 | The 1-99 Corridor Community and System Preservation Initiative
Counties of Bedford, Blair, Centre, and Huntingdon, PennsylvaniaAbstractThe Transportation and Community and System Preservation (TCSP) program provides an expanded opportunity to evaluate and plan for direct, secondary and cumulative impacts occurring in the Interstate-99 Corridor. The I-99 Corridor in Bedford, Blair, Centre, and Huntingdon Counties is believed by many to be the next emerging growth corridor in Pennsylvania. I-99 currently extends 84 miles between two major east-west interstate routes-I-70/76 in the south and 1-80 in the north. The subject of this pilot program will involve the corridor between Bedford at 1-70/76 to Port Matilda in Centre County. The Corridor encompasses urban, suburban, and rural environments. Agriculture, tourism, heavy and light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution, retail, service, and high technology firms all contribute to a highly diversified economy that was built on the rail, steel, and coal industries. The project focuses on the ultimate development of a comprehensive set of strategies to achieve a preferred development pattern in the I-99 Corridor. The major objectives of this project are threefold: 1) formulate a comprehensive set of strategies to achieve a preferred development pattern across a diverse regional setting; 2) develop a geographic information system to provide a tool for comprehensive planning and to assist municipal officials to think and respond in a logical and rational manner; 3) provide an evaluation of the best means to maximize citizen input, foster municipal cooperation, and form public/private partnerships. The proposed planning process will encourage sustainability by addressing highway-induced impacts to the quality of life in the I-99 Corridor. A regional approach will provide a historical assessment of prior predictions, comparing those predictions to actual conditions; and incorporating a community-based visioning process for long-term planning. The multi-municipal process will involve a complex set of urban, suburban and rural developmental issues, Previous Page |
