City of Jeannette
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Adopted March 8, 2017
Resolution #17-01 - Comprehensive Plan of the City of Jeannette
Resolution #17-01 - Comprehensive Plan of the City of Jeannette
Before and After:
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Objectives and Goals:
Blight to Bright – “Jeannette will be an environmentally healthy, economically vibrant and visually attractive location for residents, business owners and visitors.”
Vibrant Downtown – “Jeannette’s vibrant downtown is a lively, safe and economically viable place to live, play and do business.” Positive Impressions – “Jeannette fosters vitality in community, commerce and culture through public engagement and timely and accurate two-way communications.” Welcoming Gateways and Corridors – “Jeannette’s points of entry greet visitors and residents with views, scenes and routes that are clean and pleasing, and present the city at its best.” |
News Update: |
2017.02.24 UPDATE: On Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. the Jeannette City Council will hold a public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan. The Council will then vote to adopt the final package at the 6:00 p.m. regular council meeting that same evening.
Anyone wishing to ask questions or provide commentary on the Comprehensive Plan will have an opportunity at the public hearing. |
Top 10 things to do in the next six months (as of 2017.01.01):
1- Form a Blight Committee and define "Blight" ✔️️
2- Train staff on blight software module including mobile data collection, begin populating blight database IN PROGRESS
3- Create a list of top 10 blighted properties factoring in strategic locations IN PROGRESS
4- Engage the county to facilitate the Planning Commission for another year Begin Early Summer 2017
5- Work with the DCED to begin the next round of meetings on the downtown with PA Downtown Center IN PROGRESS
6- Form a downtown working committee including JBA and other stakeholders to promote Downtown IN PROGRESS
7- Downtown committee should begin planning a one day special event in downtown for summer/fall of 2017, like an open street event IN PROGRESS
8- Hire public information officer or form a small committee to further public information strategies
9- Begin incorporating the new City logo into stationary, business cards, signs, literature, website, trucks IN PROGRESS
10- Create a community appearance working group and select one easy demonstration project to complete (i.e. plant trees along a major corridor)
--UPDATED 2017.02.24
2- Train staff on blight software module including mobile data collection, begin populating blight database IN PROGRESS
3- Create a list of top 10 blighted properties factoring in strategic locations IN PROGRESS
4- Engage the county to facilitate the Planning Commission for another year Begin Early Summer 2017
5- Work with the DCED to begin the next round of meetings on the downtown with PA Downtown Center IN PROGRESS
6- Form a downtown working committee including JBA and other stakeholders to promote Downtown IN PROGRESS
7- Downtown committee should begin planning a one day special event in downtown for summer/fall of 2017, like an open street event IN PROGRESS
8- Hire public information officer or form a small committee to further public information strategies
9- Begin incorporating the new City logo into stationary, business cards, signs, literature, website, trucks IN PROGRESS
10- Create a community appearance working group and select one easy demonstration project to complete (i.e. plant trees along a major corridor)
--UPDATED 2017.02.24
Five Principles.
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First - Focus the plan on real, relevant, community issues.
Second - Organize the plan the way local officials and citizens think. Third - Devise practical and workable recommendations. Fourth - Recruit partners and create capacity to implement the plan. Fifth - Get local ownership of the plan and commitment to implement. |
Priority 1 - Fighting Blight:
Blight is one of Jeanette’s most far-reaching and pressing problems. It has many causes and, in turn, contributes to numerous negative consequences. Vacant and deteriorating properties, whether commercial or residential, add to an unfavorable impression of the city. They hinder economic stability or growth. They create public health and safety hazards. They attract vagrants, trespassers and law-breakers.
