Category: News and Updates
Meet Our New Community Planning Director, Bill Deguffroy!
We are excited to welcome a familiar face back to the Chester County Planning Commission as our new Community Planning Director, Bill Deguffroy!
Bill is excited to work with Chester County’s municipalities to implement Landscapes3 (the county’s comprehensive plan) through a vast range of projects and initiatives. “CCPC makes a huge impact on communities in Chester County through research, policy guidance, the Vision Partnership Program, and our work with municipalities,” noted Bill. “The Community Planning Division works on a wide range of topics including comprehensive planning, historic preservation, urban planning, housing, economic development, etc. It is a lot to wrap your head around, but every day brings a new challenge or opportunity to learn. We have a really talented team that I am happy to be a part of.”
Town Tours & Village Walks Program Wraps up 27th Year
The Chester County Town Tours and Village Walks program wrapped up its 27th year in August with another great series of presentations and walking tours!
This year’s program focused on “Journeying Toward Freedom” and featured both virtual and in-person activities throughout Chester County’s historic sites and villages that were presented by local historic commissions, associations, and societies.
Much like last year, the 2021 program consisted of “Live at Five” events highlighting various aspects of the county’s history. In addition to the live events, historic walking tours occurred on Thursday evenings (and some weekends) June through August.
Brownfield, Greyfield, & Infill Development
Have you ever driven past an abandoned industrial site or vacant shopping center and wondered what went wrong? In the planning world, these spaces are referred to as Brownfields and Greyfields – and they can be caused by a variety of factors such as irregular lot shape, difficult access, inadequate infrastructure, environmental contamination, outdated or obsolete design, and economic issues.
Although the two are similar, Brownfields result from the contamination of sites due to multiple prior uses (old steel mills, chemical or manufacturing facilities, abandoned buildings, former dumps, lumber yards, dry cleaners, gas stations and auto body shops), while Greyfields are usually not hazardous, but rather obsolete, outdated, or underutilized due to changing market demand, decreased buying power in nearby areas, changes in consumer buying habits, lack of investment, or architecture that no longer meets market demand.
While Brownfields and Greyfields both present potentially negative impacts to their local communities, they can also provide opportunities for redevelopment resulting in community revitalization, open space preservation, public safety, increased service demand, and more.
Fall Planners’ Forum
The Fall Chester County Planners’ Forum will take place on Wednesday, October 6, both in-person at the East Bradford Township Building, and virtually (via Zoom) from 8:00am – 10:00am. This year’s forum will celebrate 25 years of the county’s Vision Partnership Program (VPP), with three excellent municipal presentations on successfully using planning to reach a community’s goals.
Presenters will include Mandie Cantlin, East Bradford Township Manager, who will describe the township’s extensive open space preservation planning efforts, Tony Scheivert, Upper Uwchlan’s Manager, who will summarize smart growth and village preservation successes, and Matt Fetick, Mayor of Kennett Square, along with Doug Doerfler, Council Member, who will highlight Kennett Borough’s successful revitalization and redevelopment.
Updates from East Pikeland Township
Rusty Strauss, Township Supervisor from East Pikeland Township, recently attended the Chester County Planning Commission’s August Board Meeting to provide an update on current happenings in East Pikeland.
During his presentation, Strauss touched on various aspects of planning in the township – which is located along the Schuylkill River between Phoenixville Borough and Spring City Borough – as well as its zoning map, which features a mix of commercial, mixed-use, residential, and agricultural districts.
Medical Marijuana – A Growing Industry
When we think of marijuana, we often associate it with being an illegal substance. However, this is quickly shifting across the nation as many states now allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, or even recreationally.
In Pennsylvania, marijuana is legal for medical purposes through the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Act of 2016. It can be administered to treat a variety of serious medical conditions such as cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, autism, intractable pain – and the list goes on.
Join us for the 2021 Virtual Transportation Forum
The Chester County Planning Commission will host the 2021 Transportation Forum, “Drivers, Deliveries & Dollars” on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 from 7:00pm – 8:30pm via Zoom.
The forum will include status updates on transportation planning, construction projects, and funding options from the Planning Commission’s Environment and Infrastructure Division, with presentations discussing current and planned transportation improvement projects, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s development of the Chester County Freight Plan, and the impacts of COVID-19 on our transportation system.
Newly Released 2020 Census Data and Redistricting
On August 12, the Census announced that Chester County’s 2020 population was 534, 515 persons, which is a 7.1% increase from 2010, when it was 498,866. This new population figure confirms what everyone has been observing over the past few years – Chester County remains a popular and growing place, with a wide variety of housing being built around the county.
Chester County is expected to continue growing over the coming years; so, it’s critically important that local communities plan for this new development so that the county’s unique character and heritage are maintained. The county’s comprehensive plan, Landscapes3, provides guidance on how to balance growth and preservation.
Meet Our New Heritage Preservation Coordinator, Dan Shachar-Krasnoff
The Chester County Planning Commission is excited to welcome our new Heritage Preservation Coordinator, Dan Shachar-Krasnoff, to the team!
Having recently relocated to Center City Philadelphia with his wife, Dan is originally from St. Louis Missouri where he previously worked.
Dan enjoys the vibrancy and compactness of Chester County’s towns – Coatesville, Kennett Square, Oxford, Phoenixville, and West Chester to name a few – as well as the rolling hills, open space, and farmsteads of the county’s rural areas.
Municipal Planning Grant Round 2 Open
The second round of the Vision Partnership Program (VPP), Chester Countys municipal planning grant program, is now open. The deadline for applications is September 24, 2021 at 4 pm. Eligible projects include individual and multi-municipal comprehensive plans, ordinances, official maps, and a variety of studies. Efforts such as village master plans, trail feasibility studies, revitalization plans, historic preservation planning, stewardship plans, transportation studies, and sustainability/resilience plans are eligible project types.
Details and the application can be found online. Applications are to be submitted online by September 24, 2021 at 4 pm. Municipalities are strongly encouraged to contact the VPP Grant Administrator and schedule individual pre-application meetings to discuss their applications. Such meetings must be requested prior to September 15, 2021.
Requests for pre-application meetings and other questions about the grant program can be directed to the Grant Administrator, William Deguffroy, at 610-344-6285 or wdeguffroy@chesco.org