How Did Manheim Township Develop Rooted & Renewing 2035?

Rooted and Renewing 2035 was developed between September 2023, when the Comprehensive Plan Committee (CPC) held its first meeting with the project team, and September 2025 when the final plan draft will be considered for adoption by the Township Board of Commissioners.

Throughout the plan development process, it was important to produce a visionary document that was worthy of the time and effort put into its creation by Township staff, passionate residents, business owners, and community leaders. To ensure this result, all actions and decisions by the project team were taken with the following goals in mind:

• Ensure the final plan reflects the Manheim Township community
• Provide ample opportunity for all members of the community to participate in creating the plan.
• Propose bold but practical solutions to the issues most impacting Township quality of life.

The plan development process was divided into four phases, each focusing on a key element of the final plan:

1. Learn: This phase centered on public engagement and data collection. Outreach to residents was conducted through several different methods to ensure that a large segment of the community was included in the plan process. Engagement activities included two online public surveys; one dedicated to the new comprehensive plan that received 1,772 responses, and a second that focused on getting feedback on the Township’s parks and recreation facilities. The plan process also included five focus groups consisting of subject matter experts to discuss priority issues, and two pop-up events hosted at popular community facilities to give residents additional opportunities to share their own vision for the future of the Township.

The project team also collected significant amounts of data on demographics, housing affordability, jobs, and transportation infrastructure to better understand any high-level trends that may be impacting the Township.

2. Establish: In this phase, the basic structure of the plan began to take shape. The project team, working with Township staff, crafted the draft versions of several elements that are included in the final plan document. These include the following:

• Critical Issues: The six “Big Things” that impact across the community.
•  Core Values: The beliefs that define how we view ourselves and our community.
• Goals: Solutions that will address the Critical Issues that are having the biggest impact on resident quality of life.
• Implementation Strategies: The actions we will take to accomplish our Goals, while maintaining our Core Values.

All draft elements went through several rounds of review, comment, and refinement by Township staff and the CPC, to ensure that the final plan accurately and practically addressed the needs of the community.

3. Launch: In this phase, all the elements created in phase 2 were assembled into an initial draft of the plan. This draft was presented to the CPC and the public for a final round of feedback to identify any further changes or refinements needed to get the plan in its final form.

4. Implementation: Rooted & Renewing 2035 has been adopted as the official Comprehensive Plan of Manheim Township, and staff, elected officials, and stakeholders have begun moving from planning to action.