Planning Commission

Reasons for a Planning Commission

By the Pennsylvania Governor’s Center for Local Government Services

Planning for where one lives is a visionary task. The greatest responsibility is to lead their residents in developing a view of their future.

Local planning commissions are usually established for one basic reason: “to guide land use and development at the municipal level.”

There are two chief ways that a planning commission can guide land use and development in accordance with their community’s wishes. First, the planning commission has the responsibility of implementing those wishes though the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan and, second, through the reviews of proposals for new developments and public projects in their municipality.
After the vision is developed, many technical skills are required to implement that vision, and make it a reality. Many technical skills are required to implement the plan. The planning commission provides technical advice to a governing body. This normally takes the form of recommendations for action by the governing body.

The planning commission is the governing body’s surrogate on issues of land use – a relationship that ensures the governing body has assistance with important planning issues they may not otherwise have the time or resources to tackle.

The nature of local government requires that the governing body dedicate itself to the many issues of day-to-day operations – who plows the roads, how best to structure the budget, what the next labor agreement will look like – and land use can often be lost in this mountain of important, but time-consuming demands.

The planning commission, as an independent advisory body, gives the governing body the assurance that the important issues of land use and future growth are given the necessary attention.

Planning Commission Members