Together we can make every Pennsylvania community strong and competitive in the 21st Century.
- Governor Rendell

The Community Revitalization Desktop Guide provides a comprehensive model for community revitalization.  The Guide is based upon city and town revitalization efforts over the past thirty years. This Desktop Guide shares a detailed three-step process for attracting private investment within a redevelopment area to spur new economic growth.  The guide includes four detailed case studies of cities and towns that have attracted their first high impact private investment in decades and interviews private developers who share how they choose an urban site for investment.  The guide also includes interviews with Pennsylvania Mayors who have taken action to prepare their city to welcome new investment.

In 2003, as part of his “Plan for a New Pennsylvania”, Governor Rendell created the Community Action Team (CAT) to work with Pennsylvania’s smaller cities and towns to help them attract private investment for high-impact redevelopment projects.  The CAT team, began to actively engage local communities to catalyze community revitalization and found that many needed help understanding the actions local government can take to attract investment.  This Desktop Guide gives Mayors, Council members and other local officials the tools to move forward and fill vacant commercial, industrial and residential sites with exciting new developments that will help the city or town attract people, jobs and investment. 

Across the Commonwealth, core communities are strategically revitalizing their downtowns, waterfronts and brownfields.  By leveraging their assets and taking advantage of changes in consumer preferences for working, shopping and living, they have accomplished high-impact projects and placed others in the pipeline.  This Guide will share their strategies with all of Pennsylvania’s communities so that every Pennsylvania community can be strong and competitive in the 21^st Century.

You can view the Community Revitalization Desktop Guide as an interactive eBook and/or download a PDF version by following the links below. For access to supplemental documents referenced in the "Documents Worth Sharing" section of the Guide, please refer to the PDF files provided below the link.

Community Revitalization Desktop Guide (eBook)

You can print the Community Revitalization Desktop Guide (.pdf) or order a printed copy from an authorized private vendor and the indicated price.

If you have questions about this guide or would like to arrange for a training in your metropolitan area, please e-mail or call the Community Action Team at 866-GO-NEWPA.

Desktop Guide Appendix: Documents Worth Sharing

Downtown Media Strategy: A Plan for the Business Core, Prepared by Urban Engineers, Inc. Planning Group for the Borough of Media, Pennsylvania (February 1999) (.pdf)

Municipal Self-Assessment Tool for Economic Growth and Development from the Center for Urban and Regional Policy (.pdf)

Request for Proposals: Development and Ownership of The Lofts @ Northampton & Main, Downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (.pdf)

Presentation made by Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority to Developer Michael O’Neill on August 16, 2006 that convinced O’Neill to invest (.pdf)

Targeting Public Dollars for Sustainable Development (.pdf)