Cultivating Crawford: An Implementable Comprehensive Plan
Crawford County, PA
The comprehensive plan for Crawford County focused on six real, relevant issues: land use, housing, commerce & economic development, agriculture, transportation and recreation.
In a county that values both an economic base and cultural landscape rooted in agriculture and manufacturing, a comprehensive plan needed to encompass the past and present to provide guidance for future decision-making.
An important element of each key component of the plan was the impact of the emerging natural gas extraction industry. The comprehensive plan incorporated data, research findings and leading-edge understanding of how gas industry activities factor into many aspects of community life. It was important to us to balance, in the county’s plan, many ways to value and capitalize on an influx of gas industry activities with an understanding of potential stresses on transportation networks, housing and land use.
The comprehensive plan, which is a long-term roadmap for implementing the county’s vision for the future, incorporated understanding of the shale-gas industry in order to anticipate community needs during a potential high-growth period – but also during a future cyclical downturn.
