Plan the Keystone Blog

Middletown Charrette Follow-Up

As a follow up to the community charrette, the engineering and environmental fatal flaws analysis has been completed for the four candidate Middletown station locations.  Based on the analysis, fatal flaws were found for both the existing (Mill Street) and Lot 29 locations.  No fatal flaws were found for the Ann Street and HIA locations. 

For more information, please read here.

The Plan the Keystone team is continuing additional analysis for the Ann Street and HIA locations.

· Updated cost analysis

· Coordination meetings with Amtrak

· Revised engineering plans

· Coordination meetings with property owners

As part of this process, we also wish to collect additional community input.  What are your thoughts on the Ann Street and HIA station locations?   

Transit agency leads the way for a joint-development TOD project

Red Rose Transit Authority (RRTA), in collaboration with the Lancaster Museum of Art, the City of Lancaster, and a private developer, is building Downtown Lancaster’s next transit-oriented development (TOD) project.  The project is a redevelopment of an existing parking lot that is located on the corner of Chestnut and Queen Streets, one of the City’s most prominent intersections. 

The new development will house RRTA’s expanded downtown transit hub, the Lancaster Museum of Art on the ground floor, a 350-space shared parking garage, and ten levels of residential flats.  The project will improve the City’s transit services, provide park-and-ride opportunities downtown, and give the Lancaster Museum of Art a prominent Downtown address.  In addition, the project will also bring economic development in the City by converting a former parking lot to a tax-contributing use that will spur further development.   

The project applied for and received $2 million from the Pennsylvania Communities Transportation Initiative Program (PCTI).  PCTI is a PennDOT program targeted at incentivizing projects that best exemplifies Smart Transportation principles.  The Queen Street Station TOD Project is an excellent example of Smart Transportation.  We applaud RRTA’s efforts in applying Smart Transportation to create a more livable and sustainable Lancaster!

Plan the Keystone and Smart Transportation

A number of trends are rapidly changing the needs and demands of our transportation system.  The current recession is restricting revenue sources, yet construction costs are still higher than average.  Energy costs have wildly fluctuated over the past year, affecting travel preferences and behaviors.  Concerns about climate change, the loss of farmland to development, and their effects on quality of life have increased. 

To adapt to this changing world, PennDOT is changing the way they do business by embracing a concept called “Smart Transportation”.  Smart Transportation requires accepting and embracing the evolving financial, environmental, technological, and community contexts when approaching the next generation of transportation challenges.  It is about consistently applying the most innovative tools and ideas to meet these new challenges.  From the singular vision of building bigger, wider roadways to provide utmost vehicular mobility; Smart Transportation is a call for linking land use and transportation planning, a focus on system maintenance and preservation, balancing priorities among all transportation modes, collaboration with planning partners, and true fiscal responsibility. 

 

Plan the Keystone is aligned with this new direction at PennDOT.  With Plan the Keystone, investments made for improving each of the stations will be aligned with the future vision and goals of each community. At the same time, Plan the Keystone will help local communities define development type and patterns around stations that will support the ridership and success of the Keystone Line.   PennDOT is excited to work with its local partners to advance Smart Transportation, provide better transit service, and build better communities along the Keystone corridor.

To find out more about Smart Transportation and its related programs, visit www.smart-transportation.com.