River Conservation and Land Use Plan for the Montour Run Watershed

Client: Montour Valley Alliance (MVA)

Location: Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Services: Environmental planning, landscape architecture, geographic information systems

The 37-square-mile Montour Run Watershed in Allegheny County, PA, features an uncommon mix of land uses and serves as a microcosm of the complex development issues facing many municipalities throughout the country. Rapid economic growth in the region has come at the expense of extensive deforestation, reduced water quality, damaged historic sites, and degraded natural resources.

Recognizing the importance of protecting the Montour Run Watershed, the Montour Valley Alliance (MVA)—a coalition of community-based organizations—enlisted KCI to develop a River Conservation and Land Use Plan. Completed in April 1999, the plan is the first of its kind to address a broad range of water quality, terrestrial, and public issues in a comprehensive manner, offering 61 strategies for balancing development with conservation to enhance the quality of life in the region.

In preparing the plan, the project team inventoried the area’s natural and cultural resources, highlighted public attitudes toward conservation, identified public and private methods to sustain resources, and suggested ways to increase the positive impact that these resources have on the local and regional economy. The plan focuses on resource conservation; land use and land cover patterns; planning and zoning; and the potential economic impacts of tourism and recreation.

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