Entrepreneurial American Community Award
For taking a proactive stance in forming local and regional collaborations to address balanced growth and preservation.
When Cumberland County, a growing county in South Central Pennsylvania, set out to solve local and regional problems, they knew the answers were in creating partnerships. These partnerships have allowed the County to work regionally and across sector and governmental lines to promote new forms of cooperation and a greater sense that the future of the County, particularly its open space, is affected by and affects every person and business.
One of the major examples of successful, collaborative problem-solving is Cumberland County’s Land Partnership Program. Commissioners recognized that some of the most pressing issues facing the County were sprawling development, traffic congestion and the degradation of natural resources such as air quality and water quality. Thus, they committed to creating a program that would focus on public and private partnerships to achieve shared open space goals with a unique mix of project types revolving around open space preservation, including open space planning, ordinance updates, land acquisition and park and trail development.
This program, launched in 2006 and to be completed by September 2008, was developed and guided by a diverse group of public and private stakeholders including realtors, builders, conservation organizations and municipal governments. Such a diverse group aimed to avoid trying to employ an unsuccessful ‘one size fits all’ program. The Commissioners also recognized the importance of sound financial investment, and through creative leveraging and matching requirements, were able to obtain $1.60 of federal, state and local/private funds for every $1 of County funds. Overall, the County’s $4.6 million has leveraged over $7.4 million for 60 projects involving open space preservation, recreational activities and local planning efforts.
As a result of this program, Cumberland County has updated four municipal comprehensive plans that will result in better open space planning and decision-making at the municipal level, updated five municipal zoning ordinances, some from the 1970s, that will institutionalize open space preservation into the everyday land development process, and improved fourteen parks that will provide for the ongoing recreation needs of County residents.
The creation of this program has also changed the mindset of many of the people working on it. Traditionally, the development community had been labeled as being opposed to open space preservation. Through this process and program, the County has found that the development community can be an effective proponent of smart growth measures that enhance open space preservation. Furthermore, the County has spread the idea that open space strategy must provide for reinvestment in existing developed and urban areas. By investing in small towns and boroughs, the County has made these places more attractive places in which to live and work, thus easing development pressures on surrounding suburban and rural areas.
The Land Partnership Program is not the only successful partnership cultivated by Cumberland County. The Commissioners also had a lead role in the creation of the South Central County Commissioners Caucus representing eight counties, which then partnered with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to participate in a regional study that will prioritize funding for projects to maintain and improve the region’s quality of life as a strategy of addressing job growth concerns. Recognizing that its 33 municipalities lacked a forum to address mutual concerns, the Caucus created the Municipal Advisory Board, which meets quarterly and addresses a wide range of topics to promote collaboration between municipalities.
The reach of Cumberland County's partnerships goes far beyond its borders as well. The Caucus was concerned about traffic congestion, safety concerns and air pollution emanating from Interstate 81 and proceeded to organize the I-81 Corridor Coalition Planning Conference in September 2007 that brought federal, state, local, non-profit and private industry representatives from the Canadian border to Tennessee together to form a Coalition for addressing these problems.
The Cumberland County Commissioners have realized an important lesson, and one with which many other counties across the country struggle: there is no value in trying to solve problems by yourself when there are others that can also contribute their time, skills and efforts towards working for a common benefit. As a result of their constant encouragement of multi-partner solutions to quality of life issues, their residents are seeing infrastructure upgraded, more effective use of land, the preservation of open space and more opportunities to combine assets towards problems that affect them all.