1999 Grant Recipient Information
Pennsylvania

Creating a Community-based Sustainable Future for I-99: A Watershed Approach
Centre County, Pennsylvania

Abstract

The Centre County Commissioners, on behalf of the Spring Creek Watershed Commission and in conjunction with the I-99 Community Partnership for Sustainable Development, propose planning efforts to meet the immediate and long-term needs for those municipalities and communities within the mid-Bald Eagle watershed (including the Spring Creek basin) in Centre County, Pennsylvania that will experience far-reaching economic, environmental, and social impacts from the completion of new Interstate 99 in 2003. This project, entitled "Creating a Community-based Sustainable Future for I-99: A Watershed Approach", focuses on 1) quickly establishing a collaborative, multi-municipal model interchange overlay district ordinance to better manage and guide development surrounding the 12 interchanges in Centre County while 2) creating a watershed-wide, community-based collaborative land use and sustainability plan to meet the long-term needs of the community. This innovative planning project expands upon traditional planning by: incorporating an extensive citizen-based process; using a regional, watershed-wide focus; and increasing the attention given to environmental, social, and economic factors as a basis for land use planning. Although this type of approach, utilizing community-based visioning may add extra up-front costs to traditional planning, the local government, community, and individual citizen buy-in that is created will save resources by providing the political force that is needed for successful implementation. In addition to benefiting the individual watershed municipalities and our region as a whole, this project will serve as a watershed-based prototype for other communities facing extraordinary growth pressures to learn from or follow.

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