The Strategic and Action Plan Summary is available for download

A Call to Action

    LancasterProspers is a countywide initiative sponsored by the Economic Development Company of Lancaster County and EDC Finance Corporation to identify the critical challenges threatening Lancaster County’s prosperity; to develop a new economic vision for Lancaster; and to create a countywide economic-development strategy to serve as a roadmap for the region’s future.
Lancaster’s future economic prosperity is uncertain unless County leaders and citizens make critical investments and development decisions today. Begun in early 2003, LancasterProspers created a process whereby community leaders identified crucial economic development challenges and, more importantly, devised effective and feasible solutions. LancasterProspers identified these challenges to future prosperity in Lancaster County:

• Fragmentation in decision-making, especially as it affects economic development

• Insufficient innovation and skills in the County’s workforce

• Missing amenities in urban centers—such as facilities for knowledge-intensive firms and entertainment options—that would attract and retain a young, vibrant, and diverse workforce.

    While these critical challenges cannot be fixed overnight, the County can continue to prosper if we work together to build on our existing economic advantages. With input from more than 100 citizen leaders, the 39-member LancasterProspers Planning Committee developed an economic vision, articulated a set of values, and established a set of goals designed to frame a proactive economic development course.

    LancasterProspers’ next step will be to build a broad community consensus around the philosophy that well-managed, quality economic growth is necessary to maintain Lancaster’s current and future prosperity.

Our Vision

Encourage economic growth of existing and new businesses. We believe that in 20 years, Lancaster County will be:

• A county where business and community leaders share common values about its economic future

• A national leader in economic innovation

• A highly attractive community to a future generation of citizens

Our Values

Lancaster County’s leadership and citizens should:

• Embrace the region’s unique heritage

• Acknowledge that economic change and demographic diversity can create new regional strengths

• Encourage new ideas and a willingness to take risk

• Retain local control of economic development decisions, while collaborating as a partner in larger regional initiatives

• Build upon our existing economic base by innovating in how and what we make

• Foster emerging enterprises

• Support revitalizing our urban areas to help preserve our land assets and to create appealing places for younger workers

Our Goals

These seven goals will guide us in achieving our vision and values:

    Goal 1: Lead or participate in critical regional initiatives that are important to the future of the County

    Goal 2: Build collaboration and enhance coordination across the County’s diverse communities in support of economic development

    Goal 3: More effectively market Lancaster County by building on the region’s unique heritage and existing strengths

    Goal 4: Foster innovation that will result in new commercial enterprises and activities

    Goal 5: Prepare a more highly skilled and educated local workforce

    Goal 6: Support entrepreneurship as a tool for growing locally-owned
enterprises

    Goal 7: Create an attractive and vibrant urban environment for a diverse
community of talented workers

Our Strategies

    The LancasterProspers process has created a mechanism to achieve our goals through the following strategies:

Strategy 1: Collaborate on Regional Initiatives
    Identify and participate in regional efforts of critical importance to economic development in the County

Strategy 2: Establish an Economic Research Capacity for the County/Region
    Define economic policy information needs and develop the capacity to answer those questions for decision makers in a credible manner

Strategy 3: Develop a Countywide Economic Development Marketing Plan
    Create a proactive marketing and branding effort that describes the County’s role in a regional context

Strategy 4: Facilitate Collaboration in Support of a Research and Development Center
    Develop the capabilities to conduct targeted research by linking the County’s existing higher education institutions and tapping external resources

Strategy 5: Support the Formation of Industry-driven Centers of Excellence
    Encourage collaborations among firms in targeted existing industries to identify new training and technology needs

Strategy 6: Coordinate a Comprehensive Approach in Support of Entrepreneurship
    Develop a strategy aimed at integrating myriad existing efforts and building mechanisms supporting new entrepreneurial formations

Strategy 7: Develop Urban Centers as Attractive Places to Live, Work
and Play
    Support a series of high-profile projects designed to increase social and entertainment activities in the City of Lancaster and encourage residential and commercial development in the County’s urban areas

Implementation

    The LancasterProspers Planning Committee felt strongly that this effort should not conclude with the creation of yet another formal entity to oversee implementation of the recommended strategies. As a result, the Planning Committee will begin the implementation process by assigning responsibility for the individual Strategies to appropriate existing organizations which, in turn, will assemble Action Committees to address each specific Strategy. EDC will serve as the Coordinator of this process and will examine its internal structure to consider the broad, community-based makeup needed to continue this process into the future.

:: back to the top ::

The Plan | The Timeline | Committees | News Releases
Briefing Paper | Priority Issues | Strategy Plan | Strategic Plan Summary

© 2006 Economic Development Company of Lancaster County

funding support by