Deteriorated properties in some cases have owners who live outside the area. Some have owners who cannot afford improvements. Some have owners who cannot be located. This issue was the one that public meeting participants most wanted the City of Jeannette to address. The City of Jeannette plans to enact a comprehensive and aggressive plan to fight blight in all forms, in all parts of the city. This effort includes new land-use designations, new ordinances that apply to zoning and building codes, and new design guidelines to provide standards for redevelopment. The effort will apply to the city generally, but pay specific attention to the downtown, to important gateways and corridors leading into the city, and to the three major parcels owned by Westmoreland County that are slated for redevelopment. |
Strategies and Implementation Steps:
1. Create a zero-tolerance, comprehensive, intensive and vigorous plan for addressing blight in all forms throughout the community. 2. Target the downtown for blight-fighting efforts and redevelopment. 3. Target gateways and corridors for blight-fighting efforts and redevelopment. 4. Target specific large redevelopment sites such as Jeannette Glass, Monsour Hospital, and Jeannette Hospital. |
Priority 2 - Vibrant Downtown:
The downtown area of Jeannette has struggled since the mid-1900s in similar fashion to that of other northeastern U.S. cities whose economic bases were weakened with a decline in local manufacturing jobs.
Over time, businesses closed. Department stores and other shops went dark, and companies that had large offices in town no longer needed a local presence. Today, a number of buildings have been vacant or underutilized for decades. The resulting impression, which residents, officials and visitors alike find troubling, is a struggling downtown with limited assets. Of course there are bright spots: • Existing businesses include some popular restaurants and other entertainment locations, interesting specialty shops and antique stores, a few thriving retail stores and franchises that meet basic general needs of local residents. • Also present in or near downtown are community resources such as houses of worship, municipal offices, social-service non-profits and the public library. The downtown zone also includes residences. • Business owners mount events such as festivals and farm markets that draw visitors. The City of Jeannette plans to overcome the negative influence of empty storefronts, deteriorated structures and vacant lots through strategies for investment and economic development, new streetscape and placemaking improvements, and new branding, marketing and promotion. |
Strategies and Implementation Steps:
1. Create a multifaceted plan for reinvigorating downtown, working with the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. 2. Change how downtown properties are used. 3. Make it easier to set up shop or move in. 4. Spread the word about downtown. |
Priority 3 - Positive Impressions
The City of Jeannette plans to take tangible and visible steps to address an existing problem: that the city is subject to negative perceptions.
The city recognizes it must “change the narrative” about itself – alter the impression that many people now hold. The idea is to get updated facts, information and understanding about the city into the public realm so that these perspectives carry the weight they deserve. This does not minimize the work going on in other aspects of the city; in fact, the intention of the “Positive Impressions” chapter of this comprehensive plan is to acknowledge problems, but also show how they are being solved or addressed. |
Strategies and Implementation Steps:
1. Create and implement a branding strategy. 2. Improve external communications. 3. Improve media relations. 4. Enhance community engagement opportunities. |
Priority 4 - Welcoming Gateways and Corridors
Jeannette hopes to improve the first impression it presents to people coming into town. Visitors and residents alike typically arrive via a few major roads that enter and cross the city generally according to compass directions. As motorists proceed, they may or may not be able to recognize where the city begins or ends, and they are likely to encounter some instances where the visual landscape is not attractive.
The City of Jeannette plans to improve the way the community looks along these major arteries by creating welcoming gateways and attractive corridors. |
Strategies and Implementation Steps:
1. Create a community appearance group. 2. Analyze important corridors and gateways. 3. Identify improvement opportunities. 4. Create the improvement projects. 5. Create public involvement and build awareness. |
Additional Items - Zoning Initiative
An important allied element of the Retooling Jeannette Comprehensive Plan is a concurrent initiative to update the city’s zoning ordinances, use tables and zoning map.
