For North Huntingdon, development along Route 30 could be either a blessing or a curse.

What path the township will take, and how to ensure township officials and residents have a say in the development that takes place was the subject of a spirited discussion at the monthly meeting of the North Huntingdon planning commission.

While the meetings of the commission often focus on the minutia of zoning regulations and sewer line placement, its Feb. 4 meeting ranged over far broader topics. Representatives of Westmoreland Smart Growth gave a presentation, fielded questions and solicited input on their Route 30 Master plan, designed to guide development along the 40-mile corridor.

Westmoreland Smart Growth representative and former North Huntingdon planning director Alan Cohen said the goal of the master plan is twofold.

On one side, the plan will take input from residents and elected officials to come up with a vision for what Route 30 and growth along it should look like over the next 20 years.

The other side of the plan, said Cohen, is to develop sample regulations and tools that municipalities could use and implement to achieve their goals for the corridor.

"A plan is a plan is a plan, but it's nothing without implementation," said Cohen.

While the Route 30 master plan preparers are still working on developing the specifics of sample ordinances and tools for municipalities, at the meeting they outlined some general approaches that they might take.

Tools could include overlay zoning districts, which would give the township more control over what goes where as well as form-based zoning, which focuses on the appearance of a building and how it relates to the environment rather than its use. Other approaches could involve building regulations that require better environmental practices in order to lower strain on infrastructure.

Cohen and the other representatives highlighted mixed use development, where industrial, commercial and residential buildings all occupy the same area. Cohen said these kinds of developments encourage vibrant neighborhoods that avoid the feel of sprawling strip-malls and residential areas.

"Mixed use helps create areas that have cohesiveness," he said.

Cohen asked the planning commission for their thoughts about the process.

Commission member William Chapman asked how Westmoreland Smart Growth would get the many municipalities that occupy Route 30 to agree on anything, much less a complex forward looking plan.

"We have only persuasion, and at the end of the day it's going to be up to the elected officials to decide what gets enacted," said Alex Graziani, executive director of Smart Growth.

Cohen added that the goal was not to tell municipalities what to do, but to empower them to have control over what they will look like in 20 years.

"Many communities wind up with something they don't like," Cohen said.

Planning commission member Bernard Solomon questioned the focus on Smart Growth's proposal.

"Without improving the traffic flow (on Route 30) any additional development you make just makes a terrible situation worse," he said, arguing that the county needed a mass transit system to alleviate congestion on the main roads.

Cohen and Graziani both agreed a mass transit system would help, but they said it was an issue for the state or federal level, and that through mixed use development and other planning tools, local municipalities could find other ways to reduce traffic.

While commission member Virginia Stump said she agreed mixed use development was a good thing, she said the township had previously tried to encourage it, but the developer was not interested.

Granziani said he expected more and more developers would be interested in mixed use in the coming years, and he said that trend was already being seen in other parts of the country. Cohen said while township officials do not have control over what the developer wants to build, they can still wield a considerable influence.

"The rule of development is that it follows the path of least resistance," Cohen said.

Smart Growth representatives said they hope the development of the plan would be an ongoing conversation with municipalities.

Both Cohen and Graziani also said the public could submit comments on their Web site, www.route30plan.org.