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January 14, 2025
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Cumberland County, one of the fastest growing counties in Pennsylvania, adopted a new Comprehensive Plan on December 19, 2024 (“Plan”).

The Plan is organized around eight principles, identified as the “Cumberland Principles”:

1. Protect the Best First: Safeguard the County’s irreplaceable natural resources.
2. Grow In Not Out: Efficiently accommodate growth in locations with appropriate infrastructure.
3. Housing for All: Create housing options within the financial reach of all residents.
4. Plan for People and Places: Design communities to value sense of place and encourage healthy living.
5. Expand Transportation Choices: Provide safe, accessible, and affordable transportation choices.
6. Adapt and Stay Safe: Ensure communities are safe and resilient to future change.
7. Open for Business: Support a diverse economic base that enhances the quality of life.
8. Engage to Improve: Engage residents, municipalities, non-government organizations, and business partners in the decision-making process.

The Cumberland Principles are a unifying planning policy guide that enable consistency between the Plan and municipal comprehensive plans and ordinances, while also serving as an educational tool that shows residents, municipal partners, and stakeholder organizations what responsible planning looks like.

The Plan also includes a future land use map that delineates six “character areas” which represent geographic areas in the County that are unique and distinguishable from other areas due to land use and design characteristics of the built environment:

1. Conservation: Intact natural landscapes, often permanently preserved, that have inherent public benefits for agriculture, recharging groundwater, mitigating floods, filtering air, purifying water, recreation, and providing critical plant and animal habitat.
2. Rural: Primarily agricultural landscapes with limited infrastructure characterized by low density residential and commercial development.
3. Village: Clustered smaller scale mixed-use activity centers, often located at historic crossroads, that serve the needs of the surrounding, often rural, community.
4. Core Communities: Dense mixed-use boroughs built in traditional neighborhood style that often predates zoning, featuring a diverse mix of housing, businesses, parks, institutional buildings, and may include a centralized downtown area.
5. Suburban: Contemporary development emanating from the Core Communities that includes a variety of residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional uses served by public infrastructure that may be mixed or separated in single use areas.
6. Regional Activity:  Center Concentrations of large-scale commercial, industrial, and institutional development clustered around major transportation corridors that provide goods and services to the County and the broader Harrisburg region.

The future land use map includes specific planning guidance customized for each character area that addresses conservation, housing, economic development, transportation, and design issues. Proposed municipal actions will be evaluated using these specific planning guidelines, as applicable, as well as identified opportunities for improved consistency.

It is important to note that in determining consistency between county and municipal plans and ordinances, not only must the goals, objectives, descriptions and guidelines of the future land use plan be considered, but all other applicable plan elements must be considered as well.  Therefore, regardless of a specific parcel’s land use classification on the future land use map, the map is not the sole factor to rely upon in determining consistency, but it is only one of the components that must be considered.

If you have questions regarding this post or planning and development issues generally, please contact the McNees Wallace & Nurick Real Estate Group for assistance.