Subdivision and Land Development Guidelines

From 2004 to 2007 the PHRC, with the assistance of the Land Development Consortium, wrote the Pennsylvania Standards for Residential Site Development. The original objective of this project was to:

• develop residential site development guidelines for Pennsylvania to assist municipalities in updating current development standards, and
• promote responsible and affordable development in Pennsylvania.

The underlying goals of this project were to provide side development guidelines that:

• are based on current knowledge and science;
• can be easily understood and implemented by municipalities;
• are supported by key regulatory agencies, environmental organizations, and design professionals;
• optimize life cycle costs considering initial costs and maintenance;
• embrace low impact, sustainable development methodologies;
• reduce the standards inconsistency that currently exists; and
• improve the opportunities for non-vehicular movements within subdivisions for mobility, and pedestrian health and safety reasons.

The Pennsylvania Standards for Residential Site Design were finalized and published in April 2007. This set of consensus standards allows for up-to-date design innovations, and provides flexibility needed for sustainable land development.

Update of the Pennsylvania Subdivision and Land Development Guidelines

The original document was published in April 2007, and starting in late 2011, the PHRC began undertaking a project to update relevant content and modify the format to make it more accessible to a wider range of audiences.

The chapters of the document will be separated into individual booklets, a series of Guidelines for Subdivision and Land Development, allowing readers to focus on the topics of interest and the PHRC to more easily update relevant material as needed.

Please note that this page is under construction and the content is in the process of being updated. Each booklet will be noted with the current date of publication. April 2007 is the original publication date.

Executive Summary (January 2012 Draft)
Booklet 1: Site Design Considerations (April 2007)
Booklet 2: Street (April 2007)
Booklet 3: Pedestrian and Bicycle Circulation (April 2007)
Booklet 4: Parking (April 2007)
Booklet 5: Stormwater Conveyance and Management Facilities (April 2007)
Booklet 6: Wastewater Facilities (April 2007)
Booklet 7: Potable Water Supply (April 2007)
Booklet 8: Other Utilities (April 2007)

Printing Directions: The documents are formatted for double-sided printing in "landscape" orientation. For double-sided printing, set your printer duplex settings to "short-edge binding," "flip to short edge," or "head to head."

Please inform us of any comments or questions you might have about the revisions to the document by using the survey form found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PHRCResidentialStandards. Please make sure to include the booklet, page, and section number your comment is referencing. If you have any questions about accessing the document or survey please contact Katie Blansett at 814-863-2990 or kblansett@engr.psu.edu.