Chester County Planning Commission Announces Round 2 VPP Recipients
Posted December 15, 2021
Congratulations to the county's Vision Partnership Program (VPP) Round 2 award recipients for the 2021 program, including five cash grants to the municipalities of: Kennett Township, Kennett Square Borough, East Marlborough Township, West Vincent Township, Penn Township, London Britain Township, Franklin Township, Elk Township, and New Garden Township. Three of the five awards were for multi-municipal projects, representing a great collaborative regional planning effort!
Kennett Township, Kennett Square Borough, and East Marlborough Township were awarded a VPP cash grant to develop the Kennett Area — Longwood Gardens Connector Trail Feasibility Study. The study will identify feasible bicycle and/or pedestrian facilities to connect the Kennett area to Longwood Gardens, timing well with Longwood's master plan undertaking. This project stems from the results of the Southern Chester County Circuit Trail Feasibility Study (completed by CCPC in 2021), which served to better refine and determine the feasibility of constructing community connections in southern Chester County.
In West Vincent, the township was awarded a VPP cash grant to enact Woodlands Protection Ordinances, including Zoning and Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance amendments to enhance protection of critical forest resources within the Hopewell Big Woods and its environmentally-sensitive watersheds.
Penn Township's VPP grant will allow them to update their Comprehensive Plan (2012) to better align the township plan with Landscapes3, incorporate recommendations from their Act 209 Transportation Impact Fee Study, consider zoning changes from 2019, and account for significant growth and development over the last decade.
The townships of London Britain, Franklin, Elk, and New Garden received a VPP cash grant to prepare a plan that will promote thematic and physical heritage sites within the Mason-Dixon Planning area through the Mason-Dixon Line/Arc Corner Heritage Interpretation and Connectivity Plan.
London Grove, New Garden, Londonderry, and Kennett Townships were awarded a VPP grant to examine the community's preferred improvements to Route 41, which will be summarized in a Route 41 Corridor Improvement Study. The project would begin with a regional visioning process, followed by identifying and addressing traffic and safety issues to help the communities achieve their vision.
The first round of the 2021 program awarded three cash grants to eight municipalities, including the development of a Clean Energy Transition Plan for multiple townships in the Phoenixville area, an update of the Unionville Area Regional Comprehensive Plan, and development of a study on the economic benefits of rail restoration to West Chester.
The VPP is a grant available to Chester County municipalities and multi-municipal groups seeking to improve their planning programs while achieving consistency with and implementation of the goals, objectives, recommendations, and map of Landscapes3.
We congratulate all of the 2021 award recipients, and look forward to seeing the outcome of these projects. Learn more about the VPP and stay tuned for the next round opening in 2022!