Priority Strategic Issues is available for download

Released October 22, 2003


    The LancasterProspers Planning Committee held a 1/2-day retreat to review the community’s assets and challenges and identify their own concerns. The purpose of the discussion was to review the feedback offered during the consultant interviews and other data analysis. During the retreat and based on subsequent feedback, several strategic themes appear to be emerging as the most critical challenges to be addressed:

• Lancaster as a Collaborative Community

• Lancaster as a Talent Magnet

• Lancaster as a Civic Center

    A number of key issues relate to these three themes, and there are multiple interconnections across the themes as well. For example, the group raised concerns about the county’s current educational attainment levels. The available skill assets are critical factors in making Lancaster County a talent magnet, but retaining that talent once attracted may require that the county to have a different set of cultural assets in its urban centers.
    Even though the most critical challenges relate to a broader array of public policy concerns facing the county, the Committee feels that they are important to consider in developing specific economic development-related actions that would affect the county’s future economic prosperity. The priorities identified below reflect the input received during the retreat based on an assessment of the interview findings, economic trends, and feedback following the session. The purpose of this paper is to help the Planning Committee organize its future work and make decisions about the county’s priority economic development strategies and actions.
    Following is a more detailed discussion of the issues associated with each of these strategic themes.

Lancaster as a Collaborative Community

    Lancaster County cannot depend on isolated efforts to attract or retain firms as the lynchpin for economic success. In this economic environment, industry and cluster growth depends on myriad factors such as (1) the quality of the infrastructure supporting development, (2) the access of local firms to global markets, (3) the understanding of state-of-the-art approaches to managing and implementing complex business processes, (4) access to innovation in products and processes, and (5) a predictable, yet flexible, regulatory and business environment. This complex environment requires businesses to interact with government in a multitude of ways, and it requires government to respond across traditional “stovepipes” and to changing issues.
    Planning Committee members frequently cited political fragmentation as a priority challenge for LancasterProspers. While Lancaster County cannot control all aspects of the business-government working environment, it does influence key elements of that environment – particularly related to the real estate development and business permitting process. If Lancaster County is to prosper in the future, the community must do more than coordinate…it must collaborate. Coordinating suggests passive discussion of what different entities are doing while collaborating suggests entities that work together in a proactive way.
   Such collaboration would likely take two forms. Within the County, local governments must find ways to support common economic development goals that address the broad array of challenges facing the city, boroughs, and rural places. Outside the county, leaders must explore the leadership role that Lancaster could play in building a regional economic presence. Committee members pointed to some progress in this area. For example, the Lancaster-York Heritage Region project could serve as a model for such cooperation, but wider regional economic development efforts have been sporadic at best.
    Collaboration occurs as a result of proactive leadership. Again, this leadership must take two forms. First, within Lancaster County, the committee recognized a need for a proactive, thoughtful, and consistent voice in support of strategic economic development policies and priorities. Economic development debates occur on a project-by-project basis. Lost in these debates is a discussion of where the Lancaster economy is heading. Without a single voice for economic growth, anti-growth advocates are empowered as they succeed in linking their cause to many attractive images such as preserving Lancaster’s farm heritage. In such an environment, an offsetting positive communication related to economic growth and development is easily overlooked.
    Second, the County has lacked a strong advocate for regionalism. In the global economy, “going it alone” is quite frankly a recipe for failure. Going it alone means that Lancaster is a lone voice among a cacophony competing for resources and attention – both public and private – in the global marketplace. We strongly believe that Lancaster’s future prosperity will depend on its ability to collaborate with regional partners. The committee recognized that the regional partner(s) might differ with each issue under consideration. Certain transportation issues may engender one set of partners; tourism issues may produce another; and regional identity efforts might involve an altogether different group of partners.
    An effective voice for economic development in Lancaster County must also become an effective voice for regionalism across central and southeastern Pennsylvania. Likewise, the strategies developed to achieve any vision created should have a significantly regional component. It also may mean that the Committee may decide that potential regional partners or allies should be brought to the table during some aspect of the planning process.

