It’s remarkable sometimes to note how one momentous decision will influence equally important decisions that come later.

Take the new VA Butler Health Care Center. By a twist or two of fate that we don’t need to recapitulate here, the location changed from the Deshon Woods site on Route 68 in Butler Township to North Duffy Road in Center Township.

As construction continues, it becomes more abundantly clear that the Center Township site is more suited, not only for the 168,000 square-foot, $168 million VA center but also for the related businesses, services, shops and residential developments that eventually will surround it.

Have no doubt that these additional developments will be coming soon.

The most recent evidence made its presence known this week, if only barely, in the form of a proposed an ordinance that could pave the way for a large housing development. Center Township supervisors have advertised a public hearing on an ordinance that would add planned residential developments to the zoning code. They say a developer has shown interest in building residential development on North Duffy.

It hasn’t been formally proposed yet, but the development would include about 110 single-family units and would be marketed to “empty nesters,” Supervisor Ron Flatt said. The new zoning would allow more dense developments than are currently permitted.

It’s just the beginning of more development that’s likely to follow. Not only buildings, but utilities, streets and public services like police and fire protection will need to be mapped out carefully with an eye on managed growth.

It becomes increasingly difficult to envision the magnitude of growth — managed or otherwise — that’s going on in Center fitting within the 16-acre footprint of Deshon Woods.

It’s still a little mystifying how Deshon originally was rated the No. 1 potential site for the new VA Butler; equally mystifying is how it lost that status. Regardless, for good or bad, it was a fortunate decision to move construction to the North Duffy site, where there’s an abundance of acreage for expansion — and no need for compromising retrofits or clumsy rehabilitations into a shoehorn location.