The Erie County Department of Planning, the Emerge 2040 steering committee, the Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership and the Erie County Redevelopment Authority are behind the creation of a new data website. Once live, the public, including business owners and entrepreneurs from the county and far beyond, will be able to access economic, socio-economic, demographic, industrial, and environmental data with the touch of a few buttons.
Such data will overlay GIS mapping.
The county's new data portal will be especially helpful for businesses that are trying to select sites within Erie County.
Jeff Keeler, coordinator of the project, told Erie County Council members during a finance committee meeting Thursday that the tool will be a "one-stop shop" where users can find a range of information.
The site, Keeler said, "will be a regularly maintained, up-to-date, visually appealing and interactive portal with accurate and actionable information on the region, Erie County's economy, its people, its places and its projects."
The data portal will be able to conduct economic impact studies that analyze the direct, indirect and induced impact of projects.
Rick Novotny, executive director of the Erie County Redevelopment Authority, said that currently there is no place online to find detailed information about the county. The Redevelopment Authority, he said, received a call Thursday from a Cleveland company seeking a brownfield of 10 acres or more.
"With a push of a button we could find all of the brownfield sites in Erie County with 10 or more acres," Novotny said of the data website's capabilities. The tool will include information about all properties, including those that are for sale. Some of the information will be supplied by national firms. Other information will be generated locally.
"Unfortunately we are about 10 years behind on this," Novotny said, noting that the county will also be able to obtain information about the types of businesses looking to locate here.
In May, Erie County Council allocated $52,500 toward the creation of the repository. Of that, $47,500 was from the Emerge 2040 steering committee. Emerge 2040 is the county's 25-year planning document. The other $5,000 came from the county's general fund.
The Erie County Planning Department ($2,500), Erie Chamber & Growth Partnership ($10,000) and Erie County Redevelopment Authority ($5,000) have also made investments in the project.
Council members mostly expressed support for the project. Others questioned why it has taken so long. Council members Andre Horton and Fiore Leone asked why the Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership didn't spearhead the project years ago.
"This is stuff that the chamber of commerce should have been doing," Horton said.
"This should have been set up 15, 20 years ago," Leone said. "Year after year, we've funded the chamber ... I've seen nothing. Like I said, I mean no disrespect. Hopefully, the Planning Department does something and something is accomplished in that area because I think we need it."
Tom Tupitza, volunteer board chairman for the Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership, attended the presentation to County Council.
"I'm not here to defend what's happened in the past," he said. "But I know we need the tools, and this is one of them, to do whatever we need to do. Our goal is to come up with a sustainable system that will not simply be a taxpayer system to fund what we need to do for economic development."
©2018 the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
