Zoning Around Hershey: Derry Township and the Milton Hershey School Trust's Land Control

One landowner, an outsized share of the township

Hershey has no municipal government of its own -- it is an unincorporated community entirely within Derry Township, governed by Derry Township's Board of Supervisors and zoning ordinance. What makes Derry Township's zoning picture genuinely distinctive, though, isn't the absence of a separate Hershey government; it's the scale of one particular landowner. The Milton Hershey School's own campus spans roughly 7,500 acres within the township -- a huge share of Derry Township's total land area -- and that land, along with substantial additional acreage, sits under the control of the Hershey Trust Company (which also holds a controlling stake in The Hershey Company and owns Hershey Entertainment & Resorts), reported to hold roughly $17.4 billion in assets as of 2021.

For a land buyer, this matters in a very practical way: Derry Township's zoning ordinance already includes specific overlay and district provisions tied directly to Hershey-area development -- among them thoroughfare and area overlays for the Hersheypark Drive/Route 39 corridor, the Hersheypark area itself, Governor Road, and a designated future-development area including a Planned Campus West district -- reflecting how much of the township's zoning map has been shaped around this one institutional landowner's holdings and long-term plans, rather than a typical patchwork of many independent private owners.

Active, current development: the Hershey West End project

This isn't a static or historical fact pattern -- the Trust is actively moving land through Derry Township's approval process right now. The Hershey Trust Company is developing roughly 245 acres it owns off Route 322, between Waltonville and Bullfrog Valley roads, under a master plan the township approved calling it "Hershey West End": clusters of new housing and townhouses (roughly 250 units) alongside commercial and mixed-use buildings, phased over an anticipated 10 to 15 years. As of this research pass, Derry Township's Board of Supervisors had granted full approval for the plan's Phase J, with construction anticipated to begin in 2026.

For anyone evaluating land in or near Derry Township -- whether adjacent to the Hershey West End footprint, near the Milton Hershey School campus boundary, or simply within the township generally -- this means the area's zoning and land-use pattern is being actively reshaped by a single, well-funded, long-horizon institutional developer with a multi-decade build-out plan, not by the incremental, many-small-owner development pattern typical of most Pennsylvania municipalities. That can affect nearby land values, the pace of future infrastructure (roads, utilities) extension, and the realistic likelihood of further rezoning near the Trust's remaining undeveloped holdings.

What to check for a specific Derry Township parcel

1. Confirm directly with Derry Township whether a target parcel falls within or adjacent to any Hershey-specific overlay district (Hersheypark Drive/Route 39 corridor, Hersheypark area, Governor Road, or the Planned Campus West future-development area) rather than assuming a standard residential or commercial district applies.
2. Ask the township planning office about the current phase and timeline of the Hershey West End project (and any other active Trust-driven master plans) if your parcel is anywhere near the Route 322/Waltonville/Bullfrog Valley Road area, since active nearby construction can affect both near-term land values and future infrastructure access.
3. Don't assume Milton Hershey School Trust land is available or ever will be -- most of its 7,500-acre campus is not for sale and functions as an operating school property; only specific parcels the Trust has designated for development (like the West End project) are moving through the township's approval process.
4. For any other Derry Township or wider Dauphin County parcel unrelated to Trust land, the ordinary Pennsylvania municipal zoning pattern still applies -- confirm the specific district and permitted uses directly with that municipality.