resident, Schwartz said buffers and setbacks could be required to protect historical structures that lie in developable areas.
He said the county was economic development, but “there’s a character of the county that doesn’t want to be lost.”