I am an elected Township Supervisor (1 of 5 total) and we hired a professional Planning/Engineering firm to conduct the surveys, guide the Township through the legally required steps to create a Comp Plan and to write the plan for us. I went to the first public update meeting last night held in Kidder Township on the new Township Comprehensive Plan being developed. This meeting was to give the results from the first surveys done about the township as part of the year long process to get a new Comp Plan in place so that a new Subdivision and Land Ordinance as well as Zoning Law could be generated and enacted to follow that plan.
The last time Kidder's Comp Plan was revised was in 1986 and a lot of the demographic and infrastructure makeup of the Township has changed since then. This new Plan will give us the vision for the township over the next 10 to 20 years and set the stage for the requirements found in a new Zoning Ordinance and the specifications found in the new SALDO.
The survey had an impressive 31% response rate so the findings have statistical significance. While some of the results to date were not startling to those who follow the Township and attend its public meetings, they are still interesting. Kidder Township has over 4000 property owners but only a little over 1100 residents in a land area of about 38 square miles with 3.5 miles of Township roads. The roads here are state roads, Interstate highways or in private developments. The survey results were tabulated by non resident property owner and residents. Naturally, residents see things from a day to day living viewpoint and that prioritizes their thinking differently as compared to the non-resident property owner.
As some examples, 57% of residents see the need for additional traffic lights (we have 2 at the moment), only 32% of the non-resident property owners felt that way. As for the need for a Township specific park, 39% of residents saw a need/benefit while only 29% of the non-residents did. The numbers in agreement for the use of tax breaks to attract economic development were similar but those opposed were 45% of residents and only 38% of non-residents with this group being more in the undecided category. 50% of residents but 73% of non-residents said they were here because of the natural environment - only 10% of residents said they were born or raised here but 0% of non-residents said this.
The data collected to date and the preliminary conclusions drawn from that can be seen in detail by going to the township website www.kiddertownship.com. I will try to update the results of the project as it progresses as it should be of interest to property owners, residents and businesses in Carbon County.
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