If you have been concerned about overdevelopment in Richland, there is good news, and better news. The good news is that the The Staats Plan is working. Named for new supervisor Craig Staats, who made it the centerpiece of his election campaign, it is actually the product of a year of planning by Staats, supervisor Rick Orloff, and the township's water authority.
The concept is simple: don't rely on antiquated, court-weakened zoning laws. Builders can win every time. Instead, control development by limiting the availability of sewer and water. No court is going to force a municipality to provide these things. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.
Last month, a developer proposed building twenty-nine single-family homes in a rural area where zoning would permit half that number. And because the ground wasn't suitable for septic systems, the company wanted to construct its own miniature sewage treatment plant.
Staats voted against it, saying that he opposed both the increased density and the treatment plant, which could have become a taxpayer responsibility if the developer failed. And Orloff added that "We finally have the tools to oppose proposals like this, which, in the past, might have been forced on us by the courts." The developer saw the handwriting on the wall, and withdrew the application. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.
The better news is that, despite the claims of certain people (usually around election time), Richland has not been overdeveloped. The official U.S. Census says so.
Mike Zowniriw's 2003 campaign for supervisor, which was unsuccessfully parroted by Vic Stevens in 2005, played on the fears of local residents. The supervisors are allowing the township to be overdeveloped!!! But according to impartial Uncle Sam, Richland has done an exemplary job of holding down increases in both housing and population. And they have done it despite some terrible obstacles:
The 1997 Township Comprehensive Plan, created by a handful of residents who later formed the core of the radical Richland Citizens Alliance, was perfect for one small segment of the population - developers. Those RCA folks did their best to steer growth away from their own homes, but in the process made large tracts of land legally ripe for building, through the availability of either zoning, or water lines, or sewer. Combined with our relatively low real estate costs, good schools, beautiful country scenery, and close proximity to major cities, Richland became the epicenter of builders' bulls-eyes.
It takes about two years for most projects to get from first sketch to first shovel. But once the Comprehensive Plan went into effect, housing permits, which numbered only 115 in 2000, skyrocketed to 260 by 2003. Saddled with that terrible plan, and nationwide court decisions interpreting zoning in favor of private landowners and developers, Richland's supervisors struggled to make chicken salad out of chicken spit.
A perfect example of those court decisions is the controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling of June 19, allowing two developers to build in areas already designated as wetlands. The whole mess was so complicated that the nine justices wrote five separate opinions! Roadblocks like this have long hampered municipalities everywhere from effectively controlling growth. And local officials often take the blame when they actually had little or no control.
Unable to completely stop the builders, Orloff, Pat Keller, and Steve Tamburri developed a strategy to at least slow them down by requiring expensive, important community improvements. Improvements that would otherwise have fallen on the shoulders of the taxpayers, or gone unaccomplished. Parks. Sidewalks. Roads. Bridges. Environmental cleanup and preservation. Traffic controls. Trails. Water lines. Hundreds of acres of open space. A new township police department. Fire equipment. A preserved historical one-room schoolhouse. And millions in cash, which kept township taxes low.
By 2004, permits dropped to 200, with only 100 in 2005. In fact, nearly all of the housing now being planned for Richland is age-restricted over-55. So, with the smoke clearing, what is the result? Is Richland overdeveloped? Beancounters report (lots of numbers, but they are important):
The 1990 Census showed 3344 homes in the township, with a government projection of 4370 for year 2000, an expected increase of 30.7%. The 2000 Census counted 3877, an actual increase of only 15.9%. About half. The same is true for population. The 8560 residents in 1990 were expected to grow to 11,160 by 2000, 30.4%. The actual number was 9920, 14.7%. Again, about half.
These Census projections were the exact ones included by the RCA folks in preparing their 1997 Plan. Yet when the results came in at only half of their planned growth, they still screamed "overdevelopment!"
The same overdevelopment mantra has been blamed for skyrocketing school taxes, which have increased more than 58% since 1998. But is population growth the real cause? Again, the figures say no. According to QCSD records, enrollment first exceeded 5000 in 1997-98, and is now 5460, an increase of only 9.2% in eight years. Of that number, only 3.8% has been since 2003. And that includes kids from every town in the school district. So much for blaming the 58% increase solely on an alleged flood of students.
And Richland actually contributed in a positive way to QCSD's bottom line by creating the age-qualified district. But with school taxes so high, and the board under constant fire for the latest 12% spending increase, everyone is playing the blame game. Blame the board for tolerating too much fat in the budget. Blame the superintendent for proposing too many programs. Blame unfunded mandates from Harrisburg and Washington. Too many staff. Poor investments. Greedy teachers. Waste.
In fact, the more fingers that are pointed, the clearer it becomes that overdevelopment is not the villain. It is just a convenient target for certain folks with personal political agendas.