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
Click here to access the latest news and/or announcements regarding the Oxford Region. We will include meeting cancellation notices (due to inclement weather or otherwise) in this section for your convenience.
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 2011).
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.
Powerpoint Presentations
Interactive Powerpoints were developed for each of the Comprehensive Plan topic areas for the purposes of sharing information and the presenting of materials and images that would provide a source of discussion for the Planning Committee. Please click here for a direct link to all 12 topic-based Powerpoint presentations.
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.
Draft Review Materials
Throughout the development of the Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan, Planning Committee members have been "hands on" in regard to the review of all draft materials. In order to more easily facilitate the review of draft materials (by all of the Region's municipal officials) and to reduce the cost of materials, we will post electronic copies of these materials here on the website when possible. Please click here for the opportunity to view and/or review draft materials.
Work that has already been completed:
The Oxford Region Planning Committee has participated in 2 ½ years of preliminary planning work that has resulted in the completion of topic-specific surveys and tentatively approved Draft Policies (goals and objectives) and Draft Plan Recommendations. For the last several months, members of the Planning Committee have been reviewing and commenting on Draft Plan Chapters that are based on those years of preliminary planning.
Draft Policies and Plan Recommendations:
Draft policies and plan recommendations were developed and tentatively approved by the Planning Committee for all 12 topic areas including: land use, housing, economic development, community facilities and services, Transportation and Circulation, Open Space, Agricultural Resources, Natural Resources, Historic Resources, Scenic Resources, Recreational Resources, and Energy Conservation. Click here to view the draft policies and recommendations (organized by chapter).
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.
Draft Plan Chapters:
The following draft (2nd draft) Plan Chapter(s) have been reviewed and edited by the Planning Committee and are included here for informal municipal and public review. If you have any questions or comments regarding the content of the draft Plan Chapters please forward them to Mark Gallant or your municipal Planning Committee members.
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.
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.
Related Links
Regional Planning Handbook (2010)
The Regional Planning Handbook (2010) was developed by the Montgomery County Planning Commission on behalf of the Inter-Regional Planning Cooperative (IRPC). The IRPC consists of representatives from five planning regions in Montgomery County and Chester County plus MCPC and CCPC staff who meet on a regular basis to discuss issues relevant to regional planning. The Regional Planning Handbook was developed to serve as a primer for new members of regional planning organizations as well as a refresher course for current regional planners. Although developed for the IRPC, the Handbook is a resource that can be used by any regional planning group. Subjects covered by the Handbook include benefits and incentives for regional planning, the development and adoption of regional comprehensive plans, and regional cooperative planning and implementation agreements. The Handbook should prove to be a useful tool for anyone involved in regional planning in Pennsylvania.
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.
Images
Click here to view images of the Oxford Region captured while touring the Region during the development of the Multimunicipal Comprehensive Plan. These images illustrate the reasons why the Oxford Region should work together to guide future growth in their community and vigorously protect their rural character and way of life.