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Lancaster County planners offer simplified‑zoning tools and housing definitions to help Columbia update its ordinance
Summary
Lancaster County planning staff told Columbia’s planning commission that Phase 1 of a simplified‑zoning initiative is complete, offering bulk regulations, standardized district templates and housing definitions to help municipalities reduce redundant districts and speed ordinance updates.
Glenn Newell, senior planner with the Lancaster County Planning Department, told Columbia’s Planning Commission Feb. 17 that the county has completed Phase 1 of a simplified‑zoning project and published a set of resource documents and a "how‑to" guide on the county website.
The county’s goal is to help municipalities simplify zoning by reducing the number of district categories, standardizing district purpose statements and offering a suite of bulk regulations that municipalities can adapt. "We created individual documents... so we have a how to use them kind of thing," Newell said, describing resources meant to be adapted rather than copied wholesale.
Why it matters: Lancaster County contains dozens of municipalities with hundreds of different zoning districts; county staff say consolidating districts and adopting consistent definitions can speed reviews, reduce redundant regulations and make it easier to implement comprehensive‑plan goals.
Newell said the county also prepared a housing definitions package (roughly 18 pages of recommended language) and is testing an impact‑based approach to permitted land uses that focuses on regulating impacts (noise, size, loading requirements) rather than enumerating every possible land‑use term. The county cited pilot projects (Sunbury — zoning analysis; Johnsonburg — blight inventory; Beaver Falls — funding plan) as lessons that informed the resource package.
The county cautioned that staff capacity is limited and that the county cannot provide ongoing, monthly drafting support for every municipality; instead, the county will offer occasional feedback and encourage municipalities to tap outside resources for major ordinance rewrites. Newell encouraged Columbia to review the September 2025 revised documents available on the county website and to consider a targeted zoning analysis as an initial step.
Next steps: The planning commission agreed to review county materials and consider a zoning‑analysis scope as part of the DCED technical‑assistance conversation. Lancaster County staff offered to provide occasional feedback as Columbia prepares scopes for council review.
