This chapter is enacted for the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals and the general welfare of the Borough in accordance with a comprehensive plan, and is designed to lessen congestion in the streets, roads and highways, and to secure safety from fire, panic and other dangers, to provide adequate light and air, to prevent the overcrowding of land, to avoid undue concentration of population, to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, sewage, schools, parks and other public requirements, to provide for the reasonable development of minerals, to adopt a Zoning Map dividing the Borough into zoning districts with varying regulations, and to encourage the most appropriate use of land throughout the Borough.

Guiding and encouraging the future development of the Borough in accordance with comprehensive planning of land use and population density that represents the most beneficial and convenient relationships among the residential, commercial, industrial and recreational areas within the Borough, having regard to their suitability for the various uses appropriate to each of them and their potentiality for such uses, as indicated by topography and soil conditions, existing man-made conditions and trends in population, in the direction and manner of the use of land, in building development and in economic activity, considering such conditions and trends both within the Borough and with respect to the relation of the Borough to surrounding areas.

Protecting the character and the social and economic stability of such areas and encouraging their orderly and beneficial growth.

Protecting and conserving the value of land and buildings throughout the Borough, depending upon necessity or circumstances, appropriate to the various zoning districts established herein.

Bringing about through proper timing the gradual conformity of land use to the comprehensive plan aforesaid, and minimizing conflicts among the uses of land and buildings.

Aiding in bringing about the most beneficial relation between land use and the circulation of traffic throughout the Borough, having particular regard to traffic to and from the expressways, and to avoidance of congestion in the streets and the provisions of safe and convenient access appropriate to the various land uses.

Aiding in providing a guide for public policy and action in the efficient provision of public facilities and services, in the provision of safe and proper sanitary sewage disposal and for private enterprise in building development, investment and other economic activity relating to land use.

Protecting and preserving natural resources and agricultural land activities.

Regulating density and design of all land uses in order to insure the availability of an adequate water supply.