Published: June 28, 2009 12:12 am      

Forest Hills Alliance midway in forming regional plan

SALIX — A bedroom community for Johnstown and Richland Township or a commercial industrial center, the communities making up the Forest Hills School District have the potential to be many things, a state official concludes.

Joy Wilhelm, a community planner with the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s Center for Local Government Services, thinks Summerhill, Wilmore, South Fork, Ehrenfeld boroughs and Croyle, Summerhill and Adams townships can have the best of both worlds.

Preliminary results of a comprehensive plan now being developed for the members of the Forest Hills Regional Alliance show Wilhelm some of the greatest advantages of the region are its land mass and transportation systems.

“You’re a large region. You can be a bedroom community and you can still have industrial and commercial development,” she told municipal representatives in the alliance.

“The fact you have a rail line is a pretty powerful tool, and you have Route 219.”

The alliance was formed in 2005 by the seven townships and boroughs working to restrain growing costs while continuing to provide services for their residents.

An extensive study of police services stopped short of a consolidated police department, but South Fork Borough and Croyle Township have reached an agreement to share services.

The alliance is also looking at joint purchases of health care and materials.

Wilhelm, the state’s liaison overseeing development of the plan, views Route 219 through or along many municipalities in the alliance as a significant factor for future growth. But she is particularly taken with the rail spur running through the area to Windber and the far reaching service area of the Forest Hills Municipal Authority.

The plan, midway in development, is a vital element if the alliance wants to be recognized by the state as a significant player in growth and development in Cambria County, said David Knepper, an Adams Township resident and executive director of the organization.

“We become more efficient when we do things together,” Knepper said. “A comprehensive plan shows forward thinking. It shows needs that have to be addressed in five or 10 years. It forces us to look down the road to challenges we have to face.”

A comprehensive plan is the first thing the state officials look for when communities seek funding, Wilhelm said.

The $118,000 project is being funded largely by the state with money from DCED, the state Department of Environmental Protection and PennDOT.

While a minor part of the funding is local, the municipalities have kicked in a total of $11,000, with a breakdown based on population, an important part of the process, Knepper said.

“The fact that the municipalities had to contribute to the effort means they have made an investment,” he said.

EADS Group’s Rick Trucella and Mark Lazzeri are compiling information and GIS maps going into the plan.

When completed later this year it will touch on: Transportation, natural resources, land use regulations, economic development, housing and recreation.

The plan shows that nearly one half of all active land use in the Forest Hills region is in agriculture, a fact that may surprise many, Trucella said.

The maps show very few white areas, those places suitable for residential and commercial/industrial development, something that will be outlined in the plan.

“We really have a task ahead of us to find room for some development,” Trucella said.

Each municipality sends a representative to the monthly alliance meetings and each has provided information for the plan.

Wilhelm said each also has to adopt resolutions accepting the plan at year’s end before it can be submitted to the state.

Afterward, Knepper hopes to use it as a strategic tool as the Forest Hills region seeks to grow and prosper.

“I hope it doesn’t just sit on the shelf, it is a working document,” Knepper said.