Bettering the Community
Our Impact
It continues as an opportunity for the community to direct actions to realize our vision of Berks County as a place where all residents and businesses can thrive, entrepreneurship and innovation flourish, and the region’s diversity is celebrated and supported, enabling all Berks County residents to prosper.
Sure, the result of the work was an Economic Development Action Plan, but that was just the first milestone. From there, we invested time and resources into implementing the plan with our community partners. This website is an evolving resource which also houses our new IMAGINE Berks Comprehensive Plan. This plan is currently being created with community input, stakeholder engagement, and daily work by our Berks County Planning Commission Staff. As the Comprehensive Plan is created, keep track of our progress here.
What We’ve Achieved
See How We’ve Been Building a Better Berks
The IMAGINE Berks planning team gathered valuable insights and feedback from the community members and reviewed this information in conjunction with quantitative data to form a comprehensive understanding of Berks County’s economy – both its current state and future outlook. The planning team used this information to assess the community’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities. Based on this analysis, five focus areas were identified:
$35+ Million
In Funding Secured
Since the launch of the plan in 2022, over $35 Million in federal, state, and local funding has supported the plan’s implementation.
SMALL BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
- Grants Funded: 67 grants totalling $147K
- Loans Funded: 43 loans totalling $1.48M
Total Funded: $1.627M
HOUSING
3,513 Housing units built since 2021
2022 – 2025 Housing Pipeline
- Apartments: 2,564
- Townhouses: 1,226
- Single Family: 869
- Semi-Detached: 272
Total: 4,931
TALENT & ECONOMIC MOBILITY
- 54 Connect2Success participants
- 97 Emerging entrepreneur academy graduates
PA Career Link
- 5,000+ Job Fair Attendees
Placemaking
Meet Greater Reading Campaign (2022-2025) 10M+ Impressions
$400K+ and 21 Park and Recreation Projects
The HUB by BCTV since 2023
- 3,700+ Stories Published
- 44,000 Hours Watched Online
Build
Since 2022, BCPC reviewed 26M+ square feet of Proposed Commercial & Industrial Development.
$652M Increased in market value from 2021 – 2024
- Industrial: 11%
- Commercial 9%
- Agriculture: 2%
- Residential: 1.1%
Total Increase: 3.3%
What Is IMAGINE Berks?
A County‑Wide Economic Development Roadmap
IMAGINE Berks is a county‑wide roadmap that aligns public, private, and nonprofit partners around a shared economic development strategy for Berks County. The plan laid out clear goals, strategies, and metrics across five focus areas to grow the tax base, increase access to opportunity jobs, and ensure that growth benefits residents in every municipality. Since the plan’s adoption, it has been implemented across each of the five focus areas. In 2025, we undertook the task of updating our Comprehensive Plan, a statutory planning document required for all counties to complete. This new Comprehensive Plan is known as the IMAGINE Berks Comprehensive Plan, tying back to IMAGINE Berks which was originally a “chapter” of the existing comprehensive plan.
Guiding Principles for Investment
The plan is anchored by key principles: investing in opportunity jobs that pay a living wage, prioritizing redevelopment over greenfield sprawl, recognizing and supporting the county’s growing diversity, and maintaining public accountability through annual progress reporting. These principles ensure that each strategy is both growth‑oriented and equity‑focused, with flexibility to adapt to changing economic conditions.
Overall Vision and Goals
This plan was a five-year strategic economic development action plan for Berks County, called “IMAGINE Berks.”
Vision:
We aim for inclusive economic growth that benefits all residents in our diverse municipalities and communities.
Core Focus Areas:
We will concentrate on five key areas: BUILD, Small Business & Entrepreneurship, Housing, Placemaking, and Talent & Economic Mobility.
BuILD
Goals
To encourage industrial and commercial redevelopment and support land development that increases the tax base.
Strengths & Opportunities
Berks boasts a solid employment foundation, shows significant growth compared to nearby counties, and remains resilient throughout different business cycles. The diverse industries in Berks, like manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare, support the local economy’s resilience.
Key Strategies
- Assist in the redevelopment of outdated industrial and commercial sites
- Creation of and deployment of an infrastructure fund
- Position Reading Regional Airport as a key regional economic asset
- Support Agribusiness industry growth
- Support passenger rail expansion
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
Goals:
Boost small businesses and encourage entrepreneurship to foster innovation, create wealth, and revitalize our main streets.
Key Insights
- Berks has a lower business birth rate at 7.8%, which trails behind both the state and national averages.
- There’s a noticeable gap in business ownership among women and minorities compared to neighboring counties.
- Industries typical on main streets—like retail, restaurants, and the arts—are struggling with new business openings.
Key Strategies
- Engage more with the Latino community and broaden access to culturally relevant resources for entrepreneurs.
- Increase the visibility of small business programs and share success stories.
- Enhance opportunities for local procurement.
- Establish high-risk microloan funds and connect local angel investors.
- Support ecosystem mapping to improve coordination among service providers.
Housing
Goals:
Expand accessible, attainable, and high-quality housing options to meet resident needs and support workforce attraction.
Key Strategies
- Create a housing investment program to increase development of attainable housing
- Reduce cost-burdened households
- Expand rental options and encourage diversified owner housing
- Prioritize staff capacity for coordinated housing strategy
- Promote successful models such as community land trusts and rehabilitation programs
Placemaking
Goals:
Invest in arts, culture, recreation, and public spaces to enhance the quality of life and talent attraction.
Key Strategies
- Revitalize commercial districts and main streets
- Invest in trail systems and greenway projects
- Promote inclusive public spaces and community gathering areas
- Develop coordinated county-wide messaging and marketing resources
- Strengthen the county’s identity and elevate cultural diversity
Talent & Economic Mobility
Goals:
To enhance workforce readiness, link residents to in-demand jobs, and bolster economic mobility.
Key Insights
- Berks’ labor force is still about 5% below what it was before the pandemic.
- Over the next ten years, retirements are expected to far exceed the number of new workers entering the labor force.
- There’s a critical shortage of workers in both the manufacturing and healthcare sectors.
- High school enrollment is expected to decline consistently until 2030.
Key Strategies
- Collaborate with employers to develop strong workforce pipelines.
- Establish a centralized “front-door” for jobseeker resources.
- Ensure that training programs align with the needs of employers.
- Promote trades and technical careers to the younger generation.
- Attract workers from nearby regions.
- Foster inclusive and welcoming workplace cultures.
Metrics & Accountability
Track both process metrics (implementation milestones) and economic indicators (GDP, jobs, wages, housing, etc.) on an Impact Economic Indicators Dashboard.
Hold annual public IMAGINE Berks progress meetings to report outcomes and adjust strategies as needed.
Prioritize adaptive reuse of obsolete commercial/industrial sites and use land bank tools to tackle blight.
How Was This Plan Made?
The plan is built on:
- 42 interviews with business owners, residents, and civic leaders
- 440+ survey responses from residents across 69 municipalities
- Review of existing plans across transportation, entrepreneurship, housing, recreation, and infrastructure
Implementation Timeline (2022–2027)
IMAGINE Berks is a 5-year implementation plan with annual reporting, measurable metrics, and coordinated leadership across county agencies and partners.