News & Issues: Policy Statements

Growth Management

The Suburban REALTORS Alliance believes that any land-use planning must:

• Respect the rights of individual property owners.
• Take into consideration the need for livable communities in Pennsylvania.
• Create and maintain environmental conditions supportive of property values.
• Create and maintain affordable housing opportunities.
• Allow the free market to be the principal way in which the use of land is determined.
• Recognize and respect the great diversity in land use planning and zoning in the region.

Joint-Municipal Planning: The Alliance supports the general goal of encouraging coordination among municipalities and counties in their land-use planning. The SRA also believes an inherent goal of joint municipal planning should be a more user friendly and predictable environment for constituents and the regulated community.

Consistency: The Alliance supports the goal of encouraging general consistency between municipal comprehensive plans and municipal zoning ordinances and between municipal plans and county plans.

Concurrency: The Alliance supports the goal of having new development occur concurrently with transportation infrastructure and supply and treatment capacity for municipal sewer and water systems, but is concerned that concurrency requirements not become a means by which a municipality block or unfairly delay development.

Growth Boundaries/Locally Designated Growth Areas/Public Infrastructure Areas: The Alliance is opposed to the creation of artificial growth boundaries that could decrease affordable housing opportunities, devalue properties, and cause development to "leapfrog" such areas into more rural regions.

Permitted Uses: The Alliance agrees that not every land-use must be permitted in every municipality that participates in a joint-municipal comprehensive plan, provided that the participating municipalities zone consistently with that plan and so long as existing uses are permitted within a reasonable distance.

Traditional Neighborhood Developments: The Alliance supports the incorporation of Traditional Neighborhood Developments into municipal land use and subdivision ordinances as an alternative housing option.

Transportation Infrastructure: The Alliance believes some of the difficulties associated with suburban sprawl are a result of traffic congestion caused by an inadequate secondary road infrastructure. To alleviate problems associated with traffic, the Alliance supports the formation of joint-municipal Highway Financing Authorities. Creation of such authorities, with the ability to develop capital improvement plans, will provide valuable assistance in improving Pennsylvania's secondary road system.

Urban Redevelopment: The Alliance believes that urban revitalization efforts can play a significant role in reducing the consumption of land for new development. The Alliance also recognizes that many issues have factored into the decline of urban areas, and that there are no quick fixes to the problems contributing to urban blight. The Alliance believes the following must be incorporated into urban redevelopment efforts:

• The reliance on real property taxes as the primary funding mechanism for schools and local government must be reduced;
• Schools must be made safer and academically competitive;
• Property Maintenance and Rehabilitation Codes must be made more flexible to make owning, selling and repairing existing homes more economically feasible;
• Property Maintenance Codes should be enforced regularly and uniformly on all properties.

Fees in Lieu/Dedication of Open Space: The Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) allows local governments to impose fees or require the dedication of land to minimize a development's impact on the community. The Alliance believes that any fees in lieu or dedication requirements should be assessed solely and proportionately on the impact of the development, and not to correct existing deficiencies.

Open Space Preservation: The Alliance supports open space preservation efforts so long as property owners are willing sellers and receive fair market compensation for the value of their property.

Environmental Restrictions: The Alliance supports the protection of environmentally sensitive areas, but is concerned that municipalities may impose overly restrictive environmental assessment requirements as a means of halting development. Environmental regulations that impact the development of real property must have a sound scientific basis and should be reasonably applied to the property under consideration.

Downzoning: The Alliance is opposed to downzoning that is done solely for the purpose of reducing density, without regard for the market value of the property. Any downzoning must provide the affected property owner(s) with density bonuses and/or Transferable Development Right (TDR) options in order to provide fair market return on their investment.

Transferable Development Rights (TDR): The Alliance believes the use of Transferable Development Rights should be done on a voluntary basis, and that government should create incentives for property owners to preserve their land though this method.