Although Pennsylvania has over 2,500 municipalities, only half of
these communities have zoning regulations. Of the municipalities
that utilize planning tools, many of these regulations are outdated
and do not integrate current theory and practice into the design
of residential development. During the past two and a half years,
the Hamer Center at Penn State has been working with municipalities,
elected officials and citizens throughout Pennsylvania, and has
witnessed a strong desire to improve development standards although
few resources are available.
Because of this deficit, a faculty and student team of architects,
landscape architects, and planners at Penn State created a community-based
research initiative called PennSCAPEs to develop planning and
design tools linked to recent changes in the Pennsylvania Municipalities
Planning Code. Through the Hamer Center, this interdisciplinary
team is developing a multi-media interactive code for compact
neighborhood development that can be adopted by municipalities
throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. PennSCAPEs will serve
as an education and empowerment tool--made accessible to elected
officials, developers and citizens to learn about design principles
and find answers to questions to better implement compact, walkable,
and environmentally-oriented neighborhood development. PennSCAPEs
will be made available through hard copy and CD-ROM format.
PennSCAPEs is comprised of several phases. The first was a feasibility
study of compact neighborhood development in Central Pennsylvania.
This participatory process -– a collaborative effort between
the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, elected
officials, municipal planners, developers, environmental organizations
and citizens – revealed four major findings:
There is a residential market in Central Pennsylvania for neighborhoods
that reverse the pattern of sprawl development.
This type of neighborhood would provide residential development
that is more environmentally sound than conventional development
in terms of publicly accessible open space, land consumed for
housing and transportation, stormwater management, and public
health.
It is financially feasible to create this type of development
in the region; and would provide affordable housing choices that
are desirable, but not widely available.
Barriers to this type of development exist; and include outdated
municipal zoning and development standards and a land use decision-making
structure that is inflexible to the type of fine-grain mix of
uses and densities required of compact neighborhood development.
The second phase - the Endurable House - centers around the idea
of designing an affordable starter home that can be adapted over
time, to serve the different phases of a household’s life.
An analysis of conventional development was used to develop prototypical
housing and lot configurations to meet the goals of durability,
adaptability, and ‘green’ design.
The final phase, to be completed in 2002, involves the creation
of several prototypical neighborhood types that respond to local
environments ranging from rural preservation to clustered and
mixed-use residential development. The final phase will also involve
the presentation, education, and implementation of the PennSCAPEs
code through community outreach, policy advocacy, and technical
assistance provided through the Hamer Center.
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