Murrysville officials look at updating zoning to promote growth

Murrysville officials may look at updating their zoning laws to promote growth and provide housing opportunities for older residents looking to downsize.

“I think that, generally, the philosophy in the past has been to have developers extend utility lines, have bigger lots, and I don’t want to say we were more strict, but we were less encouraging of development in the community,” Murrysville Chief Administrator Jim Morrison said. “I think the elected officials going forward need to re-examine that, if their desire is to promote growth in the community. The way to do that is through zoning ordinances.”

Morrison said the costly extension of utility lines and a lack of housing options for the 55-plus demographic are the main barriers to growth.

“There aren’t a lot of options for (that demographic) right now,” Morrison said. “But they’re members of the community, they’ve paid their dues, and their downsizing attracts new home buyers who can purchase an existing home. That’s important.”

Murrysville council previously rejected a 2016 application for high-density town homes on Kohosek Court, proposed by the same developer that built Marquis Place just south of Route 22. Council members at the time cited a desire to update Murrysville’s zoning map before proceeding with that type of project.

The developer, APB Holdings, was requesting a change from business zoning to R-3, high-density residential zoning. “I think we really need to look at our R-3 zoning and where we’ve approved it,” Councilwoman Jamie Lee Korns said.

Current R-3 zoning exists in only two substantial areas: in northwest Murrysville along Logan Ferry Road parallel to Golden Mile Highway and in southeast Murrysville along the western border of Delmont. There also are a few small pockets in central Murrysville on either side of Route 22.

Morrison said the Murrysville Planning Commission is looking at two options for updated zoning.

“There’s traditional neighborhood development, where you’d have some residential and then some businesses, like an ice cream shop or a barbershop,” he said. “And there is also planned neighborhood development, where you give a developer an opportunity to build on smaller lots with denser development.”

A similar style of zoning ordinance, referred to as “clustering,” was introduced in the early 2000s in Sussex County, Del. Developers were permitted to build on smaller lots in exchange for creating “open space” areas within a housing plan.

“The idea is, you put the houses closer together so you have less infrastructure and less impact on the roads,” said Bob Wheatley, chairman for the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission. “The theory was that you would create these large areas of open space within the development.”

Because of the way the county calculated open space, however, passive areas such as detention ponds and swales — which are not necessarily usable public space — were counted as open space, and were sometimes dispersed throughout a development. In recent years, county council members have complained that developers are not using the open space the way it was intended.

“It really wasn’t giving us quite what we were hoping for,” Wheatley said. “If their goal is to encourage growth without encouraging sprawl, it certainly would be a good thing for them to look at. And when it’s done right, it does create open space that people can enjoy within a development.”

Morrison said the municipality is positioned well to market itself to new residents.

“Our infrastructure is here. We have a sound school district, a good park system, a good police department,” he said. “We just have to provide the ability to afford moving in.”