Master Planning Reports to Secure Revitalization Funding
Creating Economic Development Studies as amendments to Comprehensive Plans helps secure and meet state funding grant requirements to revitalize communities.
Shaping your Vision
Barth Consulting Group creates data-driven Economic Development Studies to analyze a community through resident and business surveys, town hall meetings and with detailed research reports summarizing community engagement and aspirations. The finalized Economic Studies provide insight and pathways into how you can Revitalize your town.
These Economic Development studies address common issues that plague many communities such as blighted properties, vacant storefronts, sustainable municipal revenues, and unwanted or undesired development and offer solutions to fix these problems.
What is an Economic Development Study Plan?
Municipal Economic Development Studies unify and articulate a community’s vision by forging a partnership from amongst municipal leaders, businesses, organizations, and residents gaining first-hand perspectives to craft their own future with new and desired development. This process assists elected officials in shaping a shared community vision, created by voters and is based on the collective goals of the entire community.
A completed Economic Development Study is then approved by elected officials through resolution, then amended into the municipality’s Comprehensive Plan, thus qualifying them for state grant programs. State organizations such as the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) and the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) require current Economic Development plans to be in place before awarding grants. These plans outline strategic goals, show community support and define clear action plans to achieve project goals.
Examples of successful Grant Awards for our municipal clients include a $100,000 DVRPC Main Street Economic Development Study that led to a $600,000 Multi-Modal Sidewalk Grant for New Britain Borough and a $30,000 DVRPC Parks Master Planning Grant for Main Street Hatboro.
Barth Consulting Group provides strategic and high-level consulting for municipalities to design and facilitate strategies shaped through community engagement. This Development by Design™ process takes into account the dynamic and ever-changing economics within communities and how they interrelate and impact each other.