A Monthly Update from YCDC

A Monthly Update from YCDC
Looking Back to Build What’s Next
Lisa Hurley, Executive Director

Every five years, it is probably healthy to stop for a minute and ask a few questions.

What did we actually accomplish?

What changed?

And maybe just as importantly, did the work we spent so much time on put York County in a better position for whatever comes next?

We have been asking those questions at YCDC as we wrap up our 2021–2026 strategic period and prepare for our next five-year plan.

The result is a new publication we are releasing this month called Building the Answer to “Why York County?”

I’ll admit, putting it together became a bigger project than I expected.

At first, I thought we were documenting five years of projects and numbers. There are plenty of those. More than $390 million in private investment. Nearly $9 million in housing activity supported. Seventy-one residential lots and home sites. A regional workforce development center moving toward implementation. New tools for entrepreneurs. Talent recruitment reaching people well outside York County.

Those numbers matter.

But as we worked through the report, I kept coming back to everything that happens between the numbers.

A conversation with an employer that eventually leads to an expansion.

A housing need that takes years, several partners, and a completely different approach than anyone first imagined.

A workforce idea that stays alive long enough for the right education partner, funding, and timing to finally come together.

An entrepreneur who walks into our office with a question before there is ever a business plan.

And relationships. A lot of relationships.

That may be the biggest thing I hope people take away from this report.

Economic development does not happen in neat categories.

One thing these past five years reinforced is that nothing happens in isolation. Business growth affects workforce needs. Workforce needs affect housing. Housing affects community growth. Childcare affects workforce participation. Most challenges are connected, which means most solutions require multiple partners working together.

That is why being at the table matters.

It is also why collaboration matters so much in a rural community. YCDC cannot, and should not, own every solution. Sometimes we lead. Sometimes we administer funding, provide research, connect people, help find expertise, or simply stay involved long enough to help an idea find the organization best positioned to carry it forward.

The work rarely follows a straight line. Sometimes a business expansion conversation becomes a workforce conversation. Sometimes a housing discussion leads to infrastructure planning. Sometimes the solution ends up looking very different than what anyone expected at the beginning.

Over the past five years, we have seen that in business growth, the Northwest York Industrial Park, housing projects across the county, the York Regional Workforce Development Center, entrepreneurship, leadership development, talent recruitment, childcare conversations, and many other areas.

Different projects. Different partners. Often the same underlying approach.

Listen. Gather good information. Bring the right people together. Be honest about opportunities and constraints. And keep working.

One idea ended up running through the entire publication:

Good economic development creates choices.

More choices for a business deciding whether it can expand here.

More choices for someone looking for a place to live.

More choices for a student deciding where their future might be.

More choices for an entrepreneur considering whether to take a risk.

And more choices for our communities as they decide what kind of growth they want.

That does not mean every project succeeds or every challenge gets solved. They do not.

It means we are better prepared when opportunities arrive.

I hope you will take some time to look through Building the Answer to “Why York County?” It is certainly a reflection on what YCDC and our partners accomplished during the past five years. But I hope it also provides a clearer picture of what economic development actually looks like in a rural community, and why the relationships and capacity built between the big announcements matter just as much as the announcements themselves.

We are proud of what has been accomplished.

We are also very aware that the work is not finished.

In many ways, we are still building the capacity, partnerships, and foundation that will allow York County to take advantage of opportunities we cannot yet see.

That is the challenge and the excitement of economic development. The work we do today helps create choices for tomorrow.

Read the full report
Building the Answer to “Why York County?”