Lancaster as Talent Magnet

    Lancaster’s current prosperity results from its past success in attracting and retaining talented people in the county. Large institutions, such as Armstrong World Industries and Case New Holland, attracted or developed skilled managerial capabilities from national and international sources. Meanwhile, homegrown entrepreneurs started and grew exciting new businesses. This mix of capable men and women built the current Lancaster economy and serve in the region’s leadership positions today.
    Many Planning Committee members expressed concern about where such talent is being developed today. Where are the skilled young people who will start businesses and become the future leaders of Lancaster County? How much is the region encouraging talented young people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds to invest their time and resources into working for local companies or starting their own enterprises? Some feared that the region is losing these individuals as they go away to college or they graduate from local institutions and move to larger metropolitan areas. This leads many local leaders to express concern that Lancaster might suffer from a “brain drain” in which the most talented young adults leave the county during their prime working (and “innovative”) years. Many felt that the region needs to do a much better job of grooming, recruiting, and retaining the talented individuals who will serve as the “raw material” for future economic prosperity. This suggests the possibility that Lancaster’s economic development strategies should focus more on “people development” than “business development.”
    Shifting to a “people development” strategy presents several challenges. First, it requires building up a system of support for individuals with interest and skills to start new ventures. This support system would involve every aspect of the business creation process – from establishing local networks of new firm owners, including those from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds, to providing equity capital used in the risk-taking that individuals must take to make a firm successful.
    Second, it requires a capacity and willingness to focus the county’s attention on efforts to upgrade skills throughout the workforce. Traditionally, the county’s manufacturing and agricultural base of private sector enterprises has not demanded a high level of education or skills. Not surprisingly, then, the county’s educational attainment lags other parts of the country. However, future prosperity will be increasingly dependent on the quality of a region’s human capital. Even in manufacturing and agriculture, advances in technology and a greater understanding of math and science in particular will be precursors for innovation and economic success. Consequently, the demand will be for Lancaster residents of all backgrounds to improve their education and skills. This trend suggests that economic development strategies devoid of workforce development efforts cannot succeed.
    Perhaps due in part to its insular nature and its ability to succeed based on its existing economic base, the Planning Committee also expressed concern that the county may not be as open to new ideas and new people as other communities are. The broad body of economic development research suggests that to be successful in an economy dependent on innovation, Lancaster must be open to diverse people and ideas. Melting pots of people tend to produce melting pots of ideas. Therefore, the county should embrace cultural and ethnic diversity not only for its own sake, but also because newcomers and people of different ethnic backgrounds bring talent, new ideas, energy, and ultimately economic power to the community.
    A critical element of attracting and retaining talent is projecting how the skills these individuals bring might best be deployed. Thanks to the analysis of the Workforce Investment Board and others, Lancaster’s leaders have already identified several industry clusters that may drive the county’s future economic prosperity based on its recent track record. Growth in areas such as health care, food processing, construction, biotechnology, and other fields represent key opportunities – dependent in no small measure on the unique expertise of the region and the continuing investment in creating talent that can add value to firms in these clusters. The county will need to position its efforts to educate and train workers to meeting the growing needs of these clusters as well as to develop a capacity to foster companies in these clusters to innovate. While the education, learning, and innovation-spurring capabilities of the region should support these growing clusters, it should also be capable of nurturing new and growing businesses regardless of industry specialization.

Lancaster as a Civic Center

    Almost unanimously, Planning Committee members and our interviewees strongly emphasized the importance of efforts to revitalize the urban areas of the county, especially Lancaster City, to build on and improve the county’s cultural, historical and economic assets. The deterioration of urban areas in the county can be attributed to multiple causes, including changing consumer preferences for housing, perceptions of crime, a shortage of affordable housing options, a limited tax base, and other factors. The driving motto must be: as the neighborhoods and core business districts of the city and boroughs go, so goes Lancaster County. In other words, the county cannot prosper unless its urban communities are attractive places to live, work, and play for all people. Efforts to revitalize these urban areas must be similarly multi-faceted and target a whole host of existing challenges.
    Numerous studies—the Crime Commission report providing the most recent example—have advocated major changes for the city and boroughs. LancasterProspers cannot and should not seek to replicate this work or offer across-the-board solutions. Even though they clearly affect overall economic performance, this effort is not designed to address many fundamental issues facing the city such as fixing the public schools or reducing the crime rate. However, we can offer solutions related to economic development and its impact on the county’s urban neighborhoods. Steering Committee members highlighted several priority items such as improving the county’s nightlife offerings, assuring affordable housing, and contributing to overall livability of urban neighborhoods.
    In this context, revitalizing the urban areas of Lancaster County should not be viewed simply as an “urban renewal” strategy. While community and urban renewal may be a laudable goal, it must also be viewed as part of a countywide effort to promote smart development and to manage development in a way that preserves farmland and open space. As the desirability of living and working in urban communities increases, higher density development can supplement and, in some cases, replace current development that now occurs in the County’s outlying areas. Certain types of companies are willing to pay a premium for quality development in urban locations because these locations make labor recruitment among younger talent easier, provide more networking opportunities, or offer urban services that a suburban location might be able to offer.
    If revitalizing these communities is indeed a priority, then it follows that a significant effort should be invested in attracting, retaining, or nurturing the types of firms that prefer quality urban locations. These targets are likely firms that would employ talented, young workers of all backgrounds who have relatively higher educational attainment levels. For example, Lancaster County enjoys a strong base of firms focused on print media, marketing, and communications. Firms in these types of sectors could serve as an ideal base for building an attractive and livable downtown for young adults.
    In addition to providing new job opportunities, enhancing the livability of cities and boroughs will serve as a powerful recruiting tool for younger, talented workers and improve the quality of life of existing Lancaster County families. It would certainly make all business recruitment and retention efforts easier and serve as an important catalyst for creating a virtuous cycle of new business and real estate investment resulting in job creation and an improved tax base for the county’s quality public services.

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