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Springettsbury reviews draft 2025 comprehensive plan, highlights Galleria Mall rezoning and housing, transportation priorities
Summary
Planner Marion Hall presented the draft 2025 Springettsbury Township comprehensive plan at a public hearing, recommending targeted zoning updates, Galleria Mall rezoning for mixed use (15–20 units/acre in the mall area), transportation priorities and continued community engagement; one resident urged closer coordination with PennDOT on the long I‑83 project.
Marion Hall, the planner leading the draft 2025 comprehensive plan, presented the township's findings and recommendations at a public hearing before the Springettsbury Township Board of Supervisors. The plan calls for targeted zoning and implementation steps to support infill redevelopment, protect rural areas and expand housing options.
Hall summarized outreach and technical work behind the draft, saying the process included a summer 2023 survey ("We got about 200 responses, to that survey"), a September 2023 workshop, stakeholder interviews, steering-committee reviews and planning-commission review. The 45-day public review period and coordination with adjacent municipalities, the York County Planning Commission and the school districts have already taken place, she said.
The plan's land-use recommendations focus on reusing underutilized properties rather than adding new growth areas. Hall singled out the Galleria Mall area as a priority site and recommended rezoning it to allow mixed-use redevelopment and to support new senior-housing options including 55-plus multifamily or continuing-care retirement communities. The draft sets a general maximum multifamily density of 15 units per acre, and the plan recommends considering up to 20 units per acre in the Galleria area to incentivize redevelopment.
On the town-center overlay, Hall proposed several changes to ease reinvestment: allow modest in-place changes by right with a subset of design standards, reduce master-planning triggers for parcels of three acres or less, and consider renaming the overlay the "commercial center overlay" to avoid confusion. Hall said these changes aim to preserve the ordinance tools that have worked while removing barriers to smaller-scale updates.
Transportation recommendations emphasize coordination with PennDOT and York County and include updating the township's street-classification map to align with the 2019 transportation plan, pursuing traffic calming and "complete streets" planning to qualify for federal funding, and prioritizing safety and capacity improvements at several intersections (Mount Zion/Druck Valley, East Market/Vernon, Route 24 intersections). Hall also recommended improving pedestrian, bicycle and trail connections to the Heritage Rail Trail and addressing bus-stop amenities in coordination with Rabbit Transit.
On community facilities and natural resources, the draft recommends updating the recreation, parks and open-space plan, protecting designated rural and agricultural areas, implementing stream and wetland protections to help meet Chesapeake Bay water requirements, and engaging the historic resource commission on local preservation measures.
No formal adoption vote was taken at the hearing. Hall outlined the adoption path: after incorporation of any public feedback from this hearing, and provided there are no major changes, the board of supervisors could adopt the plan at a future meeting. Hall said zoning and subdivision ordinance updates to implement the plan remain a separate but linked step.
In public comment, Glenn Young of Springettsbury Township (3421 Stone Ridge Road) told the board the I‑83 widening is a long and complicated project that will affect local traffic and land use for years. "It's almost like a 10 year project," Young said, urging the township to coordinate closely with PennDOT and plan proactively for changing conditions.
The hearing closed after board members praised the presentation and asked clarifying questions about how the plan accounts for regional transportation changes. The board adjourned without taking a vote.
