UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Extension will host a land-use webinar on an innovative approach to community planning, with a focus on how counties can plan regionally while addressing local needs.

Presenting the 75-minute webinar at noon Oct. 16 will be Jason Rigone and Victoria Baur, from the Westmoreland County Planning and Development Department, and Kip Van Blarcom, from the Lancaster County Planning Department.

Westmoreland County planners have adopted a “planning district” approach, which recognizes that distinct groupings based on geography, economics, culture, education and transportation already exist. The approach seeks to leverage these existing relationships to address shared challenges among communities, such as aging populations and declining numbers of residents.

The main idea behind this approach is that county government and regional partners are best suited to deliver planning and technical assistance, while local governments understand their communities’ specific needs and can carry out recommendations in the plan. By working together, they can implement strategies effectively.

Lancaster County’s comprehensive plan, Places 2040, demonstrates this approach. Designed to guide communities in maintaining quality of life, the plan has relied on partnerships between the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Since the plan’s adoption five years ago, Lancaster County has developed several multimunicipal plans, used data to identify areas needing policy changes, and recommended updates to growth area boundaries.

In this webinar, Van Blarcom will discuss how these partnerships support an implementation strategy that is both issue-oriented and geographically focused.

“County Planning Districts: An Innovative Approach to Municipal and County Collaboration in Community Planning” is the fourth webinar in Penn State Extension’s Summer/Fall 2024 Land-Use Webinar Series that runs monthly until Nov. 20. The series is aimed at informing municipal elected and appointed officials, planners, landowners, farmers, and community organizations about land-use issues and decisions in their communities.

All webinars are recorded and available for future viewing. Other programs in the series include:

• July 17: “Improving Rural Communities Response to Homelessness” (recorded).

• Aug. 21: “Finding the Right Audience” (recorded).

• Sept. 18: “Blight Mitigation: Building Capacity Through Intergovernmental Partnerships” (recorded).

• Nov. 20: “Local Community Implementation of Active Transportation Plans.”

The cost of the webinar series is $50 for all five sessions, or $95 for all five sessions for those who want to receive AICP certification-maintenance credits from the American Planning Association. The cost also is $95 for all five sessions for professional engineers needing PDH credits. In addition, registered landscape architects can receive continuing-education credits for a fee of $65.

For anyone interested in a particular topic from the series, individual session registration is available for a fee of $15 per session. Those needing assistance can access a scholarship option.

For more information, contact Peter Wulfhorst at 570-296-3400 or by email at ptw3@psu.edu. To register for the webinars, visit the Penn State Extension website.