Contacted after Monday’s Planning Commission meeting, Planning Director John Whitmore gave his thoughts about the proposed new zoning plan.
Detailed information about the new plan including the proposed new document and map can be found on the borough’s website here.
“The development of property within the Borough is planned in accordance with the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC),” he said. “The proposed ordinance is intended to optimize development within the borough, by by agglomerating or clustering similar land uses.
“The regulatory basis for zoning ensures that incompatible land uses are not intermixed and allows property owners to forecast future development. Communities that lack proper zoning risk their historic property’s future preservation, appropriate land and environmental conservation, and do not fully incentivize redevelopment of underutilized or blighted properties,” he said.
Whitmore said the prior plan had major flaws that made planning and enforcement difficult.
Whitmore noted that although zoning focuses more on development goals than on preservation goals, he hoped the new plan would incorporate both. “HARB will keep things looking historic. We’re encouraging HARB to be more involved,” he said. “It’s not going to radically change the borough.”
Whitmore said the proposed new plan followed the Central Adams Joint Comprehensive Plan which makes recommendations for zoning in the borough as well as neighboring townships including Cumberland, Straban, and Mt Joy.
“The comprehensive plan is more than just a document,” he said. “It lays out ideas for how to plan for growth and land use in a 20-to-50-year time frame. We’re trying to make clear what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”
“Most of the core commercial areas are currently in the historic district, but we want to encourage additional business opportunities. And we need additional housing,” he said.
Proposed Zoning Changes
The new plan is anchored by the Old Town (OT) central business district which focuses on commercial enterprises and pedestrian traffic. This area is reduced in size in comparison to the existing Old Town District.
The Elm St. Overlay is disappearing, but Whitmore said the new plan does many of the same things the old Elm St Overlay was doing. “There are changes to the edges. The nuts and bolts are not changing in Elm St.”
The new 9 acre Revitalization District (R), north of Old Town along Carlisle St. would allow currently underutilized areas to have additional density. The maximum building heights in this district would be increased to 72 feet, to be determined by offsets provided by the builder. This approach is already being used for the new Railroad Station Project.
Whitmore said whether the taller heights would apply to the whole district or only east of Carlisle St. was still to be determined and that he could see a handful of mixed-use buildings in this area. “The Gettysburg Hotel is 6 stories. It’s a big building. These are not going to be urban high-rise or even mid-rise buildings,” he said.
Three new districts are the Low Impact Neighborhood Commercial (NC-1) south of Lincoln Square, the Historical Corridor Neighborhood Commercial (NC-2) along Baltimore St. and Neighborhood Commercial (NC-3) on Chambersburg and York Streets.
The existing General Commercial District (C-1) which allows commercial activities including automotive (buses for instance), will be kept and applied to Steinwehr Ave.
“The goal is to make development easier along Baltimore St. and Steinwehr Avenue,” said Whitmore. “We want to make it easier for community development and more enticing for local mom and pop businesses. We hope to improve buildings and provide more opportunities for residential development. We’re trying to get rid of the hurdles.”
The old institutional district would now be divided into two new districts: Civic Institution (C1) which includes the rec park and the battlefield, Institution (INS-1) which includes the Gettysburg College Campus and the public schools around Lefever St., and Healthcare (HC) which includes the Gettysburg Hospital.
Whitmore said the proposed zoning plan includes:
- Opportunities for additional housing, particularly encouraging currently-missing “middle housing” of mixed-use and multi-family structures.
- Encouraging less development of off-street parking with fewer parking mandates and designs that incorporate parking into the structure itself.
- Encouraging design that meets human and natural resource goals including green spaces, alternative forms of transportation, bike trails, and walking areas.
- Separating areas with truck traffic and associated noxious odors from the residential areas.
- Recreational opportunities.
Whitmore said the committee did not explicitly consider the tax implications of the plan, but did ask basic financial questions: Who’s paying? Are the expenses beneficial to the community? Does it make sense for property owners and the borough? How long will it last? “Having a mix of uses really benefits the tax base,” he said.
“We have a general declining economic environment – we need to allow for housing development,” said Whitmore.
Glad I got to know Gettysburg when it was nice. That’s soon to end apparently. We moved to the area, buying a place built back in 1925 on land from a William Penn deed with some of the original foundation still visible, because we loved the rural area. Now with all the new building going on turning this into a Nova or Bethesda type of place I suspect in a few years we’ll move on. We prefer rural charm with farmland and villages, not metropolitan with its traffic, crowds, and noise, etc.
I read this article with astonishment. Mr. Whitmore and others are saying the borough must add 600 apartment units in order to be “viable.” And so it is proceeding with rezoning a “revitalization” district just north of Lincoln Square even though the streets cannot handle the traffic they are going to create, unless there is some new bypass highway being built just north of the borough that I haven’t heard about. The new planning director says that zoning is about development, not preservation and that HARB will keep things looking historic. Then HARB must be an acronym for Miracle Worker because HARB cannot make modern seven story buildings look historic in a borough where four story buildings are the maximum height. He also says the Gettysburg Hotel is six stories and that it’s a big building. IT IS ONE BUILDING AND IT IS ON LINCOLN SQUARE!!! And it is the only one that tall! It is NOT blocks of buildings spread throughout the northern blocks just off Lincoln Square!!! He says “It’s not going to radically change the borough.” That is blatantly and obviously NOT true. You will also note that he says not one word about the impact this will have on traffic and infrastructure. Not one word. It’s as if they think they can just build, build, build and everything will be wonderful but it will not. It may get the borough what they are really after – more money from taxes – but it will destroy not only the historic look and appeal of Gettysburg but the economic engine that drives this borough: tourism.
The Station Project just next door to their new “revitalization” district in an area they rezoned in 2018 by one vote against massive public opposition, is 186 apartments in 3 buildings, one 7 stories tall, and 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The initial traffic estimates to be generated by this development is for 1756 more vehicle trips per day – just half a block from Lincoln Square. (Six months and we are still waiting for PennDot traffic study numbers.) So now the borough wants to expand construction of 72′ tall buildings in a large swath of land between Carlisle Street and North Washington Street. You will see the Main Street organization is tickled pink and supportive of the Station Project but outraged over the proposed warehouses at Crosskeys 2400 additional vehicle trips per day 12 miles away which would go in many directions, including through Lincoln Square in Gettysburg. Why aren’t they outraged over the Station Project and its 1756 daily trips half a block from Lincoln Square? The vast majority of those 1756 daily vehicle trips are NOT going north but south via Stratton, Carlisle and North Washington Streets directly to York and Chambersburg Streets and Lincoln Square.
Mr. Whitmore claims “we need additional housing.” What does that mean? Where is the proof for this statement? The 500 additional apartments by Giant – not enough? The townouses to be built near Rock Creek at the end of Middle Street? Table Rock Road condos? All of the other development going on all around Gettysburg? Critically, not one word about traffic and infrastructure impacts from these 600 units. The truth is he doesn’t mean we “need additional housing.” The truth is the borough needs more income from taxes. So why not just say that? And why is there such a large budget deficit? Bad management? That’s another story altogether and that is the real engine driving this development train.