LANCASTER : City to Vote on Limiting Housing Near Air Base

The Lancaster City Council, which in the past has resisted limiting development of new tract houses north of U.S. Air Force Plant 42, will get another chance Monday to slow residential encroachment that could imperil the future of the 5,700-acre airport complex.

By a 4-0 vote, the Lancaster Planning Commission recommended approval Monday night of a plan to reduce permitted development densities in an 800-acre area north of the plant. New houses would be limited to one or two per acre instead of the current two to five houses.

The council rejected similar limits in a wider area by a 3-2 vote in April, 1991. But commission member Richard Cox predicted the council will approve the latest plan, in part because two councilmen who had opposed the limits then were replaced in the city’s election in April.