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Phoenixville Regional Plan Withdrawal

East Vincent Township was voted out of the regional plan last evening.  Many important points were raised and questions asked during a two hour standing room only meeting.

There is an audio of the meeting posted on the East Vincent website.

 


Why Should East Vincent Remain in the Regional Plan?
1. Prevents Legal Challenges
    In 2000 the state passed a law allowing townships to group together to form regional groups. This was in response to a large number of legal challenges initiated by developers called Curative Amendments. If a township ordinance does not state a specific use, a developer can legally challenge the township. If won, this costly, lengthy court battle means the developer can then build anything without zoning constraints from the township. This benefit of the regional plan allows us to share uses across township boundaries. We do not have to have every single use in every single township. We can avoid the distasteful uses such as adult bookstores, and heavy industrial uses such as power plants and quarry operations, and we do not have to have huge commercial operations such as a WalMart in our township.
2. Preserves Our Rural Character
    East Vincent is viewed as one of the agricultural and rural townships in the region with an abundance of natural resources and watersheds. Being a member of the regional plan now allows us to enhance and expand these land uses in our township. We are now in the position to downzone areas we wish to protect.
3. Increases Funding Possibilities
    When a township is part of a regional planning effort, it increases its ability to attract outside sources of funding to enhance and improve the township.
4. Increases Collaboration
    As a regional body that meets on a regular basis, local relationships among governments are strengthened, more issues are addressed together and more ideas and information and ways to solve problems are shared and exchanged. It is a natural result of having regular ongoing dialogue with our neighbors. We begin to think on a larger and more complex level and we avoid excessive localism when we can work together to solve problems and create new visions and ways of governing.
5. Other Sources
    The details in planning and zoning are critical to success. Good protective zoning keeps developers at bay. Good regional planning protects this zoning.

 

 

CCOEV Last Updated 5/07/2010