What's new? (Home)
Search this site
Official Twp. Site
About Charlestown
Index to Gov't Info
General Info
Organizations
The early days
Photo Albums
Surplus & Needs
Neighborhood links
Notify me of updates
About this site
FAQ
People are saying..
Our purpose
About us
Techie stuff
Contacting us
Established June 2, 1997
by citizens for citizens
Awards
March 16, 1998
Website of the Week
Daily Local News
August 13, 1997
|
|
A beautiful part of southeastern Pennsylvania
Fans of the World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies
|
Traditional Neighborhood Development for Devault
Andy Motel, Chairman of the Charlestown Township Planning Commission, has sent me an brief explanation in layman's terms of what a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) plan is and how it might apply to the Devault area of our township. The Planning Commission has been and will continue to work on the TND for Devault at its monthly meetings, and Charlestown residents are encouraged to attend and participate in the discussions.
The following is from Andy Motel.
TND stands for Traditional Neighborhood Development. A TND is a community well-known before WW-II where the concern was community layout vs. the Post WW-II trend toward separating uses so we all have to drive to everything. An example of a town built like a TND is Media, or West Chester, e.g. typically smaller lots, or residential with different housing types (singles, twins, town homes, flats over commercial) organized around a discernable center or focal point, sometimes referred to as the Town Center. The community itself is geographically what can be walked to in five or ten minutes, the psychology behind that being that, more than ten minutes, and people will drive.
The Town Center will also have a mix of uses with commercial, retail, municipal and even some residential. The design promotes walking and minimizes the car in both use and appearance by use of alleys and parking behind and to the side of buildings and on streets. Local "new" versions of a TND are Eagleview and Weatherstone but this density is far greater than planned for in Devault.
The retail in a TND is "Neighborhood Commercial" or "Service Commercial" with uses in the Town Center geared to serving primarily the needs of residents in the community. Here, we may be light on density even with some added residential, but 16,700 cars pass Whitehorse Road every day (the Pennsylvania Turnpike's estimate in 2002 on its web site) and those cars will augment local patronage and help sustain the little restaurants, dry cleaners, drug stores, card shops, etc. We also are looking at "live-work" units where the owner has a business below and lives upstairs. These are in use in Eagleview (about 16 total out there)
The basis for planning with a TND model is that -
- The Turnpike is coming and a sober look at the coming pressures.
- East Whiteland has and will have several million square feet of commercial space to rent.
- The TND Zoning allows the municipality to control matters like aesthetics, materials, design like no place else in the Municipal Planning Code. The Municipal Planning Code was amended in 2000 allowing zoning for a TND and this will allow Charlestown to control the way this happens rather than react to various plans from developers. We can specifically control what, where and how much goes in to the TND. We are working with the landowners involved.
(The above was posted 11/11/06.)
|
Home Site Overview Contact Us
Please report any problems with this site by clicking here.
Site development, maintenance and funding by Township resident Jacob D. Merriwether.
Hosting by PLH Worldgroup Communications, Inc.
|
|
