HONESDALE, PA — The Wayne County Planning Commission has presented its requisite annual report for 2019, which reviews the county’s geographic information system (GIS), the number of subdivision and land development applications that the commission reviewed and population trends over the years.

The commission’s data on subdivision and land development ordinance (SALDO) applications it has reviewed reveals a general downward trend over the past 15 years. The high point in recent history came in 2005 when the commission reviewed more than 300 applications leading to the creation of close to 300 new lots. Last year, fewer than 60 new lots were created; that’s the lowest figure and the first drop since 2015.

Mary Beth Wood of the Wayne Economic Development Corporation said that there are often global economic factors at play. The steady increase in new lots between 2000 and 2005, she said, could be attributed to people moving out of New York City and to more rural areas following 9/11. The decline in the latter end of the decade correlates with the Great Recession, she said.

“Development activity is a sign of the economic vitality of a region,” she said in an email.
The annual report also provides 2017 data on land usage in Wayne County. The majority, 65 percent, of the county is forested, 11 percent is pasture or brush, 10 percent is cropland, 7 percent is residential and about 4 percent is water. Farmstead, commercial, transportation, recreation, mining, governmental, industrial and utilities each occupy less than one percent of Wayne County land.

Planning director Craig Rickard noted that cropland has dropped by two percent since 2008, and that forested land has increased slightly since then.

“So when people say development is deforesting Wayne County, in reality, that’s not the case?” Commissioner Joe Adams asked Rickard. Rickard responded that concerns about deforestation are often based on people’s assumptions made from “windshield surveys.”

“The loggers are still logging this county, but the forest is holding its own, if not growing,” he said.

The report also shows data on population changes between 2010 and 2018. Every municipality in the county had a declining population over that time except for Dyberry Township which increased by .6 percent, and Cherry Ridge Township which stayed the same.

Overall, the countywide population dropped by about 3 percent between 2010 and 2018.
Further demographics show that the county had a labor force participation rate of 55.4 percent in 2017, a median household income of $52,161, and an “income constrained” and poverty level of 41 percent.

The full annual report is available online at www.waynecountypa.gov.