Proposed Marshall Township comprehensive plan nears vote

There will be two more opportunities for Marshall Township residents to make comments and hear the latest information about the township’s proposed Implementable Comprehensive Plan before it goes up for a vote scheduled for next month.

An information booth will be available at Marshall Township Community Day on Aug. 27 and a public hearing is scheduled at the Board of Supervisors meeting Sept. 12 at 7 p.m., at the municipal building on Pleasant Hill Road.

If approved, this new planning document would replace and update Marshall’s 2006 comprehensive plan and contain implementable, highly detailed strategies to bring a vision for the township over the next decade to life.

“The benefit of the comprehensive plan is that instead of having a document five inches thick with 50 or 60 goals and objectives, many of which will never be reached or accomplished because they may be impractical, the implementable plan does a deeper dive into truly focusing on a small number of key issues for the community and coming up with practical solutions and steps for addressing the identified key issues,” said Marshall Township Manager Julie Bastianini.

The Marshall Township Planning Commission voted on July 12 to recommend adoption of the plan to the Board of Supervisors. The plan then headed to Allegheny County Economic Development and to Marshall’s surrounding municipalities for a required 45-day review period, according Bastianini.

If all goes well, the township supervisors will conduct the Sept. 12 public hearing and vote that evening whether to adopt the plan, she said.

A steering committee plus local leaders, a community questionnaire, key-person interviews and several public events identified issues as most pertinent to residents in the area. They include: traffic and land use along Route 910; identifying a sense of place and identity in the township; future development and preservation of green space, and recreation and connectivity.

Residents were invited to meetings, including an open house in May at the township municipal building, to offer suggestions, ideas and concerns.

Bastianini said about 50 people attended in May, and the “feedback was overwhelmingly positive.”

Not all of those in attendance loved every idea, she said, but they did comment they felt they were being heard, their opinions mattered and that the process was good and produced valid outcomes, she said.

Information about the planning process and its results can be found at an interactive website, planmarshall.org, which was created specifically for the comprehensive plan by Pashek+MTR, a Pittsburgh landscape and architecture community planning studio hired by the township to help produce the plan.

Residents have the ability to comment on the plan on the website as well.

It contains minutes from each steering committee meeting, survey results, comments from public meetings, an interactive Wikimap, recorded public Zoom meetings, the draft plan, and more.

An extensive email database of township residents and business owners was created during the process.

Marshall’s population has grown 46 percent from 2010 to 2020, according to the website. Additional development has taken place on the Route 19 corridor and Thorn Hill Industrial Park, Keystone Summit Office Park, and Innovation Ridge.

The western side of Marshall, which is rich in natural resources, is relatively undeveloped and has taken the form of a conservation subdivision design. This is the location of several new housing developments. Zoning this area in the conservation subdivision design permanently preserves blocks of high-priority sensitive areas and helps curtail sprawl, according to the township.

Pennsylvania courts have stated that a municipality cannot close its doors to development, according to Bastianini. Legally, property owners have the right to develop their land. Marshall Township has instituted best practices to manage growth and development in a responsible way.

“We have enjoyed working with a fully engaged staff, planning commission, supervisors, developers and most importantly, residents of Marshall. The results of our initial community questionnaire, for instance, included more than 1,900 written comments. This input helped form the basis for developing key issues around which the plan took shape. The plan for Marshall is unique to that community because of their active participation,” said Jim Pashek, Pashek+MTR founding partner.

Pashek+MTR has worked on implementable comprehensive plans for nearby communities, including Pine Township, which used its plan to obtain funding for trail improvements. Hampton Township used its plan to zero in on zoning ordinance changes needed to better meet the needs of residents, according to Pashek.

Pashek+MTR is receiving a contracted, flat fee of $85,000 for its services with the Marshall comprehensive plan, according to Bastianini.

Feedback on the plan can be sent via www.planmarshall.org or to Pashek+MTR plan consultant Jenni Easton at jeaston@pashekmtr.com.