From the outset of work on this plan, the city intended to pursue this joint approach. The city’s original request for proposals envisioned integrating the two processes, and the consulting team, city staff and community participants contributed work and ideas to both elements at the same time. This helped to ensure that the two aspects of city governance reflected common goals and intentions, and will act in support of each other. Community Development Goals and Objectives, a primary building block of zoning ordinances, align with intention and language of the comprehensive plan’s four Key Issues. |
Some Community Development Objectives include:
1. Allow for mixed uses when appropriate 2. Develop clean, attractive gateways 3. Reduce blight and spur reinvestment 4. Strengthen downtown/neighborhood connections 5. Stimulate commercial development 6. Allow for innovative and productive uses 7. ... |
Additional Items - Planning Requirements
In order for the Jeannette City Council to approve this Comprehensive Plan, the proposed plan must first be reviewed by Westmoreland County Department of Planning and Development for consistency with the County Comprehensive Plan, and the plan must meet the requirements of Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) Article III, Section 301.
Until recently, most comprehensive plans followed a formulaic methodology that aligned content with the MPC requirements. This often resulted in information silos that matched well with the letter of the Municipalities Planning Code but rarely motivated communities to improve. Now, there is a movement in Pennsylvania to develop Implementable Comprehensive Plans that are deeply rooted in an individual community’s issues and needs. We believe that this approach will lead to more plans that truly foster positive changes in our communities. The challenge is to explain how these plans, arising from integrated community issues, match up with the topics in the MPC. The following is our attempt to explain that relationship. The headings list the MPC requirements, and the accompanying text provides an explanation. |
MPC Requirements found in the Plan:
1. Statement of community development objectives 2. Plan for land use 3. Plan to meet housing needs 4. Plan for movement of people and goods 5. Plan for community facilities and utilities 6. Plan for protection of natural and historic resources 7. Plan for the reliable supply of water 8. Statement of interrelationships among various plan elements 9. Short and long-range implementation strategies 10. Statement that existing/proposed development is consistent with neighboring municipalities |
Additional Items - Other Topics
Facilitating easy access to downtown
Facilitating freight access
Facilitating freight access
Who Does What.
The Comprehensive Plan can serve as a guide in the following ways:
Citizens - Individuals may advocate for the plan and track progress by comparing the steps listed in the report to physical changes in the community and actions taken by the city. Citizens may attend public meetings where decisions are made. Citizens may take an active role by pressing for the actions and policies listed in the plan, which are designed to create change in the community. Citizens also may support and propel change by volunteering for committees or for special initiatives.
City staff members - Jeannette city employees have the responsibility of identifying successive next steps and tracking progress. They will work on a day-to-day basis to develop policies and procedures; muster resources; and assist elected and appointed officials in pushing the outcomes of the plan. Staff members are in the best position to spot obstacles to progress and propose solutions.
Appointed officials - People serving on the Planning Commission should become deeply familiar with the contents of this report. These members, along with other board and commission members, hold the responsibility of keeping they city’s “foot on the gas” for implementing the steps in the plan, anticipating what should happen next, and proposing action, and solving problems that will clear the way for progress.
Elected officials - The report documents the development of the comprehensive plan. It identifies the directions in which the City of Jeannette will change, and lays out the practical next steps that will produce the desired changes. Next steps, in most cases, rest in the hands of elected and appointed officials who have the role and responsibility of initiating new policies or procedures; providing funding via grants or city revenue streams; providing human and material resources; and lending oversight.
City staff members - Jeannette city employees have the responsibility of identifying successive next steps and tracking progress. They will work on a day-to-day basis to develop policies and procedures; muster resources; and assist elected and appointed officials in pushing the outcomes of the plan. Staff members are in the best position to spot obstacles to progress and propose solutions.
Appointed officials - People serving on the Planning Commission should become deeply familiar with the contents of this report. These members, along with other board and commission members, hold the responsibility of keeping they city’s “foot on the gas” for implementing the steps in the plan, anticipating what should happen next, and proposing action, and solving problems that will clear the way for progress.
Elected officials - The report documents the development of the comprehensive plan. It identifies the directions in which the City of Jeannette will change, and lays out the practical next steps that will produce the desired changes. Next steps, in most cases, rest in the hands of elected and appointed officials who have the role and responsibility of initiating new policies or procedures; providing funding via grants or city revenue streams; providing human and material resources; and lending oversight.