Lancaster Amtrak district envisioned as hub for new housing

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To create more affordable housing in a county that desperately needs it, the undeveloped/underutilized land around the Lancaster Amtrak station is the centerpiece of a mixed-use plan that proposes the construction of nearly 1,000 rental units, with first-floor commercial space and other smart-growth amenities.

A draft of the Lancaster Train Station Small Area Plan, designed by the Lancaster County Planning Department, was unveiled to the public at an open house last month at a city elementary school.

It follows the principles of transit-oriented development, which an increasing number of urban centers with passenger rail service are adopting. The county planners’ version could have as many as 990 housing units with up to 1,485 residents, in both multi-story residential and mixed-use buildings. That’s 29.49 units per acre. The retail/office space square footage totals more than 256,000.

A less dense variation of the plan has 794 housing units.

Some of these rentals are already in the pipeline, such as the 226 apartments being eyed for the former Stockyard Inn property, a $59 million project known as The Yards.

The Amtrak development, located in Lancaster city and Manheim Township, would also feature plazas, mini “pocket parks” and linear “finger parks,” tree-lined sidewalks and bicycle lanes. In addition, the plan also would require reconfiguring the major intersections of Fruitville Pike and Keller Avenue and Lititz Pike and McGovern Avenue.

And while the small area plan is moving forward, a 250-space parking lot is under construction off Keller Avenue that will double the parking capacity at the train station, which is the second busiest Amtrak station in Pennsylvania (behind Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station) and the 21st busiest in the nation.

Michael Domin, principal planner with the Lancaster County Planning Department, said in an email that he expects the small area plan to be completed this month, a process that took almost a year and a half.

He said no existing transit-oriented development was used as a template, “but the basic principles of a TOD design were employed to create a mix of land uses within a walkable network of streets at a density that boosts levels of transit ridership.”

Those principles, he said, are:

· Pedestrian and cyclist friendly

· Connected street networks and paths

· Reliable public transit

· Mix of land uses in compact form

· High-density residential

· Urban design with buildings fronting streets, parking in the rear

· Limited automobile parking

· Public spaces

On its website, the Federal Transit Administration calls the success of transit systems in rural, urban and suburban neighborhoods “critical to the economic health and sustainable growth of America’s communities.”

The FTA said dense, walkable, mixed-use development near transit “attracts people and adds to vibrant, connected communities. Public transportation can help foster partnerships in communities that support the development of affordable housing around transit. When done right, TOD leads to more equitable communities.”

According to a 2020 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development study, Lancaster County needs to create more than 18,000 units that are affordable for lower-income households to keep up with current demand.

The planning department said on its website that the “goal of this plan is to develop a planning and placemaking strategy, coordinated with Lancaster County Planning, the City of Lancaster and Manheim Township. It includes a vision for the area and identifies ways that public, private and nonprofit stakeholders can work together to encourage sustainable economic development along with safe and accessible transportation options.”

One of the complications in getting this vision realized is that Lancaster city and Manheim Township have different zoning ordinances.

After the plan is completed, the planning department would like both the City of Lancaster and Manheim Township to adopt it, Domin said.

“A work group would then be formed to lead the development of a new zoning district that both municipalities could adopt,” he added. Another option would be to modify each ordinance individually to make them more consistent with each other.

Paula Wolf is a freelance writer