Our final round of places2040 workshops focused on Creating Great Places – enhancing quality of life and ensuring that Lancaster County is full of places where we’re proud to live, work, learn, play, and visit. In this series, we looked at ways to increase housing choice and do placemaking. We considered how we can maintain the special places in our community and transform ordinary places into extraordinary ones.

 Topic 1 – Housing Choice

Regulatory barriers often discourage the development of higher density dwellings like apartments, condos, and townhomes. Yet, there’s a strong demand for these types of dwellings in the county’s housing market. Identifying barriers and developing solutions to these barriers is necessary to ensure a mixture of housing types can be built.

The purpose of this analysis was to show us: 1) where different types of housing units exist in Lancaster County, 2) how costs of living impact housing affordability, and 3) where it may be appropriate to develop new semi-detached, townhouse, and multi-family types of housing. 

Workshop Materials

Topic 2 – Placemaking

When we create great places, we make it easier to achieve many of our other goals. Places where people want to live are places that people want to visit – and where businesses want to be. Our goal is not just to celebrate the special places in our community, but to transform ordinary places into extraordinary ones.

For this topic, we explain what we mean by a “great place” and “placemaking”, point out some locations in certain areas that could benefit from placemaking, and discuss what it would take to make them better.

Workshop Materials

Methodology & Meeting Recordings

• Creating Great Places Methodology
•  East (11/4/2021)
•  Metro (10/28/2021)
•  Northeast (11/9/2021)
•  Northwest (10/26/2021)
•  South & West (11/10/2021)