A chapter supplementing Chapter 450, Zoning, and Chapter 400, Subdivision and Land Development, of the Code of the Township of Spring, in order to implement in the Township the purposes and intent of planned residential development as defined and authorized by the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (Act 247 of 1968, as amended by Act 93 of 1972)[1] and establishing qualifications, procedures and standards for such development.
[1]
Editor's Note: See P.S. § 10101 et seq.
This chapter shall be known, and may be cited as "The Township of Spring Planned Residential Development Ordinance of 1987."
The Township of Spring desires to take full advantage of modern design, construction, technology and planning methods and thus seeks to permit planned residential development, under certain conditions meeting certain design standards of the Municipality. In order to ensure sound comprehensive planning for the potential use of the land within the piecemeal and unrelated development of large tracts of land within the municipality, this chapter is established. This chapter is intended to achieve, among others, the following purposes and objectives:
A. 
To provide an optional approach to community development with provisions to permit more efficient use of land and of public services on other than a lot-by-lot basis.
B. 
To further the objectives of the Township's Comprehensive Plan approved by the Planning Commission and adopted by the Board of Supervisors.
C. 
To encourage innovations in residential development so that the growing demand for housing may be met by greater variety in type, design and layout of dwellings and by the conservation and more efficient use of open space ancillary to said dwellings.
D. 
To encourage a more efficient use of land and public services and to reflect changes in the technology of land development so that the economics so secured may be for the benefit of those who need homes and housings.
E. 
To encourage more flexible land development which will respect and conserve natural resources such as streams, lakes, floodplains, groundwater, wooded areas, steeply-sloped areas and areas of unusual beauty or importance to the natural ecosystem.
F. 
And, in aid of these purposes, to provide a procedure which can relate the type, design and layout of residential development to the particular site and the particular demand for housing existing at the time of development in a manner consistent with the preservation of the property values within existing residential areas, and to assure that the increased flexibility of regulations over land development established hereby is carried out pursuant to sound, expeditious and fair administrative standards and procedures.