Cranberry discusses planning for future
CRANBERRY TWP — To Mark Buchek, vice chairman of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce's board of directors, there are two Butler Counties: There's Butler County, and there's Cranberry Township.
That's not to say Cranberry is distinct from the rest of the county — instead, Buchek said, the sustained growth experienced and challenges faced by the township are unparalleled in Butler County.
At a Friday Morning Coffee Club in North Boundary Park, Cranberry community officials discussed those economic and infrastructure development changes that set Cranberry apart from other communities in the county.
Infrastructure
In 1995, shortly after township manager Dan Santoro came to Cranberry, the township undertook a study to aid its long-term transportation capital improvements plan. Engineers told Cranberry it would, at some point in the future, need to expand Route 228 from its then-two lane footprint to six lanes, with a grade separation between the developments north and south of the state route and the road itself.
It seemed optimistic — even overly optimistic — at the time.
“The developers at that time, they laughed at us. They laughed at us, they called it the Disneyland study,” Santoro said. “That is no joke. They said, 'This will never happen. You guys are crazy. That's nuts.'”
Clearly, though, it wasn't nuts.
Santoro highlighted the value of “planning and sticking to a plan” as he updated attendees on the extensive infrastructure projects occurring in Cranberry. The MSA Thruway — the tunnel creating grade separation between Cranberry Woods and Springs and Route 228 — is within months of completion. Or, as Santoro said, “It's in.”
But the MSA Thruway — an ambitious infrastructure project Santoro said would reduce Route 228 traffic between the Interstate 79 off-ramp and the entries to the nearby developments by 38% — is far from the only one occurring in the township. Projects are underway on both Freedom and Rochester roads, widening both arteries.
On Freedom, Cranberry plans to widen the road to four lanes with appropriate turning lanes, at minimum, all the way to the Beaver County line. The township plans on a similar project on Rochester, widening it to five lanes between the Route 19 intersection and the Turnpike overpass, along with the traffic signal at the junction with the municipal building and the Meeder development.
Atop those projects are more “tame” projects, including PennDOT's resurfacing of Route 19 from the county line to Lancaster Township as well as an additional connection from Route 19 to Executive Drive by way of Brandt Drive, aided by a developer constructing dwelling units. Also on the radar is a roundabout at the three-way junction between Unionville Road, Ogle View Road and the Meeder development's Main Street.
There's a lot of infrastructure work in Cranberry, Santoro said, but it's been part of the township's long-term plan it developed and has stuck with.
Development
“Planning, as you can tell, is super important to us here,” said Ron Henshaw, township director of planning and development.
That axiom applies not only to infrastructure projects but also to development.
Santoro said the major goal from this planning is to create a township with vitality.
“That's always been the perspective attached to sustainable growth — managed, sustainable growth,” he said. “If you make this a world-class place for people to live, businesses will follow. They do.”
One sign of a township with sustainable growth, Henshaw said, is whether it can continue to grow during an off-year in one sector of development. For instance, he said, Cranberry saw just 70 single-family homes built in 2020 in comparison to its average of 100, but still witnessed more than $194 million worth of construction go up, higher than 2019 by more than $70 million.
“I think that's the next important part of telling the story of us is the balance and mix of things are part of that success,” Henshaw said. “When one thing is up and another thing is down, we're still doing fine and that's what works for us.”
Henshaw highlighted a series of land development projects, varying from a senior living facility in Cranberry Woods to the addition of new businesses in the Meeder neighborhood, as showcasing what Santoro referenced as sustainable growth — where residents move in and businesses follow.
He also mentioned the addition of new tenants to the Westinghouse Electric Co. campus as positive. The township, Henshaw said, was somewhat apprehensive when Westinghouse came to town because they didn't want to put all their proverbial economic or employment eggs in one basket.
“We like that spreading out of lots of tenants, so we can achieve that balance of things,” Henshaw said.
