Cranberry Comprehensive Plan Update

Cranberry Township needed to update its comprehensive plan and establish a unique and sustainable approach to its land use planning. This approach needed to combine market, fiscal impact, and geospatial analyses to evaluate and derive an optimal future land use scenario that would be used to balance the Township’s growth demands with its operating and capital improvements budgeting processes.

Delta compiled baseline data that included current services provided, inventoried acreage of land use, quantified future developable space, and the current tax structure. Concurrently, public meetings were held to determine Cranberry’s Vision for 2030. The baseline data from 2000 was projected forward 30 years by using building permits and factoring in current and expected growth trends.

The Township realized that too much of its land was being used for residential purposes, which would eventually adversely affect the tax base, hurt the Township’s ability to provide quality services to residents, and lessen its ability to attract development. Left as they were, the current regulations and ordinances would not produce the desired Cranberry Vision.

Cranberry Township’s updated Comprehensive Plan contains strategies for creating the public’s desired Vision for the Township in 2030. These strategies include changing the zoning ordinance to permit more dense development in order to preserve open space, changing land uses to allow for more business development, using Traditional Neighborhood Design to establish more mixed-use areas, and creating a redevelopment strategy. The Comprehensive Plan includes a sustainability audit and develops sustainability principles.

On Oct. 6, 2009, Cranberry Township’s Comprehensive Plan was selected as the winner of the 2009 Daniel Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan. The Burnham Award is the most prestigious award of the American Planning Association’s Pennsylvania chapter.