CRANBERRY TWP — Supervisors took the first step to revising its 20-year transportation improvement plan when it approved an updated land-use assumptions report this month.

The land-use assumptions report was compiled by a seven-member “impact fee advisory committee” which consists of Cranberry Township residents and businesspeople. At their meeting in February, supervisors approved a resolution to reform the committee, which hadn’t convened since 2021.

A land-use assumptions report reflects projected changes in the use and development of all available land in an area over a certain time period.

The committee worked with local engineering firm Herbert, Rowland & Grubic to produce the report, which was discussed at a public hearing on July 29 and recommended for approval by the board of supervisors.

Cranberry Township first adopted a transportation impact fee program in 1991 in an effort to manage the exponential growth the township had been experiencing since the 1980s. The program has been fully updated only twice since its inception, in 1999 and 2010, although it has received two partial updates since the last time, in 2015 and 2020.

In Pennsylvania, municipalities are empowered by the Municipalities Planning Code to charge “transportation impact fees” from developers who are bringing new projects to a municipality. These fees are then used to finance future infrastructure improvements.

In the case of Cranberry Township, the fee is dependent on the type of development being built, and is due before the building permit is issued.