Ethan Demme

Thoughts and Policy for Building a Better Pennsylvania

Lifelong Learning

The Need for Commercial Zoning Reform in East Lampeter Township

Over the last few months, we have been having a conversation about reforming our commercial zoning in East Lampeter Township.

Here are my comments from a recent Fox43 interview,

My goal of these changes would be to reduce the regulatory burden on our businesses and allow them to make real-time decisions in response to market changes without having to go through a lengthy and costly process in order to know what they can do. 

Adding additional uses to our commercial zones is a good idea for multiple reasons.

  • It is consistent with the county places2040 plan
    • Mixes of uses along our corridors
    • Diversity of housing types
    • Connects people, place, and opportunity by integrating residential and commercial with pedestrian connections
    • We grow where we are already growing, it’s in the urban growth boundary and we already have infrastructure and services to support more uses
    • Prioritizes redevelopment of underutilized shopping centers by allowing mixed-use development
    • Allows for greater density
    • Simplify zoning by incentivizing redevelopment
  • It aligns with the Lancaster County Planning Commission comments
    • “Based on the demand for and success of the commercial redevelopment overlay district, the township should consider offering these provisions to smaller shopping centers in the C-3 zone”
  • A recent Brookings article says the main obstacles to more housing are zoning restrictions and land availability. 
    • With the current and projected growth of Lancaster county, we need more housing. So we can either take precious farmland or we can cut the red tape and allow properties near existing infrastructure to do more with their land and adapt to changing market conditions. 
  • Giving back additional uses to business owners allows them to adapt to market conditions without having to go through a lengthy and costly process to add uses when they need it. Business needs to be able to react quickly which is something the government is unable to do. 
  • Allowing for incremental growth in existing commercial areas also provides a more robust tax base. Mixed-use areas provide more tax dollars per acre than larger single uses. This keeps the tax costs lower for our residents

Changes to our commercial zoning are still in the discussion phase so if you have any comments please reach out to the supervisors or attend an upcoming meeting.

Running for A Second Term as East Lampeter Township Supervisor

Since 2014 I’ve had the privilege and honor of serving as one of five East Lampeter township supervisors. We have accomplished a lot over the last several years but there is still more to do which is why I’m seeking re-election for another six-year term.

Here are a few things I’m proud to have helped accomplish,

  • Cut regulations and returned rights to homeowners so they can create accessory apartments
  • Supported our Emergency Responders by passing a property maintenance code to deal with problem properties
  • Advocated for a fiscally responsible  balanced budget, increased reserve funds, and dealt with unfunded mandates from the State and County

Here are a few things that I still want to work on over the next few years.

  • Increase participation and transparency in local government
  • Zoning reforms to protect and return property rights
  • Preserve our precious farmland for future generations
  • Support our volunteer fire companies and Emergency Responders
  • Fiscally responsible budgets with longer-term planning

Feel free to contact me and let me know what items you think we should focus on in 2020 and beyond. Don’t forget to vote on November 5th, for your local races as well as your county and state races.

The Power of Moments – Book Review

The existentialist philosopher Kierkegaard once wrote that we live forward but understand backward. In their book The Power of Moments, authors Chip Heath (Stanford) and Dan Heath (Duke) help us explore those defining moments in our lives that shape our core identity. The authors identify four main characteristics of defining moments (though some of the most memorable combine two or more of these elements):

Elevation: “defining moments rise above the everyday. They provoke not just transient happiness, like laughing at a friend’s joke, but memorable delight.”

Insight: “defining moments rewire our understanding of ourselves or the world.”

Pride: “defining moments capture us at our best – moments of achievement, moments of courage.”

Connection: “defining moments are social…these moments are strengthened because we share them with others.”

The authors divide these defining moments into three main categories:

Transitions: promotions, the first day of school, the end of projects, etc.

Milestones: retirement, unheralded achievements, etc.

Pits: dealing with negative feedback, loss of loved ones, etc.

In business as in personal life, the authors argue that we benefit from building the habit of “moment-spotting.” This can often be a harder task in business because we get “consumed with goals” and when that happens “time is meaningful only insofar as it clarifies or measures our goals. The goal is the thing.” But the authors seek to push back against this goal-oriented framework: they remind us that “for an individual human being, moments are the thing.” And they point out that even celebrating an achievement is “embedded in a moment.”

