Buying Land in Montour County, Pennsylvania

Smallest by area, not by population -- a distinction worth getting right

Montour County is genuinely Pennsylvania's smallest county by land area, at roughly 132 square miles, seated in Danville along the Susquehanna River. That specific superlative -- smallest by area -- is well documented and easy to confirm. It is a different claim, though, from being the state's smallest county by population, which is sometimes assumed given how small and compact Montour County is. That distinction actually belongs to Cameron County, whose 2020 Census population of roughly 4,547 is well below Montour's 18,136; Forest and Sullivan Counties are also smaller in population than Montour. This page uses the verified, correct claim -- smallest by area -- rather than repeating an unverified population claim.

Practically, Montour County's small size and modest population mean a genuinely rural land-buying environment: agricultural and low-density residential land along the Susquehanna River valley and its surrounding hills, anchored by Danville (home to Geisinger Medical Center, a major regional employer) as the county's only real population center. County government is a small Board of Commissioners acting as both the executive and legislative branch of county government, based at the Montour County Administrative Center in Danville.

Zoning: a genuinely more centralized arrangement than most Pennsylvania counties

Zoning in Pennsylvania is, by default, a purely municipal matter under the state's Municipalities Planning Code, and most of this project's Pennsylvania coverage reflects that: the county has no zoning role at all, and each township or borough runs its own separate ordinance and permitting office (or, in a meaningful share of rural townships statewide, has never adopted zoning at all). Montour County is a genuine, if partial, exception: the county's own Zoning Office directly issues zoning permits for four of the county's municipalities -- Anthony Township, Liberty Township, Mayberry Township, and the Borough of Washingtonville -- rather than each running a fully separate municipal zoning function.

That centralization does not extend countywide, however. Danville itself and its surrounding Derry Township, along with Mahoning, Valley, Limestone, and Cooper Townships, are not listed among the municipalities the county Zoning Office directly covers, and this page treats those as likely administering zoning separately or independently -- consistent with the statewide default -- though that was not independently confirmed municipality by municipality in this research pass. The practical takeaway: before assuming Montour County's zoning works one particular way, confirm directly with the county Zoning Office whether your specific parcel's municipality is one of the four it administers, or one that handles zoning on its own.

Septic and records

Montour County does not run its own county health department, so onlot sewage disposal system permitting follows the standard statewide Act 537 process: a DEP-certified Sewage Enforcement Officer, serving the specific municipality, conducts or oversees soil probes and percolation testing and issues the permit. The Montour County Planning Commission, based at the Montour County Administrative Center (435 East Front Street, Danville), provides broader strategic and comprehensive-planning guidance across the county, distinct from the Zoning Office's direct permit-issuing role for its four covered municipalities.