Adopting a strategic plan to guide growth in the city’s downtown could boost Reading’s eligibility for state, federal and other funding, city planners said.
It could also help the city in its bid for state designation as a City Revitalization and Improvement Zone, or CRIZ, city officials said.
City planning manager Simon Peter Wangolo presented City Council with an overview of an unadopted strategic plan, designed to direct downtown growth through 2024.
He and others spoke Monday at council’s committee of the whole meeting, urging council to adopt the plan, completed in 2022 by Stantec, an engineering, architecture and professional services company, headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Reading_Downtown_Strategic_Master_Plan_v2021-2-22-22
The primary vision of the plan, Wangolo said, is to develop downtown Reading as a regional center of education, entrepreneurship, diversity, opportunity and innovation.
“This plan was supposed to help us look at our city as a transformed city,” he said.
Completed as the city exited nearly 13 years under Act 47, the state program for financially distressed cities, the plan was intended to lead Reading toward a more economically competitive, equitable, livable and resilient future, Wangolo said.
The focus includes goals for mobility and transportation, street safety, historic preservation, storm water management, recreation, arts and culture, housing and more.
Efforts would be concentrated in three main downtown areas: the central business core, the transportation hub around Franklin Street Station and open space in Riverfront Park.
The most frequently asked question, Wangolo said, is how the city would fund implementation of the plan.
Potential funding sources have been identified, he said, but are available only if the city is able to demonstrate that it has identified its goals and put a plan in place for reaching them.
Those who make decisions about federal, state and other grants want to see a plan in place before committing to funding, he said.
Implementing this plan would also trigger future funding opportunities, essential in furthering the city’s goals for downtown growth, he said.
Having a plan in place also is essential in the city’s attempt to achieve CRIZ designation, said Peter Rye, a member of the city’s Planning Commission.
A CRIZ is a designated area of up to 130 acres that provides financial assistance to development projects through eligible state and local tax revenues. The program was established in 2013 to help cities attract development, revive downtowns and create jobs.
“Having a strategic plan is going to speak volumes to the state in terms of having an organized approach to redeveloping the city,” Rye said. “This has been a bit of a missing piece for quite some time.”
While no plan is ever perfect as adopted, Rye noted, a good strategic plan can be revisited and revised on a regular basis.
Jamar Kelly, city deputy managing director and finance director, and David N. Hunter, Sr., executive director of the Berks County Planning Commission, also urged council to adopt the strategic development plan.
Both agreed having a plan in place is necessary in securing grant funding and not having one puts the city at a disadvantage.
“The state and other funding sources look at the city like, ‘Well, they don’t, quite frankly, have their act together because they can’t agree on a plan,’” Hunter said.
Council President Donna Reed said she supports adopting the plan but is concerned because she has seen many plans fall by the wayside during her more than two decades on council.
“The issue has been the lack of follow through as administrations change,” Reed said.
Although council may adopt the plan, there is no guarantee of follow through under future leadership, she said.
Before council can take action, the city must hold a public hearing and allow public comment on the matter.
Council solicitor Michael Gombar said a hearing could be arranged as early as September.
The plan can be viewed on the city’s website at www.readingpa.gov/images/pdfs/Reading_Downtown_Strategic_Master_Plan_v2021-2-22-22.pdf.
Source: Berkshire mont
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