§ 9.101. The critical areas approach.
(a) The Environmental Master Planning program has been previously described as a program to enhance and maintain the environmental quality of the Commonwealth through the development and implementation of environmentally sensitive policies.
(b) Traditionally, the concern of the Commonwealth for protecting environmental quality has been expressed through specific legislation designed to regulate the pollution and degradation of the environment. Although the innovative legislation of the Commonwealth has resulted in dramatic environmental improvements, there are numerous areas within this Commonwealth of immediate concern because environmental quality is better than existing regulatory standards or because of the inadequacy of standards to protect existing environmental values. These areas may be of value for protecting ecological relationships or for maintaining the existing quality or character of the environment valued by society.
(c) Since the overall environmental quality of the Commonwealth will be greatly dependent on emerging growth and development patterns and specific uses of the land, the protection of environmentally important areas will be a major factor in determining future development. Certain geographic areas which are of statewide environmental importance and which are significant determinants of state and regional growth and development patterns are considered key or environmental areas. Although the term ‘‘critical environmental area’’ is usually limited to natural areas having rare, unique or fragile qualities, the Master Planning program applies a broader meaning which considers the overall ecologic importance of maintaining a healthy natural environment and translates this concern as a determinant for future growth and development.
(d) In a recent publication by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources entitled Area Considerations for Pennsylvania’s Statewide Environmental Master Plan’’ (February 1975), various critical environmental areas were examined to provide an overview of inherent values and problems. Criteria were presented in that publication to identify priority areas having Statewide environmental value and being significant determinants of Statewide and regional growth and development patterns. Based upon the criteria, the following critical environmental areas were selected as being priority areas having environmental values of Statewide importance: prime farmlands, watersheds with high quality streams, floodplains, coal resources, areas with limited water supply, clean air resource areas, open space in metropolitan areas, landslide prone areas and areas with carbonate geology.
(e) The selection of these areas is intended to indicate a priority for areas having environmental value and being determinants of future growth, and does not mean that other areas are not important. In the future, policies of the Master Planning program will address issues related to other areas having environmental values such as forest, natural areas, scenic areas, wetlands and coastal zone areas.
(f) The primary environmental policy concern for each critical area is the protection of values which contribute to the overall environmental importance of the critical area. Additional policies for each critical area are designed to protect these environmental values through the development of alternative management strategies sensitive to the major environmental issues. Since protecting environmental values is the thread tying the policies together, many of the policies are mutually supportive. For example, keeping prime agricultural soils in farmland maintains the recharge capacity of productive aquifers, while discouraging development on floodplains provides ecologically valuable open space in metropolitan areas.
(g) The policies do not comprehensively address all issues for each critical area but do propose basic directions for future Commonwealth actions. Major issues related to intergovernmental land policy responsibilities, property tax structure, and public facilities investments are common to many critical areas and policies addressing these issues will be of significant importance for protecting Statewide environmental values. In addition, the policy statements are not self-executing, and their pronouncement is only the beginning of a series of actions which must take place before the policies will effectively guide state, regional, county and local activities.
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