Warehouses (Lancaster, Harrisburg, Carlisle: camp, quality of life, property taxes)

[rowhomecity]

I was back in Harrisburg over the weekend, and each time I return it hits me in the face, how Greater Harrisburg has no land use planning, no economic development vision/planning, and literally it is a free fall for development and most projects have ZERO design standards and are truly UGLY.

I grew up in Harrisburg, and well slowly all this ugly development is absolutely killing the character of the region.


Lancaster County has solid Land Use planning overall and if you look at the quality of their development it is mostly top notch.

Where Greater Harrisburg is totally just botching it.

#1 problem is all these disenfranchised municipalities keep building these sprawling warehouses all over. The truck traffic is OUT OF CONTROL. There is no coordination/planning where these warehouses should be located, and it has just caused MASSIVE quality of life problems, from traffic, to incredibly bad air pollution, to poor health from lack of walkable communities/development.


Any other thoughts? Dauphin County is in no way at the level of Lancaster, but I feel they are more coordinated, where Cumberland County is just building anything, anywhere and it all just looks awful.

[SteelGuitar22]

I've only lived in the Harrisburg area for a little over a year, but from what I have seen I can say that Cumberland county looks like a place that was once rural but has just built up drastically in recent decades (between Camp Hill and Carlisle). It may just be me, but I feel like traffic on the eastern side of Cumberland county is actually worse than the lower half of Dauphin county, which is ironic since the city of Harrisburg is in Dauphin. Suburban sprawl really seems to be affecting the Cumberland Valley like it is the Lehigh Valley. A sign of the times I suppose, as populations in the urban and suburban areas expand due to close proximity to where the work is, while populations in the rural and small town areas shrink due to a massive decline in jobs. Aside from the obvious and inevitable growth, I agree that the east side of the river has been maintaining theirs better than the west side has.

[Dequindre]

Its up to Cumberland County's municipalities, largely rural, to control land use. For many of these rural municipalities, I imagine it is alluring to have industrial development like that.

[ki0eh]

Joint municipal planning and zoning is authorized in PA. However, each little kingdom has to opt in. Cumberland County is a prime example where several rows of townships zone
the side toward Harrisburg for more intensive use and the side away for ag, resulting in concentric belts of monster warehouses.

There are logistics centers on the East Shore as well, but they seem better hidden (at least till you get further out on I-78). See https://www.foodlogistics.com/home/a...g-the-standard These provide jobs for folks who might otherwise be left entirely behind by the 21st century American economy, and you and I need our widgets and whatzits too.

[rowhomecity]

Originally Posted by Dequindre

Its up to Cumberland County's municipalities, largely rural, to control land use. For many of these rural municipalities, I imagine it is alluring to have industrial development like that.

Not saying all of the development is bad, it is the lack of planning. It is a fact, that placing these demands on infrastructure that cannot handle it with sprawl, will add pressure for local municipalities to increase property taxes for homeowners like you.

Cumberland County really is poorly managing land use planning. Lancaster County on the other hand has done quite a good job of managing growth, and promoting development while protecting open space. There is nothing wrong with this approach.