Lancaster County officials map rapid housing growth, wastewater capacity and impact-fee study

Allison Harden, Lancaster County development services director, told a joint meeting of Lancaster County and the City of Lancaster that as of Jan. 31, 2025 the county had "approximately 53,942 tax parcels" and "several thousand tracts already approved for development," concentrated in the southern part of the county.

Harden said the county and city face pressure from incoming residents and national homebuilders and cited a prior projection that estimated Lancaster County could reach 130,000–160,000 people by 2035; the county's most recent census-based count is just over 100,000. "We are drawing people and they're coming," Harden said, noting the county must decide where growth will locate and how infrastructure and services will serve new residents.

The county highlighted a series of large planned developments inside and adjacent to the city, including Edgewater (described as about 15,000 units on the south-to-west side of the county in the presentation), Rosegate (approximately 76 lots, nearly built out), Baselton by Arrowood (platted for 357 lots, 38 homes built), Granite Falls (278 lots, construction expected in spring 2026), Scarlet Grove (321 lots), Red Rose Village (about 238 units, 62 townhomes), and a large former Spring property along Airport Road planned for about 1,084 units with roughly 14 acres set aside for commercial use.

City and county staff tied annexation and where the city can extend services to the availability of water and sewer. A county presenter said the city's wastewater treatment plant currently averages about 2,500,000 gallons per day with a permitted permanent capacity of 7,500,000 gallons per day and that the county has obtained a permit increase and is investing more than $12 million to optimize the plant and "squeeze more life out of the plant." Speakers described a planned Walden Sewer District boundary that will determine which areas are served by that district while still routing some flows through the city's plant.

City officials said the city is trying to encourage a housing mix that includes attainable/workforce housing at price points for 60%, 40% and 20% of area median income, and warned that market prices for many new subdivisions are clustering in the mid- to upper-range (examples cited: homes near $580,000 in Battleton and about $300k–$400k in Granite Falls). "We're trying to fill that need for the 60%, 40 and 20% area median household income," the presenter said.

On capital funding, the City of Lancaster said it is investigating impact fees and has contracted TischlerBise (named in the meeting as the study firm) to prepare an impact-fee study; the planning commission has received that work and the city is drafting an ordinance. The city cautioned that fees must be balanced so they do not halt development or prevent attainable-housing projects.

Why this matters: county and city officials said growth will shape where residences, commercial services and industrial employers locate, will increase demand for roads, sewer and public safety, and will require new capital investments. Both sides emphasized coordination on annexation, service boundaries and infrastructure funding to manage the coming buildout of residential tracts.

Clarifying details from the meeting: the county cited roughly a 41.2% recent growth rate countywide (presentation figure); the city reported roughly 2,780 potential residential units inside the city already proposed or platted; the timeline for some subdivisions put vertical construction as soon as spring 2026 for parts of Granite Falls.

Ending: Both councils agreed to continue intergovernmental dialogue; county and city staff said they would follow up with maps of roads and development and that the city is moving forward with the impact-fee study to address capital costs tied to growth.