Her township now on course, Lower Macungie planner leaves a decade-long legacy

It was fitting that this, the meeting where Lower Macungie officials approved zoning and design plans intended to guide the township’s development for years to come, would be Sara Pandl’s last.The township planning director for nearly a decade retired from her post on Friday. She didn’t want to leave until the zoning change was finished.Pandl led a sea change in the township’s attitude toward planning, commissioner President Ron W. Beitler said at a commissioners meeting Thursday. She played major roles in crafting the township’s parks plan and greenway plan, ensured the township created an official map, helped the township preserve 400 acres of farmland and helped shape Stone Hill Meadows, a 100-acre residential development, about 70% of which is dedicated to open space.“Wherever you drive in the township, you see things Sara has influenced and made better,” Beitler said.She’s had a hand in Hamilton Crossing, the movie tavern, the Southwestern Lehigh Comprehensive Plan and Notch, a new restaurant on Hamilton Boulevard.“She’s truly a rock star,” Beitler said.Pandl, who has worked in the township’s planning department through a boom of new development and a push to preserve farmland and stop the construction of new warehouses, said working in Lower Macungie was the highlight of her career.“It’s been a rare opportunity that most planners don’t get, to be in a community that was so ready to embrace good planning principles and have good planning in place,” she said.Pandl is also the chair of the Lehigh Valley/Berks section of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Planning Association. She intends to continue working as a consultant.Pandl said she believes in balanced land use. Planning, she said, is about preserving natural areas and “placemaking.”She’ll be replaced by the township’s assistant planning director, Nate Jones. The position was created a couple years ago to allow someone to work with Pandl before her retirement.Morning Call reporter Michelle Merlin can be reached at 610-820-6533 or at mmerlin@mcall.com.
Source: Morningcall