City of Lancaster, PA

Comprehensive Plan

A neighborhood is the unit by which city life is organized. Neighborhoods foster our sense of belonging, and help to create our collective identity. All of Lancaster’s residents deserve the chance to succeed and thrive – not in spite of their surroundings, but because of them. We aim to create stable, supportive, and equitable neighborhoods across Lancaster City where all residents have the same access to social capital, safe housing, green spaces, economic opportunity, and essential public services.

Economic Opportunity centers around the ability of current and future Lancaster City residents to earn incomes and build assets that allow them to live safe, healthy, fulfilling lives. This also means prioritizing those who have not historically enjoyed prosperity. Economic Opportunity includes strategies to grow the local economy and support business needs while also prioritizing the triple-bottom line: Economy, Equity and Environment. True prosperity does not come at the expense of people and the planet but because of their success.

Connections – both physical and social – are the foundation of a strong community. They shape human experience and improve quality of life in tangible and intangible ways, allowing residents and visitors to access jobs, services, and educational needs, while also building a sense of community through formal and spontaneous opportunities for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to interact in shared spaces.

Green systems include natural resources, parks and open spaces, sustainable buildings and infrastructure systems, and efforts to address climate change. Together, these elements work in concert to limit greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste, and otherwise improve urban sustainability. Green systems are essential to urban sustainability and quality of life, providing many environmental, economic, health and social benefits for residents.

A neighborhood is not based solely on its physical features; a community is a collection of individuals with diverse characteristics that share experiences, create common ties, and engage in joint actions to ensure their collective prosperity. They ultimately shape the physical environment, and are shaped by the physical environment. High quality community health, safety, and welfare are cornerstones that must be provided so that residents can take greater control of their lives and guide City decisions through civic leadership.

This chapter in the Comprehensive Plan focuses on the Conestoga River corridor and Riverfront lands as immense resources that can contribute, in unique ways, to the community quality of life and special identity of the City and metro region.

Land use policies guide how we use land. They shape the form and character of cities and neighborhoods and can affect people’s access to housing, jobs, schools, open space, transportation, and more. Local governments are the primary entities for creating and implementing land use policies.