A crowd of 100 turned out to air their opinions on zoning in Wolf Creek Township at Grove City Area High School last week.

"If it's not broke, don't fix it," one resident said.

He said he wants to use his farmland as he pleases. Many agreed, saying there was no need for zoning in the rural area because things haven't changed much.

Others believe change is inevitable.

"I've been here 48 years, and at one time my road had all cows. Now, there are none. Things are changing," said Donna Montgomery. "We want to stay all green and fresh like we were 50 years ago, but it doesn't seem to stay the same in our modern world. If you don't have a land-use plan, we may get something we're really not used to, that will make us really angry."

Director Denny Puko and Planner Fred Frank of Mercer County Regional Planning Commission, were invited by Wolf Creek supervisors to talk about a potential zoning ordinance.

The two laid out steps necessary to draft an ordinance, with the most important being the "community development objectives," Puko said.

"Once you define the kind of community you want Wolf Creek to be, it will drive the contents of the ordinance one, five, 10 or 20 years down the road. You would spend a great deal of time on this."

The planning commission can help facilitate that process and help in drafting an ordinance.

Existing land uses would be grandfathered and not have to change, Frank said.

However, there are two musts in a zoning ordinance: It has to include the entire township and accomodate all types of land use, from industry to adult businesses.

Without zoning any kind of establishment can be built anywhere in Wolf Creek.

That's part of the reason zoning has come up, said Wolf Creek Township Supervisor Mark Smith. A motorcross track is being developed along School Road and is expected to create some noise in the residential area.

Smith also said zoning efforts in neighboring Springfield and Liberty townships got supervisors thinking.

With many area farmers getting older and few of their offspring taking over, family farms are "going to come up for sale in some point in time," Smith added.

Prime Outlets at Grove City in Springfield Township is an example of how a rural area can become -- to those who value the simple rural character of the area -- a commercial nightmare, some at the meeting said.

"We welcome people from Pittsburgh who come here to live, people from the cities, but I tell them: 'Don't bring the city with you,'" said John Biberich, a 34-year resident of Wolf Creek who was a supervisor in the 1980s when an earlier zoning push foundered.

Puko and Frank provided an argument to counter those opposed to zoning.

"It's not an answer to all your problems, but it does give you lawful abilities for the township to grow and develop as you like; to protect its health, safety and public welfare," Puko said.

Frank gave a few examples of what a zoning ordinance could look like, with maps and tables of various uses that could be something simple to something complex.

Puko added that Liberty Township's zoning was very unique. Uses can be whatever its land owners decide. However, buffers surrounding the lands were given to ensure that those uses would not be offensive to the neighbors.

"I'm not aware of any township in our county that has that," he said.

Zoning ordinances can't overturn existing laws, Puko said, addressing a concern that a bar would be allowed in the "dry" township, which doesn't allow alcohol-serving establishments. Real estate taxes would not be affected either, he added, addressing another concern. However, township residents wouldn't vote on a finalized draft, but the supervisors would.

The supervisors plan to have more meetings in the future.