Stan Lembeck’s philosophy of land use and planning developed over many years.

“It’s very simple,” he says. “Every organization needs to plan. An organization needs to carry out its mission and a municipality’s mission is to provide services for the people of the municipality.”

Lembeck first encountered planning on a grand scale as an undergraduate. Now a professor emeritus of rural sociology, a certified planning instructor, a founding father of Pennsylvania Municipal Planning Education Institute (PMPEI) and chairman of that statewide board, he speaks on the subject with authority.

Many municipal officials consider themselves as the caretaker of local government, he says, adding, “If you are going to be a manager you are going to need some education.”

And PMPEI, a cooperative effort of Penn State Cooperative Extension and the Pennsylvania Planning Association (the state chapter of the American Planning Association) with support from other agencies, is always ready to dispense that education through a series of courses.

They teach planning commissioners and local officials, as well as community residents, about the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, which has been in effect for decades and revised many times. Class members learn how to fit their mission into the state code.

Timothy W. Kelsey, state program leader for Cooperative Extension’s Economic and Community Development department and professor of agricultural economics, says land use has major implications for the people of Pennsylvania: It affects where they work, where they live, where they shop, where they recreate and their quality of life.

In some areas of the state, culture and history exist alongside farming and open spaces. In some places, tourism is the result of a rich agricultural heritage, Kelsey says. A lack of land use planning can result in turmoil, as in the case of an old church in a quaint neighborhood that new owners turned into a topless bar. The tavern owners took advantage of the lack of planning because, as Kelsey puts it, “Legally they could.”

Land use is not simply about geography but about patterns of land development and how people interact--the pattern of people using the land, Kelsey says. “It’s the geography but more importantly, it’s what people are able to do on that land.”

Without a plan, people and communities open themselves up to a lot of land uses that may not fit with their images of how they think things ought to be, he says. They also should look at the costs and revenues that may result from land use planning ordinances. They should consider the financial impact of development on the municipality and school district.

The bottom line, though, he says, is that having a plan does not mean taking sides. “We are not anti-development; we are not pro-development.” The goal is to help people make “informed decisions.”

Neal Fogle, economic and community development educator in Montour County and a PMPEI instructor, says being elected or appointed to a municipal board is not just to make a person feel good. Rather, he says, members of public boards should take the duty seriously by learning what they are supposed to do and what they can and cannot do.

“It would be great if more people would come,” Fogle says. “Training is extremely important.” Whether they attend an adult course or something less formal that he tries to keep fresh in the minds of high school civics teachers, he says the result of training is that more people become more interested and more willing to serve.

Lembeck says the state does not have a mandate that requires public officials or board members to have training in order to serve. PMPEI presents between 30 and 45 courses a year, each 10 hours for a total of up to 4,000 hours of instruction. As many as 650 people a year take the courses but “That’s far short of the total number out there” who could benefit.

Recruiting for the courses is done through advertisements, extension offices, Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs, county planning organizations, web sites and personal contact. But training everyone who serves would be a lofty goal, he admits, saying that at any given time the state has 10,000 planners, 7,000 zoning board officials and 40,000 elected officials. The agency also offers credit courses to attorneys, real estate sales/brokers and appraisers.

According to an online quiz developed by Lembeck and Kelsey, 28 percent of Pennsylvania’s municipal governing bodies use their comprehensive plans often to guide decisions. On the county level, the number falls to 16 percent.

PMPEI is built on Cooperative Extension’s model of providing information through courses, beginning with teaching those who will teach the courses, Lembeck says. It is now officially 15 years old, but its conception dates back a few more years, to developing the curriculum and training the teachers.

Residents and planners alike are always confronting new issues that present obstacles to lifestyles, from windfarms to confined animal feeding spaces to noises, he says.

Volunteers contribute a lot to the effort to create harmony and many municipalities foot the bill for training. What stands between the willing and the trained is time, a rare commodity in the modern lifestyles of multi-worker households.

While some communities struggle with planning, others successfully use their plans, Lembeck says.

State College Borough has good planning and uses its plan very well, tweaking it frequently to deal with changing times, Lembeck says. The city of Greensburg was able to bring Seton Hill University and the downtown together. And the city of Altoona is doing a nice job putting pieces—including art and medical services--of the once-Railroad city together to create a viable image of what Altoona has to be in the 21st Century. 

Peter Wulfhorst, a certified PMPEI instructor and former county planner in Pike County, has taught programs on community planning, subdivision and zoning administration for elected and planning and zoning hearing board members in the Northeast Pennsylvania. He has also presented material for local residents, both adults and youths.

Sometimes they are people who have moved into Pennsylvania or have been here all their lives and didn’t know what constitutes local government in Pennsylvania. Courses include comprehensive planning, how to set up planning boards, what you need to know now that you are a planning board member and getting your planning commission up to speed.

Class participants learn about regulating occupations that are done in homes, Wulfhorst says. They get a better understanding of local government regulations, develop a vision for the community, and learn how to protect everyone’s investment in the community.

On the negative side, he says, planning occasionally is at odds with people who don’t want government intervention that limits what they can do on their own property.

But the positive side of having a development plan in place is that it alleviates problems that are sure to arise in the future.

“People that invest in development want to be in a community that knows where its future is,” Wulfhorst says, describing a planned community as a progressive one, not one that must react when problems arise.

“People take pride in a community that’s been planned for,” says Wulfhorst, who chairs a local planning commission. In some regions, there is an old mindset of doing what you want with your own land.  But, he says, a community is made up of individuals who are at their best when operating like a bundle of sticks. Each has property rights but they should try to avoid doing things that injure adjacent property owners.

Wolfhurst says he meets with school teachers a few times a year to talk to them about encouraging youngsters in the concepts of land use.

“As adults they will have the knowledge and interest to be involved in the community.”

by Linda Hudkins

Timothy Kelsey
State Program Leader for
Economic and Community Development