Planning staff updates comprehensive plan progress; commission discusses vacancies and upcoming land-development reviews

Planning staff updated the Lancaster City Planning Commission on the status of the city's comprehensive plan, upcoming zoning updates and commission membership, and briefed the public on other recent land-development filings.

Why it matters: The comprehensive plan guides long-range policy and gives the planning commission a nonbinding policy framework for reviewing individual land-development proposals. Changes to zoning, commission membership and pending projects will shape how the city evaluates upcoming proposals.

Lauren Logan, planning staff, told the commission the comprehensive plan contains 79 action items: eight items are in implementation, eight are ongoing, 12 are in planning, 20 are actively in progress and two are complete. Logan said staff is building a dashboard to provide more detailed project tracking and will circulate materials to commissioners.

Logan and Betsy also described the commission's current membership status: the commission normally has nine regular members and up to three alternates; at the meeting it was operating with seven commissioners and two alternates. Logan said Commissioner Shirk is expected to be reappointed, and the commission nominated Theodore Griffiths to replace Steve Hackett; both nominations were to be presented to City Council on Oct. 6.

Logan said several seats representing geographic regions are being actively recruited, including Region 4 (vacant since last December) and the seat for Commissioner Ortega Brown, who is not seeking reappointment. Commissioners discussed the potential impact of upcoming city elections on membership, including Commissioner Stoltzfus's campaign for City Council.

On bylaws, staff said revisions will be routed to the city solicitor as needed and that the commission expects to pursue a comprehensive bylaws update in early 2026 when new members and training can be coordinated.

In staff's land-development report, Betsy confirmed additional active proposals: a new land-development application from Saka for an apartment project on South Duke Street; a Phase 2 submission for 216 Greenfield Road (discussed separately); and three projects nearing recording and construction — a Sheetz site, a Thaddeus Stevens project at 623 Stevens Avenue and an associated student housing/dorm plan. Betsy said the city's consultant, CS Davidson, performs technical reviews on a retainer-like schedule and that all plans are routed to multiple city bureaus before commission consideration.

Commissioners asked for clarification on the number of regions and alternates; staff confirmed there are six geographic regions plus three at-large members for a nine-member commission with up to three alternate slots. Logan encouraged residents interested in vacancies to apply with a resume and contact staff for details. The commission said outreach (including social media notices) has been used and will continue.

Ending: The commission received the report and scheduled administrative follow-ups; the meeting adjourned by voice vote at the close of the agenda.