Oxford Region Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan

This site is hosted by the Chester County Planning Commission, under agreement with the Municipalities of the Oxford Region (East Nottingham, Elk, Lower Oxford, Upper Oxford, West Nottingham townships and Oxford Borough) through the County Vision Partnership Program (VPP) to assist the Region in updating its 1969 Comprehensive Plan.

Please note that the documents provided are in PDF format.

News and Announcements

The next meeting of the Oxford Region Planning Committee is scheduled for Wednesday May 23, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Lower Oxford Township Building. Click here for the agenda.

The Final Phase Begins

Planning Committee Meetings

Regular meetings of the Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan are held at the Lower Oxford Township Building, on the fourth Wednesday of every month at 7:00 pm. These meetings are open to the public. Please refer to the Project Schedule for upcoming meetings and News and Announcements for any last minute cancellations or changes.

Meeting Follow-up

In an effort to record the activities of the Planning Committee and provide updates to those interested parties unable to attend the monthly meetings, reports for the most recent meetings are available by clicking here.

Message Board

The message board was created to distribute information, increase awareness, and provide an opportunity for municipal officials and residents to communicate and comment on the progress of the Plan. Click here to leave a comment or ask a question.

Contact Information

To contact Mark gallant, lead planner (Chester County Planning Commission) for the Oxford Region Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan, please email mgallant@chesco.org or call 610-344-6285. You can also contact any member of the Planning Committee for information about the development of the Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan.

Final Draft – Oxford Region Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan

The CCPC Team will download Plan Chapters and Appendices as they are completed in accordance with the following Table of Contents:

Inside Cover
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: Introduction and Regional Influences
Chapter 2: Demographic Profile
Chapter 3: Coordination and Regional Policies
Chapter 4: Implementation Strategies
Chapter 5: Land Use Inventory and Plan
Appendix 5-A: Fair Share Calculations
Chapter 6: Housing Inventory and Plan
Chapter 7: Economic Development Profile and Plan
Chapter 8: Community Facilities and Services Inventory and Plan
Chapter 9: Transportation Inventory and Plan
Appendix 9-A: TII Projects
Appendix 9-B: Smart Growth
Appendix 9-C: Smart Transportation
Appendix 9-D: Complete Streets
Appendix 9-E: Functional Classification
Chapter 10: Open Space Inventory and Plan
Chapter 11: Agricultural Resources Inventory and Plan
Chapter 12: Natural Resources Inventory and Plan
Appendix 12-A: Existing Resource Regulations and Recommendations
Appendix 12-B: Recommended Plant Lists
Chapter 13: Historic Resources Inventory and Plan
Appendix 13-A: Local Historic Resource Protection Policy
Appendix 13-B: Other Historic Programs for Consideration
Chapter 14: Scenic Resources Inventory and Plan
Appendix 14-A: Municipal Scenic Resources
Chapter 15: Recreation Inventory and Plan
Chapter 16: Energy Conservation Inventory and Plan
Glossary of Terms

Plan Background (History)

What is a Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan?

A multimunicipal comprehensive plan is not an ordinance or regulation. It is an adopted planning document that establishes planning policies for a group of contiguous municipalities and includes recommendations to implement those policies to guide growth and identify areas for protection and/or preservation. Click here for additional information regarding the comprehensive plan.

Why work together?

Pennsylvania’s planning enabling legislation, Act 247 or the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), requires that municipalities review their individual comprehensive plan once every ten years.

Winter 2007: With the exception of West Nottingham, who adopted an updated comprehensive plan in 2006, municipal leaders in the Region needed to update their aging policy documents. Elk Township and Upper Oxford Township last updated their comprehensive plans in 1984 and 1982, respectively. The Borough of Oxford and Lower Oxford and East Nottingham Townships had not yet developed individual comprehensive plans, relying on the first generation of the Oxford Region Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 1969.

Municipal officials from the six municipalities met with the Executive Director of the Chester County Planning Commission, Ronald Bailey, to discuss their options in the spring of 2007. After a few months of discussion and investigation, the Region’s municipal officials decided to move forward with the development of a multimunicipal comprehensive plan and solidified their commitment by signing an intergovernmental cooperative planning agreement.

The decision to move forward with the development of a multimunicipal comprehensive plan was based on several potential benefits identified during the Region’s “discussion” period. Click here for a list and description of those potential benefits.

Planning Committee

The Planning Committee is a group of dedicated municipal officials (Board, Council, and Planning Commission members) that volunteered (or graciously accepted their nomination) to represent their municipalities and regularly attend and participate in monthly Oxford Region Meetings. While all municipal officials in the Region are invited to attend any Oxford Region meeting and participate in the process through email, the Planning Committee members (and alternate members) have been directly involved in the development of the Plan. Click here for a list of the active Planning Committee members (as of January 2012).

Survey Results

In order to develop discussion points for the Planning Committee meetings, the CCPC Team developed short opinion surveys for each of the 12 topic categories. The surveys were distributed to all municipal officials in the Region and the average return was between 25% and 35%. Click here to view the results of those surveys.

Municipal Update Meetings

During the months of May and June 2010, members of the CCPC Team met with the Planning Commission, Board of Supervisors, and/or the Borough Council of each of the participating municipalities. The goal of these “Municipal Update Meetings” was to bring all municipal officials in the Region up to date on the progress of the Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan and the schedule for the final phase of the work program. Click here to view the list of FAQs.