This chapter shall be known as and may be cited as the "Borough of Steelton Zoning Ordinance."
This chapter is enacted and ordained under the grant of powers by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Act 247, The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, July 31, 1968, as amended ("MPC").[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 10101 et seq.
This chapter is enacted for the following purposes:
A. 
To promote, protect and facilitate one or more of the following: the orderly and efficient integration of land development within the Borough, the public health, safety, morals, general welfare, coordinated and practical community development, proper density of population, civil defense, disaster evacuation, the provision of adequate light and air, police protection, vehicle parking and loading space, transportation, water, water resources and drainage ways, sewerage, schools, public grounds and other public requirements, including adequate sites for recreation, conservation, scenic and other open space purposes as well as;
B. 
To prevent one or more of the following: overcrowding of land, blight, danger and congestion in travel and transportation, loss of health, life or property from fire, flood, panic or other dangers. This chapter is made in accordance with an overall program, and with consideration for the character of the municipality, its various parts, and the suitability of the various parts for particular uses and structures.
C. 
To implement the purposes and objectives of the Borough of Steelton, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Comprehensive Plan 2002 or such portions of the Comprehensive Plan as may be applicable to this chapter.
The community development objectives are as follows:
A. 
To provide an overall agreed-upon framework of policy against which individual proposals can be evaluated by the legislative body of the community.
B. 
To provide a framework within which physical planning for needed facilities can be accomplished.
C. 
To establish long-range development responsibilities and policies to which individual property owners, businessmen and industrialists can prepare and coordinate their plans for development.
D. 
To establish a consensus about long-term growth potentials, objectives and priorities so that the community undertakes development projects based upon logic, relief coordination and economy.
The social objectives are as follows.
A. 
Social planning. To develop a mechanism for social planning in the community for coordination effort, avoiding duplication and more adequately meeting unmet or partially met needs of the community.
B. 
Health and environmental sanitation. To provide and make available to all members of the community the best health care and environmental sanitation possible. To support local, county and state agencies in overall health planning and development of preventative health programs. Enforce all ordinances in such areas as air and water pollution.
C. 
Housing. To provide decent housing for every member the community in order to meet their physical and psychological needs. To provide adequate enforcement of all codes and ordinances, which will insure the health, safety and welfare of residents of the Borough. To develop residential opportunities which are flexible and open, permitting a mixture of people in all areas. To encourage housing and land development procedures which permit improvement and experimentation in housing types, construction, lot sizes, open space and community facilities.
D. 
Recreation. To enhance and enrich the lives of members of the community by providing the means for a more stimulating and rewarding use of increasing leisure time. To provide that recreational facilities, such as playgrounds and parks, are to be improved and expanded. To reserve sites for active and passive recreation in areas of potential urbanization.
The community relies on the economy of the surrounding region for employment opportunities, commercial development, and industrial growth. Thus, the Borough will continue to be a "bedroom community" and be located near both commercial and employment centers.
A. 
Personal. The community should be based on an economy capable of assuring employment opportunities and a rising standard of living. Increase labor productivity through such measures as retraining and general adult education, improving vocation technical education for prospective entrants to the labor force and implement retention programs for prospective school dropouts. Support and assist in all projects, which will contribute to the alleviation of unemployment and underemployment and the raising of incomes.
B. 
Commercial. To encourage new commercial development, which will take the form of unified and concentrated centers. To provide varied sites suitable for a variety of outlets. To plan for a minimum conflict with other area activities. To effectively use and develop old commercial centers that are important to the area's economy.
C. 
Industrial. To develop a physical framework which is conducive to the retention of existing industries and the attraction of new economic activities in the Borough. To provide space for industry which is free from residential and other nonresidential land use intrusions. To seek the minimization of industrial blight and blight effects of industries on their neighbors.
A. 
Land use. To establish a land use pattern which provides the maximum opportunity for meeting human needs while complementing the distinctive features of the natural environment. Adopt and enforce effective land use controls. To support and assist the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission in promoting the orderly physical development of Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry County areas. To coordinate and interrelate local planning to the plans of the tri-county area.
B. 
Transportation. To develop a community-wide circulation system for serving existing and anticipated future land use, providing maximum convenience of movement to the population and shaping the extent and direction of community growth. To design the local street system to discourage through traffic in residential neighborhoods. To support the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in the planning and design of major thoroughfares. To encourage the growth of public transportation in urban areas.
C. 
Aesthetic. To conserve and develop those natural resources upon which the future well-being and, indeed, the existence of the community are dependent and take immediate steps to prevent either depletion or pollution of these resources. To place all utilities underground whenever feasible. To enforce local ordinances prohibiting trash burning.
D. 
Utilities. To develop a maximum relationship between the development of land and the provisions of adequate public facilities. To expand water service to adequately serve all deficient or potential growth areas. To provide that the county should assume responsibility for solid wastes disposal and create an office or department of solid waste management. To reserve land for future facilities and utility rights-of-way.
E. 
Floodplain management. To adopt and enforce effective land use controls in areas subject to flooding in order prevent the loss of property and life, the creation of health safety hazards, the disruptions of commerce and governmental services, the extraordinary and unnecessary expenditure of public funds for flood protection and relief and the impairment of the tax base by:
(1) 
Regulating uses, activities, and development which, alone or in combination with other existing or future uses, activities, and development, will cause unacceptable increases in flood heights, velocities and frequencies;
(2) 
Restricting or prohibiting certain uses, activities, development from locating within areas subject to flooding;
(3) 
Requiring all those uses, activities, and developments that do occur in flood-prone areas to be protected and/or floodproofed against flooding and flood damage; and
(4) 
Protecting individuals from buying land and structures which are unsuited for intended purposes because of flood hazards.