This week is Sunshine Week in Pennsylvania, where issues involving government transparency are highlighted across the state. MoreThanTheCurve.com, of course, will focus on Conshohocken, West Conshohocken, Plymouth Township, and Whitemarsh Township. We will do one article Monday through Friday on different aspects of transparency.

Development and redevelopment are hot topics for the public (and some of the best read articles on MoreThanTheCurve.com). While not in MoreThanTheCurve.com’s coverage area, Whitpain Township in AroundAmbler.com’s coverage area provides this information in the most efficient way. The image below shows how Whitpain offers a page on its website that shares all of the applications involving land use, ranging from a shed in the backyard to a major project and they are organized by the type of approval needed. We are using this as the gold standard to judge Conshohocken, West Conshohocken, Plymouth Township, and Whitemarsh Township by.

Note, there is also a second step that we are taking into consideration. This involves providing the actual application and other supporting documents when the agenda is released for planning, zoning, and council/supervisor meetings. The public, which has the opportunity to offer comment on these applications, should be provided all the information prior to the meetings. They should be given the opportunity to be as informed as possible.

Here is how we will score the local municipalities on this issue. The first five points reflect how it compares to the gold standard of Whitpain. An additional four points represent the availability of the applications and supporting documents with agendas through the approval process. A tenth point is available if they post the outcome of a zoning hearings (see image from Whitpain’s website directly above).

Borough of Conshohocken | 4 out of 10
Conshohocken does not offer a webpage with all of the applications. It does provide the supporting documentation with agendas. It does not offer the outcome of zoning hearings on its website.

Borough of West Conshohocken | 1 out of 10
West Conshohocken does not offer a webpage with all of the applications and doesn’t offer the applications with the agendas (it does offer a solid description). It does not offer the outcome of zoning hearings on its website.

Plymouth Township | 2 out of 10
Plymouth does not offer a webpage with all of the applications. While it does provide the applications for zoning hearings, it does not offer them with planning agendas (and the descriptions on planning agendas are lacking. See example directly above). it does not offer the outcome of zoning hearings on its website.

Whitemarsh Township | 9 out of 10
Whitemarsh has the closest system to that of Whitpain. One thing it does that isn’t done by Whitpain is that it also tracks the projects post approval. See sample of Whitemarsh’s page above.

Whitemarsh does offer applications and supporting documents with its agendas. It does not offer the outcome of zoning hearings on its website.

Images – Municipal websites