ERIE REFOCUSED
City of Erie, PA
How can a City build on its assets to compete and thrive in the 21st century?
SUMMARY
In 2015, czb was asked to develop a Comprehensive Plan for Erie, a city of approximately 100,000 residents that is home to multiple universities, Erie Insurance (a Fortune 500 company), and a downtown with numerous assets but high levels of blight and vacancy.
At the time czb came to Erie, the city’s poverty rate was nearing 30 percent and more than 4,000 housing units in the city were sitting vacant. And while the number of middle- and upper-income households in the region had grown by almost 20 percent since 1969, their numbers in the city had plummeted by 33 percent. czb worked with stakeholders to reprioritize and refocus investment and helped leaders face the reality of conditions across the city and region.
"The mayor’s directive to me is aggressive implementation of Erie Refocused……At 2 a.m., my brain says, ‘OK, start thinking about what you’re going to be doing today."
- Kathy Wyrosdick | Erie, PA Planning Director
Robust Community Involvement
During the project, czb worked with a 17-member steering committee and a 14-member technical advisory committee comprised of city officials to establish priorities, conduct outreach, and develop drafts of the comprehensive plan. Within the process, we pioneered a trade-off exercise to test and refine the plan's approach to investment priorities. This has become a staple of czb's work in soft markets ever since.
Citywide Strategy Differentiated by Market Type
The plan identified three categories of intervention approaches for the city’s planning areas based on an area’s market strength and its relationship to major city assets. It calls for strengthening the city's core in downtown and near-downtown neighborhoods, strengthening and increasing market health across most of the city's residential neighborhoods, and stabilizing the most distressed neighborhoods that sit between downtown and the rest of the city.
"The most valuable part of the comprehensive plan is that it’s a decision-making guide that can help you change how you make decisions so that you’re reaping the greatest impact for the longest amount of time."
- Kathy Wyrosdick | Erie, PA Planning Director
Restoring Confidence
More than anything else, czb’s Comprehensive Plan for Erie is a decision-making guide for a stronger Erie. It offers an approach to taking action that not only differs from traditional practices in the city, but enables Erie to make a significant and much-needed course correction.
It was endorsed by the Steering Committee with a firm sense of realism, of achieving what is possible — but also with the aim of pushing the Erie community to do more than it thinks it can. Erie City Council unanimously adopted the plan in 2016.
APA 2018 AWARD
Erie Refocused won the 2016 Daniel Burnham Award for a comprehensive plan from the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Planning Association.
"Acknowledgment by the American Planning Association of Erie’s new plan, Erie Refocused, is a testament to the Erie community"
- Charles Buki | czb Founder and President
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