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Chester County Press

Editorial: Landscapes3: A referendum on your future

03/13/2018 11:28AM ● By Richard Gaw

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.”

Henry David Thoreau


Imagine the future of the community where you now live, work, play and raise your children.

Imagine it to be a region that has continued to hold the line on over-saturation by smartly balancing the need for increased infrastructure with the need to preserve open space, farmland and the natural beauty that helps define it.

Imagine it to be a region that honors its past by preserving its cherished history, so that the old stone house on the side of that country road you have driven past for decades and cherish will not be torn down but restored.

Imagine it to be a region that forges diversity and well-rounded communities by investing in facilities, services and amenities – the components that foster hope, opportunity and equality.

Imagine it to be a region that rides on the crest of the economic strength it created and now sustains, one that creates a skilled workforce, environmentally-sound workplaces, and a commitment to innovation that draws the world's attention.

Imagine it to be a region that offers a strong and reliable transportation, utility and communications infrastructure that invigorate the communities that wrap around these services.

Imagine it to be a region that chooses to do the hard work of looking every public school-educated child in the eye and promising him or her that his or her dreams in life will begin their journey there, in the schools that they will attend.

Now, imagine that this region is the one you currently live in – where you work, play, worship and raise a family. Imagine that future to be the one you dream of for yourself and your children.

If it is, the Chester County Planning Commission is inviting you to help them in turning the future you imagine into a reality.

Influenced by the Landscapes2 livable landscapes concept, Landscapes3 is the county's comprehensive plan that has taken its path not from its elected officials but from its most prized stakeholders: the general public, and its goals and objectives are to preserve, to protect, to appreciate, to live, to prosper and to connect.

On April 10, beginning at 5:30 p.m., the Commission will will be holding its second of four public meetings on the Landscapes3 plan, at the New Garden Township Building, on 299 Starr Road in Landenberg. It will provide opportunities for residents in the southern region of Chester County to offer input, direction and ideas.

Remember the future that you were asked to imagine at the beginning of this editorial? On April 10 at the New Garden Township Building, you will have the opportunity to help shape it.

Additional Landscapes3 public meetings will include:

Eastern Region:  May 1 at Penn State Great Valley, 30 E. Swedesford Road, Malvern, Pa. and

Western Region:  May 16 at the Public Safety Training Campus, 137 Modena Road, Coatesville, Pa.

To learn more about Landscapes3, visit the Chester County Planning Commission's website: www.ChescoPlanning.org.