Route 228: Open for Business

With the shopping center, a  and all in the works, Route 228 certainly is a hot spot for new development.

At Monday’s Planning Advisory Commission meeting, Ron Henshaw, Cranberry’s director of community development, noted the area also might be ripe for some redevelopment.

“It has some possibilities I think,” he said.

Henshaw said the township staff has been brainstorming ideas for the addition of a Traditional Neighborhood Development Overlay to Route 228. Adopted by Cranberry officials last summer as part of the comprehensive Cranberry Plan, the overlay, which is in addition to the area's zoning classification, allows a higher-density mix of residential and commercial use, including storefronts with retail space on the first floor and residential living above it.

Other uses permitted in the overlay are townhouses, small retail stores, banks, professional office space and more. Traditional Neighborhood Development also calls for streetlamps, benches and sidewalks that would offer a town-like feeling found in older areas with main streets such as Sewickley or Oakmont.

The TND, as it’s commonly called, already is in place on parts of Freedom and Rochester roads, including the that is adjacent to

Henshaw noted that neighborhoods with single-family homes border the current commercial developments along Route 228 such as the Cranberry Commons shopping plaza, which includes a Target and a Lowe’s Home Improvement Center. By introducing the overlay, Henshaw said townhomes and apartments could act as a “natural buffer” between the big-box stores and the established neighborhoods.

He said the overlay would open up the area to a wider genre of developments.

Henshaw said he would give a full presentation on the proposed plans for a Traditional Neighborhood Development overlay on Route 228 at the next planning advisory commission meeting on June 27.