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Agencies Announce Keystone Principles For Growth, Investment & Resource Conservation
Press Release

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg, PA 17120

HARRISBURG — The Governor's Economic Development Cabinet today announced a set of principles and criteria that will be used by state agencies to guide investment and support local growth and economic development across the commonwealth.

The principles and criteria realize Governor Edward G. Rendell's vision that the state needs to offer vibrant, clean and beautiful communities if families and businesses are going to call Pennsylvania home.

"With an aggressive agenda to attract new private sector investment, create jobs, foster business growth, support our communities and protect our environment, Pennsylvania must have a plan on how we will continue to invest our resources," said Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky, who chairs the cabinet committee. "These investment principles set the focus for continuing our efforts to encourage economic development that sustains and grows our economies in urban, suburban and rural areas while at the same time conserving our exceptional natural resources."

The principles build on the recent success of Governor Rendell's Growing Greener II initiative, which takes as a core precept that, in this era of mobile capital and intense global competition, the state needs to offer a higher quality of life to win the race for new business development. Those values are now part of every investment decision the Commonwealth makes.

"Everyone has principles they live by," Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty said. "Pennsylvania now has practical and balanced principles to address our needs for the future. We want to have a fair set of measures for distributing our resources and making regional and local investments."

For the past two years, 23 state agencies and programs that play a role in land use, development and conservation have worked together to craft the principles and criteria.

"The plans we have put in place will set the stage for future land use across Pennsylvania," Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Michael DiBerardinis said. "This has been an unprecedented effort in state government to work together to position 'green infrastructure' as a vital part of the commonwealth's economic growth."

"Economic development and environmental protection have ties to so many other major policy areas, especially transportation," Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler said. "One of our greatest needs is to shape a partnership among local governments, other interested parties and state government to deal with such pressing issues as land use and its integration with transportation."

The principles and criteria were developed over two years by the Interagency Land Use Team, a working group of the Economic Development Cabinet. Governor Rendell revived and expanded the group's assignment. The 23-member agency team is co-chaired by DCED Deputy Secretary Kenneth Klothen and Joanne Denworth of the Governor's Office of Policy.

Agencies now will begin implementing the principles and criteria by applying them to significant programs over the next six months and eventually expanding their application to all relevant programs.

The 10 principles are:

• Redevelop first — Support revitalization of Pennsylvania's many cities and towns and give funding preference to reuse and redevelopment of "brownfield" and previously developed sites in urban, suburban, and rural communities.
• Provide efficient infrastructure — Fix it first: use and improve existing infrastructure. Make highway and public transportation investments that use context sensitive design to improve existing developed areas and attract residents and visitors to these places. Require private and public expansions of service to be consistent with approved comprehensive plans and consistent implementing ordinances.
• Concentrate development — Support infill and "greenfield" development that is compact, conserves land, and is integrated with existing or planned transportation, water and sewer services, and schools. Foster creation of well-designed developments and neighborhoods that offer healthy life style opportunities for Pennsylvania residents.
• Increase job opportunities — Retain and attract a diverse, educated workforce through the quality of economic opportunity and quality of life offered in Pennsylvania's varied communities. Integrate educational and job training opportunities for workers of all ages with the workforce needs of businesses. Invest in businesses that offer good paying, high quality jobs, and that are located near existing or planned water & sewer infrastructure, housing, existing workforce, and transportation access (highway or transit).
• Foster sustainable businesses — Strengthen natural resource based businesses that use sustainable practices in energy production and use, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, recreation and tourism. Increase our supply of renewable energy. Reduce consumption of water, energy and materials to reduce foreign energy dependence and address climate change.
• Restore and enhance the environment — Maintain and expand land, air and water protection and conservation programs. Conserve and restore environmentally sensitive lands and natural areas for ecological health, biodiversity and wildlife habitat.
• Enhance recreational and heritage resources — Maintain and improve recreational and heritage assets and infrastructure throughout the commonwealth, including parks and forests, greenways and trails, heritage parks, historic sites and resources, fishing and boating areas and game lands offering recreational and cultural opportunities to Pennsylvanians and visitors.
• Expand housing opportunities — Support the construction and rehabilitation of housing of all types to meet the needs of people of all incomes and abilities. Support local projects that are based on a comprehensive vision or plan, have significant potential impact (e.g., increased tax base, private investment), and demonstrate local capacity, technical ability and leadership to implement the project.
• Plan regionally, implement locally — Support multi-municipal, county and local government planning and implementation that has broad public input and support and is consistent with these principles. Provide education, training, technical assistance, and funding for such planning and for transportation, infrastructure, economic development, housing, mixed use and conservation projects that implement such plans.
• Be fair — Support equitable sharing of the benefits and burdens of development. Provide technical and strategic support for inclusive community planning to ensure social, economic, and environmental goals are met.

The accompanying criteria for investment are project-specific measures in nine categories that will help achieve the state's development and conservation goals. They are to be used to evaluate various project proposals in all agency programs. The criteria supplement, but do not replace, agency program guidelines.

Also announced today is a joint agreement among 10 state agencies detailing how they will work with local governments when there are issues of consistency related to county and local or multi-municipal plans and ordinances. The land-use agreement creates a process to ensure that consistent county and local planning and zoning are considered in state agency permitting and funding decisions. This has long concerned county and local governments. The 10-agency agreement strengthens the ability of state agencies to consider and prefer projects that are generally consistent with local plans and ordinances. The agreement was developed by a consistency review committee of the Interagency Land Use Team chaired by John Dernbach, policy director of the Department of Environmental Resources. It is modeled on the policy developed by DEP to respond to the 2000 Municipalities Planning Code amendments.

Agencies that signed include: the departments of Community and Economic Development, Conservation and Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, Transportation, Agriculture and Education; the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority; the Public Utility Commission; the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission; and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.