As an example of concrete defining moments in the workplace, the authors ask us to think about the first day at a new job. “For new employees, it’s three big transitions at once: intellectual (new work), social (new people), and environmental (new place.)” If we can recognize that this first day provides an opportunity for a defining moment filled with elevation, insight, pride, and connection, then we will realize that “the first day shouldn’t be a set of bureaucratic activities on a checklist. It should be a peak moment.”

In addition to tips on how to recognize defining moments, the book gives helpful advice for how to craft those moments. This advice is often deeply practical and simple, such as boosting sensory pleasures (color, taste, music), but the advice also relies on psychology in suggesting ideas like using games or competition to simulate the feeling that the stakes are raised, or using novelty to challenge expectations and break social scripts.

The authors conclude their book with a series of imaginative what-if questions:

  • What if every organization in the world offered new employees an unforgettable first-day experience?
  • What if every student had an academic experience as memorable as prom?
  • What if every patient was asked, ‘what matters to you?’
  • What if you called that old friend right now and finally made that road trip happen?
  • What if we didn’t just remember the defining moments of our lives but made them?

This book reminded me of Pixar’s animated movie Inside Out. In this imaginative movie, we see inside the brain command center of a girl named Riley, and we watch as her personified emotions help her to navigate daily life. Inside the ecosystem that is Riley’s brain, we see islands that represent Core Memories – defining moments from Riley’s life.

In my review of the movie, I suggested to parents that you talk to your own children about their core memories: ask your kids about the memories that define them. Ask questions like, “what is your favorite family memory?”, and “Do you remember what made you feel the saddest?” – Let your children take the lead because the memories that are core to them may not be what you’d expect . . . but don’t be afraid to use prompts as need, i.e., “remember when we first got Rover?” As we enter into this New Year, reflecting as a family on defining moments, both individual and familial, can help contextualize those resolutions and goals we have set for 2019, while helping us avoid being consumed by those goals and instead remain watchful for those extraordinary moments that enrich life.

Be a Scout Not A Soldier

I’m never wrong, except when I’m disagreeing with my wife. Okay, fine, I admit that I’m often wrong and I’m not always the quickest to acknowledge when I’m wrong. Recently I watched Julia Galef’s TEDx talk on why we think we’re right — even when we’re wrong. It turns out when I struggle to see or admit that I am wrong, I am often encountering what social scientists call “motivated reasoning.” Galef explains that motivated reasoning refers to how our  “unconscious motivations, our desires, and fears, shape the way we interpret information.” In other words, we are rarely fully disinterested and impartial in the face of new data. Galef explains that “some information, some ideas, feel like our allies. We want them to win. We want to defend them. And other information or ideas are the enemies, and we want to shoot them down.”

Often how we respond to new information can be traced back to our mindsets and how open we are too different perspectives. Galef describes these mindsets using two metaphors:

So I’d like you to imagine for a moment that you’re a soldier in the heat of battle. Maybe you’re a Roman foot soldier or a medieval archer or maybe you’re a Zulu warrior. Regardless of your time and place, there are some things that are constant. Your adrenaline is elevated, and your actions are stemming from these deeply ingrained reflexes, reflexes rooted in a need to protect yourself and your side and to defeat the enemy.

So now, I’d like you to imagine playing a very different role, that of the scout. The scout’s job is not to attack or defend. The scout’s job is to understand. The scout is the one going out, mapping the terrain, identifying potential obstacles. And the scout may hope to learn that, say, there’s a bridge in a convenient location across a river. But above all, the scout wants to know what’s really there, as accurately as possible.

In order to cultivate the scout mentality, we need to change the way we feel. While that might not be the most intuitive advice, our gut reactions and even our ability to reason are conditioned with the more immediate emotional reactions we have. Galef explains that in order to learn to be like scouts, “we need to learn how to feel proud instead of ashamed when we notice we might have been wrong about something. We need to learn how to feel intrigued instead of defensive when we encounter some information that contradicts our beliefs.” To me, that sounds like we also need a healthy dose of humility, and maybe even the humor to laugh at our mistakes, which will let us truly become lifelong learners.

Below is the whole TEDx talk: