Context Map of Monroe County,
Pennsylvania
The green area shows the Pocono Mountain Region. Monroe
County is shown in light green.
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Alternative Futures |
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Introduction |
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This report describes an investigation into future landscape planning alternatives for Monroe County, Pennsylvania. It was prepared by students of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. We thank the County and the several sources who supported this study. The experience has greatly improved our understanding of the relationships between people and their landscape. This report summarizes the analyses and proposals described in the presentation and exhibition made by the studio in December 1993. It offers an understanding and synthesis of the County's most pressing landscape and planning issues and a range of alternatives for its future. Monroe County faces a crisis involving changes in its valued way of life. It can be summarized in three key issues: demographics, development decision making, and conservation. The following analyses make these evident. |
Monroe County is now the second fastest growing region in Pennsylvania. According to the Commonwealth's Department of Environmental Resources 1991 population projection, it is estimated that an additional 90,000 people are expected to locate here by the year 2020. This would almost double the current population. Without careful planning, the new urban development may permanently destroy the same qualities that attracted current and new residents to Monroe County in the first place. Given the predicted increase in the population, and many more commuter-oriented residents, there will need to be new and larger scales of planning for investments in the County's transportation systems and waste water treatment. Without such changes and investments, there will be a decline in the levels of service expected by present and by future residents. |
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Context Map of Monroe County,
Pennsylvania |